The Real Skinny On Saturated Fats

By Angelica Catalano for YouBeauty.com

When you hear the words saturated fats, you may think red meats, like a juicy steak, or dairy products, like cheese. It’s true, foods from animals have “bad” fats, but there are some sources you may overlook. Even plants can age our bodies, with trans fats to boot!

Get the skinny on these sneaky fats, which can up your heart disease risk if you overload.

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Tropical Oils

Coconut oil: One tablespoon has 11.8 grams of saturated fat - 86 percent saturated fats.

• Where you find it: Baked goods like cake, pie and macaroons.


• The scoop: There's a little bit of a debate, because some nutritionists point out that the medium chain fatty acids in coconut oil are likely to be converted to energy instead of stored as fat. However, “partially hydrogenated coconut oil” has trans fats, which are artificially created and are why the term "fat" gets a bad reputation. The double carbon bonding messes with your metabolism and, in excess, trans fats increase the hardening of arteries.

Palm kernel oil: One tablespoon has 11.2 grams of saturated fat - 81 percent saturated fats.

• Where you find it: Some chocolates, margarines and fried foods.


• The scoop: May be partially hydrogenated (aka, trans fats).

Palm fruit oil: One tablespoon has 6.7 grams of saturated fat - 49 percent saturated fats.

• Where you find it: Some peanut butters, pastries and fried foods.


• The scoop: As far as tropical oils go, this is a “healthier,” trans-fat free alternative. Still, saturated fats make it easier for cholesterol levels to rise in the blood.

Olive oil has only 2 grams of saturated fat (only 9 percent of the fats). It can be used in the place of the other oils when you’re cooking.

Technically saturated fats aren’t “bad” if you’re able to control the amount. One rule of thumb? Have no more than 4 grams per hour. In excess, it can raise cholesterol levels in your blood.

The Deal With Dairy
Real milk and cheese are loaded with saturated fats, but that doesn’t mean you have to cut dairy out of your diet (if you’re not lactose intolerant). With low-fat or non-fat versions of yogurt and milk, you can get away with “low-fat” -- the fat is simply skimmed off the top and not replaced with artificial or overly sugary additives.

A cup of regular yogurt has 5 grams of saturated fat, so that just exceeds the recommended limit for an hour. Trying a low-fat version will cut this in half. If you opt for plain, you won’t get artificial sweeteners or added sugar. Feel free to add a cup of berries or other fresh fruit to give it a little somethin’.

Why not go for the full-fledged dairy? A small ice cream at ice-cream-chain-not-to-be-named is 20 grams of saturated fat, nearly five times your hourly rate.

Cut The Meat?
If you eat red meat, opt for “grass-fed” beef, which has multiple benefits. Aside from being lower in saturated fat, grass-fed cattle are more likely to live on local ranches in a more natural habitat. Lean cuts have 4.5 grams of saturated fat (or less). For context, ten ounces of a rib eye or New York strip steak have three times the saturated fat of lean cuts. Burgers reach about 20 grams of saturated fat.

Poultry, like chicken and turkey, is usually a safer bet so long as you’re not eating the skin. A chicken leg with skin triples the saturated fat content of skinless chicken breast to about 15 grams.

It’s easier for vegetarians to make smarter choices about saturated fats. Tempeh, tofu and other protein sources are generally okay on saturated fats. Note: That doesn’t mean you're healthier-than-thou if you get your tofu deep fried or butter-soaked!

Comments

[fifi lahkay]

03:42 PM on 09/11/2011

"However, “partially hydrogenated coconut oil” has trans fats, which are artificially created and are why the term "fat" gets a bad reputation."

This is why one buys the non-hydrogenated, virgin, organic coconut oils. It doesn't have to contain trans fats unless one buys the cheaper varieties

[Stephanie Elise]

02:39 AM on 09/07/2011

Wow.

'It’s true, foods from animals have “bad” fats, but there are some sources you may overlook.' - only when our governments are making it impossible to raise these animals on food substances which they are not intended to be consuming, often in mass quantities !!!

If you force any sort of animal to consume a diet incorrect for its biochemical make up, the results are disastrous, for both their health and that of the consumer.

Of course, over processing and treating perfectly good food is just as bad.

[Chris Connor]

03:33 PM on 09/06/2011

C'mon Huff Post get it right. Why do you publish such nonsense? Do you have no one on your health staff that eats healthy, or do you just post anything from anyone who says they know something about eating healthy? Be different, take a stand, don't promote the party line, i.e. Saturated fat causes heart disease. Even your readers know more that the last few articles I've seen on Huff Post lately.

[katmeyster]

11:40 PM on 09/09/2011

If you knew who the editor of these pages was, it would make sense.

[HerrMonk]

11:41 AM on 09/06/2011

''It’s true, foods from animals have “bad” fats,..."

The author is clueless about fats...

You can stop reading once you read something like this.

[Steveh0607]

08:04 AM on 09/06/2011

Doesn't anyone who writes for HuffPost follow science? Saturated fats increase large, buoyant LDL (benign) while reducing small, dense LDL (harmful). It also increases HDL, a good thing.

Although the lipid hypothesis died a long time ago, mainstream "nutrition" writers haven't figured that out. Please read the memo before posting gibberish like this again.

[HerrMonk]

11:42 AM on 09/06/2011

No, HuffPost follows a pro-vegan/vegetarian agenda, and picks their 'facts' to support it.

[katmeyster]

11:41 PM on 09/09/2011

Exactly. My comments regarding this are constantly getting m*derat*ed out.

[mamahappy]

01:08 AM on 09/06/2011

Hydrogenated oils are bad. Not all saturated fats are bad though. Nobody can honestly say that avocados are deadly.

[HerrMonk]

11:43 AM on 09/06/2011

The saturation of the fat is irrelevant, unless it was done artificially creating a hydrogenated-franken-oil, and/or transfats.

[Jon Burr]

12:31 AM on 09/06/2011

This article perpetuates the myth of the "lipid hypothesis." This article is not the truth about saturated fats...
this is:
http://www.health-report.co.uk/saturated_fats_health_benefits.htm

[Bradley Scott Roon]

01:57 AM on 09/06/2011

Thank you Jon. Great article. i first noticed flaws in this theory back in '77 when i read articles that basically proved that the egg cholesterol hype was wrong and that eggs were a great food substance. The second article proved butter was definitely better than any hydrogenated product. Also '77.

i later learned that there is a direct correlation between how much hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats one consumes and how damaged their vascular system is. The more trans the worse your health.

[samknox]

10:40 PM on 09/05/2011

"If you tell a lie often enough, it becomes the truth." - V.I. Lenin

[Kevin Chung Lin]

05:26 PM on 09/05/2011

the truth is...........saturated fats are not bad....it's just the quality of the food that will determine any health issues (obviously processed foods from conventional sources will kill you)

[Janene Davison]

02:53 PM on 09/05/2011

Looked up chicken fat. Chicken fat is 30% saturated fat, 50% monounsaturated fat, and 20% polyunsaturated fat. The most common fat in chicken is monounsaturated oleic acid - 42% - same as the main fat in olive oil. So if I follow this advice and remove the tasty skin - looks like I'm removing a lot of monounsaturated fat that the experts say is good for me in olive oil - but not good for me in chicken skin???

[Alan Watson]

02:27 PM on 09/05/2011

"Foods from animals have bad fats" needs a reference. (1) The fats we find in animals are the same fats we find in humans and plants. As an example, both beef and chocolate are approximately 35% saturated stearic acid. The human heart is covered with saturated stearic acid; even politically correct olive oil is 15% stearic acid. Where - please - is the 'bad' fat in animals? (2) Milk fat (butter or cream) contain 12 different fatty acids: 4 unsaturated fats and 8 saturated fats - each with a distinct chain length. The healthier Swiss and French thrive on full fat fresh milk and cream and have much lower rates of heart disease. Are we different somehow? (3) Grass-fed beef has more saturated fat than grain-fed beef (Dr. Mary Enig, lipid biochemist). Grain feeding promotes excess omega 6 linoleic acid at the expense of omega 3. And that the problem in the U.S. - excess highly processed linoleic acid found in feedlot beef and, of course, in vegetable oils.

[Orr]

01:17 PM on 09/05/2011

I agree about transfat, but I get pretty tired of seeing the anti-saturated fat dogma being repeated. I am guessing the author's liberal use of quotation marks around certain words conveys at least some doubt that this sacred regurgitated cow is actually true. See the following article for a good layperson's discussion of whether saturated fat is a serious health issue or just a bogeyman.

http://www.menshealth.com/health/saturated-fat

I bought into the low-fat nonsense in the early 90's. I was 21 and on a doctor recommended "healthy diet" that was all carbs and no fat. 3000 calories per day, 10 grams of fat, starving all the time. After a couple months of this, time for a check up with blood work. My triglycerides had spiked off the chart! The ignorant doctor's advice? "Eat less fat." After I explained that would be nearly impossible, he just shrugged. As we know now, carbs like pasta, up your triglycerides through the roof.

So my message: Don't buy the conventional wisdom out there until you do your own homework, down to the individual studies if necessary. Ignorance, the herd instinct, and special interests (AMA, food and drug companies and the FDA and the USDA they lobby) are not looking out for your best interests, they are looking out for their own. Call me a troll or a crank, but I ask you: Has the conventional wisdom gotten us any healthier in the last 30 years?

[katmeyster]

11:43 PM on 09/09/2011

The only way I could get my triglycerides down was by upping the saturated fat and drastically lowering the carbs. And, no, I'm not worried about my total cholesterol as I bathe in my very large and fluffy particles.

[Parkite]

12:34 PM on 09/05/2011

The way chicken is raised now, chicken breasts often fat more than a sirloin steak. Eat pastured, local meat of all kinds. Better for you. They have less fat in general & more of the "good" fat and less of the "bad" fat. Saturated fat doesn't make you fat or cause CVD. The report that Ancel Keys published way back when on which all this "eat low fat" nonsense is based is flawed. He cherry picked info from 6 studies out of 22 and then did not differentiate between saturated fats and trans fats, etc.

[George Theodoris]

12:30 PM on 09/05/2011

I disagree with several points you make. Coconut oil: Many studies have shown that the mid chain fatty acids in coconut oil are good for human health and promote weight loss. Artificially hydrogenated oils of any kind are unhealthy but pure coconut oil is a healthy fat.

You say “Poultry, like chicken and turkey, is usually a safer bet so long as you’re not eating the skin. A chicken leg with skin triples the saturated fat content of skinless chicken breast to about 15 grams” I vehemently hate this kind of short sighted thinking. This kind of thinking is the reason people in our country are obese. People should be encouraged to enjoy food. And to eat rationally. Removing the best part of the chicken will only make people feel like they are denying themselves and they may eat something else to make up for it. People please please leave the skin on your chicken. It’s delicious. Enjoy it. And the fat in the chicken skin will help you feel full so you will eat less.