Good fats, bad fats: Learn the difference

There are many different fats in our diets and some are better than others. It can be quite confusing reading food labels and trying to figure out what types of products to buy.

Most of the patients I counsel have a little bit of knowledge but not enough to make good food choices. There are four different types of fats on the food label today: saturated, trans fats, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated.

Saturated fats mostly come from animal products such as butter, bacon, sausage, beef, cheese, hot dogs and other products. The tropical oils such as coconut, palm and palm kernel oils are also saturated but are not from animal products. These fats increase our lousy cholesterol known as "LDL" and another type of blood fat called triglycerides. Both of these can lead to cardiovascular disease.

Another lousy fat to have in our diets are trans fats, also known as partially hydrogenated oils, which are in a lot of our packaged and processed foods. These can lead to an increase in our LDL and triglyceride levels. When looking at food labels, make sure you look at the serving size first because the information given is based on that one serving size. Aim for no greater than 10-20 grams of saturated fat in your entire day. The lower the better! If a product has more than about 3 grams of saturated fat in a serving, it's best to put it back on the shelf.

As far as trans fats go, aim for zero on every product you buy. That should make it easy to figure out. The other two groups of fats are the poly and monounsaturated fats. These both come from plant-based sources but the monounsaturateds definitely are the best.

Some examples of polyunsaturated fats are salad dressings, some margarines, corn, soybean and safflower oil, and mayonnaise. Examples of monounsaturated fats are olive, peanut and canola oils, avocado, peanuts, almonds, and olives.

These are very beneficial in raising our good cholesterol called "HDL" and can lower the triglyceride levels.

Let's not forget our omega-3 fatty acids which we hear so much about. These are in foods such as walnuts, flaxseed/flaxseed oil, and fish/fish oil. These can help increase our HDL cholesterol (good one) and lower the triglycerides.

Just remember, regardless of what fat you eat, fat has a lot of calories. You could over do a good thing and put on the pounds. The bottom line, choose your fats wisely and in proper amounts. Peanuts maybe good, but an entire jar will not look good on the body.

• Jodi Pettersen is a registered dietitian at Silver State Nutrition, LLP. For more information, call 720-3490 or e-mail silverstatenutrition@charter.net.