What are saturated fats?

What are saturated fats?

Saturated fats are those that become hard at normal room temperature and are found mostly in animal-based foods (example: meats and dairy products) as well as in coconut oil, palm oil, cocoa butter, margarine, and shortening. Saturated fats should only be eaten in limited amounts because they harm blood vessels, which increases a person's risk for developing hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis).

Most of a person's fat calories should be coming from polyunsaturated fats (such as from liquid vegetable oils, corn oil, or soybean oil) or monounsaturated fats (such as from olive oil, avocados, and nuts).

Food labels usually indicate how many fat calories come from saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats.

Saturated fat is fat that consists of triglycerides containing only saturated fatty acids. Saturated fatty acids have no double bonds between the carbon atoms of the fatty acid chain (hence, they are fully saturated with hydrogen atoms).