confused about fat's

tammiwilliams1

All my research states the unsaturated fats in for example olives, almonds, avacado and so on are the good fats that help lower cholesterol, fuel your body, help the liver and so on when eaten in moderation of course. Saturated fat is the big no no no it makes us fat, clogs arteries, causes heart disease and so on... example fried foods, chicken skin and so on. Now what I don't understand is that using the nutrition tracker on here it allows plenty of saturated fat in a 1200 calorie diet which I don't come even close.to consuming that much saturated fat each day but it doesn't allow any of the good fat...if I eat an almond it puts me in the red... so needless to say I am confused ... any help would be welcomed!

alyhuggan

Just try and stick with mono unsaturates and polyunsaturates. If possible try and completely avoid saturated and trans fats.

tammiwilliams1

Thanks...that's what I have been doing... I just couldn't understand WHY the nutritional goal/tracker on this app says zaro as the goal for the good fats and big numbers for the bad... thanks for the help!

flex500

All my research states the unsaturated fats in for example olives, almonds, avacado and so on are the good fats that help lower cholesterol, fuel your body, help the liver and so on when eaten in moderation of course. Saturated fat is the big no no no it makes us fat, clogs arteries, causes heart disease and so on... example fried foods, chicken skin and so on. Now what I don't understand is that using the nutrition tracker on here it allows plenty of saturated fat in a 1200 calorie diet which I don't come even close.to consuming that much saturated fat each day but it doesn't allow any of the good fat...if I eat an almond it puts me in the red... so needless to say I am confused ... any help would be welcomed!

I'm not sure why it has zero for the other fats because you obviously want those but you need saturated fat also. You should not avoid it. The problem is the FDA and other sources have confused people. Greasy, fried food and saturated fats are not one in the same. I guarantee you if you start buying and eating a half pound A DAY of organic, gress fed beef your choloesterol will go down and cardiovascular and all around health will improve.

Don't just associate saturated fat with KFC. Saturated fat improves cardiovascular health to liver health to improved bone health. Again, KFC and saturated fat are not one in the same if you start pounding a 12 piece bucket each night it's not the same.

jetlag

All my research states the unsaturated fats in for example olives, almonds, avacado and so on are the good fats that help lower cholesterol, fuel your body, help the liver and so on when eaten in moderation of course. Saturated fat is the big no no no it makes us fat, clogs arteries, causes heart disease and so on... example fried foods, chicken skin and so on. Now what I don't understand is that using the nutrition tracker on here it allows plenty of saturated fat in a 1200 calorie diet which I don't come even close.to consuming that much saturated fat each day but it doesn't allow any of the good fat...if I eat an almond it puts me in the red... so needless to say I am confused ... any help would be welcomed!

There is no definitive evidence to say that saturated fat is bad for you, only lots of hypotheses (unproven theories). There is evidence that sat fats raise LDL cholesterol, but there is newer evidence to suggest that it's not the level of LDL cholesterol, but more the gap between HDL and LDL that causes heart disease. Coconut oil (very high in saturated fat) raises both types.

A lot of people spew out the "facts" that it causes heart disease because other people said it. I once heard a woman on facebook spreading the "gospel" that her doctor had just told her that for every cup of coffee you drink, you must drink a litre of water to counteract the diuretic effect of the caffeine. A coffee bean is diuretic. Grind it up and stew it in water and the water you serve it in more than makes up for any water loss. So, even doctors come out with total BS. I showed her a link from the mayo clinic saying it wasn't true, so she unfriended me. Good riddance.

Seriously, it's right up there with cutting out eggs if you have high cholesterol. More and more people are accepting that you do not absorb dietary cholesterol.

Google "Ancel Keys" for more info on the subject.

Furthermore, cooking with polyunsaturates (or any polyunsaturate that's heated during the extraction process) is increasingly considered to be dangerous. There are no black and white areas here.

WendyTerry420

Saturated fat is healthy too! All natural fats are healthy. The "unhealthy" fats are the processed, man-made fats, like transfats.

umieto

Just for information I think saturated fats sound scary so people are quicker to associate them with being bad.

But...uhm....saturated just means that the carbon in the carbon-hydrogen chain in the fatty acids form single bonds with each other so there are more electrons available to be shared by hydrogen atoms (hence the fatty acid is saturated with hydrogen). Unsaturated fatty acids have double bonds between carbons so there is less hydrogen.

Also, the problem with studies relating saturated fat intake and rates of disease is that it's entirely unethical to manipulate the intake of people with the goal of seeing if it makes them sick. Studies on humans related to this sort of thing are more observational. Where any direct manipulation to see a cause and effect takes place it has to be done on animals in a lab environment, and unfortunately those results can't be directly extrapolated to humans. Also, humans live a long life so it's hard to do a study with enough duration to make a definitive statement about the relationship between saturated fats and diseases.

I'm not saying to disbelieve or believe one way or the other. I have no particular opinion on saturated fat vs unsaturated fat. But I am saying that studies going either way will always have an element of uncertainty in them so anything must be taken with something of a pinch of salt. Maybe not literally, depends on your macros haha

Studies cannot always show a direct cause and effect. I mean, people with higher amounts of plaque on their teeth are more likely to have heart problems. Plaque doesn't cause heart problems per se, but it's an indicator of a life style that might contribute to heart problems. Medicine and research in medicine is something of a minefield and it's always changing also. Things I learned in biology at school and things I'm learning now as a med student are in direct opposition, but this is how science goes.

I don't think I helped much for yay or nay to eating saturated fats, but hopefully it helps generally maybe.

VorJoshigan

For what it's worth, I don't even track my sub-categories of fat. I avoid omega 6 as much as possible, and everything else can take care of itself. That's not to say that omega 6 is intrinsically bad for you, but it's SO pervasive in our food supply that there's no problem getting enough of it, and some problem with getting too much.