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Cutting out the Fat
Trimming Fat from Your Diet
By Crystal Patriarche
Polyunsaturated fats include corn oil, safflower oil and sunflower oil. Also considered "good" fat, they tend to lower both "bad" LDL and "good" HDL cholesterol. Consuming foods high in monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat is linked to a decreased risk of heart attack.
On the contrary, bad fats – saturated fats – are found in meat and dairy foods and are linked to an increased risk of heart attack. According to health experts, saturated fats are considered to be the most detrimental for your health.
"You don't necessarily want to trim the fat in your diet, you want to trim the saturated fat – found in cheese, beef, ice cream, butter," says L. Kathleen Mahan, a registered dietitian, certified diabetes educator and co-author of Krause's Food, Nutrition and Diet Therapy. "You don't want to cut out the good fat like avocados, olive oil, olives, nuts because they are polyunsaturated or monounsaturated. For example, the fat in salmon or sardines is good."
You should also watch out for and cut hydrogenated fat or trans fat, Mahan says. Hydrogenated fats undergo a process in which they become saturated – carbon atoms are added back to the fat to protect it against going bad. If a food has partially hydrogenated oils among its first three ingredients, then it contains a lot of saturated fats and trans-fatty acids like margarine or hydrogenated vegetable oil. "You do not want those in your diet because they are as bad as saturated fat. They are found in store-bought cookies, crackers, breads, margarine," Mahan says. "They are used everywhere. Some crackers are just loaded with them."
