Introduction: What is a Saturated Fat?
Saturated fats are usually found in animal-based foods such as red meat, dairy products, butter, and coconut oil.
They’re also found in other foods such as chocolate bars and potato chips. The fats from when carbon atoms are bound to hydrogen atoms and they have no double bonds.
Fat is a form of organic acid that is solid at room temperature and is soluble in organic solvents. Fats are triglycerides, made of three fatty acids, glycerol, and alcohol.
What are the Current Guidelines for Saturated Fat Consumption?
Guidelines for saturated fat consumption are different for children, adolescents, adults and elderly people. The guidelines also depend on the person’s health, weight and activity level.
There are some basic guidelines for saturated fat consumption that can be followed by everyone. A person should consume less than 10% of their total calorie intake in the form of saturated fats. They should also keep their intake of trans fat to less than 1%.
The general guideline is to aim for a diet that is not too high in either saturated fats or trans fats.
What are the Implications of Following this New Guideline?
There are different types of fats and each type has different effects on our health. Some types of fats can even be beneficial to our health like omega-3s.
Studies show that diets high in animal fat increase the risk of cancer, while diets high in plant fat reduce risk.
This new guideline is suggesting that we should decrease the amount of animal fat we consume and increase our intake of plant-based fats like olive oil, nuts, and avocados.
The Implications for this guideline is that people will be more aware of what they eat and how it affects their health.
Conclusion: The latest guidelines provide a clear message to us all about how foods containing high levels of saturated fats should be consumed in moderation.
