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Contrary to popular belief, fats are a very important nutrient to have in your daily diet. For children and young adults, fat helps them grow and develop. Fat is also a source of energy for the young and old alike – it even helps keep your skin and hair healthy. Although fat is important, be aware that some fats are better for you than others. You should limit your overall fat intake to 25 to 35 percent of your total calories each day. In addition, your saturated fat intake should be less than seven percent of your total daily calories, and less than one percent of all of your calories for the day should come from trans fat.

 

Unsaturated fat (polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fat) can be part of a healthy diet as long as you do not eat too much of it because it is still high in calories. Both types of unsaturated fat can help lower your blood cholesterol level when you use them in place of saturated and trans fats. Good sources of unsaturated fat include:

Limit saturated fat, which can clog your arteries and raise your risk for heart disease. Saturated fat is found primarily in animal products and in a few plant oils like:

Limit trans fat, which is also bad for your heart. Trans fat has been known to raise LDL (bad) cholesterol as well as lower HDL (good) cholesterol and is often found in:

Also, look for words like “shortening,” “partially hydrogenated vegetable oil,” and “hydrogenated vegetable oil” in the list of ingredients. These ingredients tell you that the food contains trans fat. Packaged food products are required to list trans fat on their Nutrition Facts.