Probably
the vast majority of people have turned their attention to fats. They eat more
of it and think it's fine. Depending on what kind of fat you are consuming and
how much of it you take in, fats can be beneficial or detrimental to your
health.
There are three main types of fat. They’re
saturated, unsaturated and trans fats.
Saturated fats come mainly from animal
sources such as meat and dairy. At room temperature, saturated fats are solid.
Unsaturated fats come mainly from plant sources such as olives and nuts and
contain no cholesterol. They are liquid (oil) at room temperature. Unsaturated
fats are broken down further in monounsaturated (one double bond) and
polyunsaturated (more than one double bond).
You may be asking yourself what a fat is
saturated or unsaturated with. A fat molecule (without getting into too much
chemistry) is made up of carbon atoms that have hydrogen atoms attached to
them.
In saturated fats, all carbon atoms have a
single bond to another carbon atom and also bond to hydrogen atoms. Unsaturated
fats, not all carbons are saturated with hydrogen’s so double bonds form
between carbons. Depending on what carbon the double bond is acquired
determines the fat's properties.
Tran’s fat is man-made fat. It’s made by
taking an unsaturated fat and putting hydrogen through it in a process called
hydrogenation. Tran’s fat is very bad for your health. Whole saturated fat
increases LDL (bad) cholesterol and very slightly increases HDL (good)
cholesterol, trans fat increases LDL cholesterol and decreases HDL cholesterol.