Question about "good" fats...

Rae6503

So trans fat and saturated fat have to be listed on nutrition labels, but the good fats, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated aren't always listed (these are both good right?). So lets say something has 6 grams of fat, 1 saturated and 0 trans, is it safe to assume that the other 5 grams of fat are the good kind? Or is there other miscellaneous types of fat?

McKayMachina

Saturated fat isn't "bad". Our bodies need fats. People love to oversimplify and jump to conclusions. There are all kinds of studies that are linking obesity to sugar and not saturated fat. Watch dietary fats but don't obsess over them.

Check this out: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/McKayMachina/view/you-re-not-fat-because-of-fat-106837

sjhoffman

I read one book that covered this (I think it was called Eating for Optimum Health by Dr. Weil) . Also on the "bad" list are partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, which are a kind of polyunsaturated fat. They tend to lower both bad and good cholesterol levels, but you generally want the good (HDL) cholesterol to be as high as possible. They might also have other undesirable effects, I don't remember. These would be listed in the ingredients, so you might want to limit food with this type of fat (standard margarine is an example).

sl1mmy

So trans fat and saturated fat have to be listed on nutrition labels, but the good fats, polyunsaturated and monounsaturated aren't always listed (these are both good right?). So lets say something has 6 grams of fat, 1 saturated and 0 trans, is it safe to assume that the other 5 grams of fat are the good kind? Or is there other miscellaneous types of fat?

All fats are not born equal. Particularly polyunsaturated fats. You have the good omega-3 and the less good omega-6. We need omega-6 but it is its high proportion who seem to be the problem in our modern foods. So we can't conclude by the labels.

TK421NotAtPost

Saturated fat isn't "bad". Our bodies need fats. People love to oversimplify and jump to conclusions. There are all kinds of studies that are linking obesity to sugar and not saturated fat. Watch dietary fats but don't obsess over them.

Check this out: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/McKayMachina/view/you-re-not-fat-because-of-fat-106837

While I agree that a high carb diet can lead to many of the metabolic disorders we see today, saying that sat fats aren't bad for you is an oversimplification. The term saturated fats actually refers to a category that includes a number of different fatty acids such as lauric acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid and several others and they all don't have the same positive or negative effect on the body. Some of these are good for you and others are not so good.

I think it can be more accurately stated that reducing the proportion of energy from fat (regardless of the type) below 30% is not supported by experimental evidence and that advice to decrease total fat intake has failed to have any effect on the prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

If you want to live by a simple rule, I think that making sure the majority of your fat consumption comes from 'real food' with little to no processing might be an OK mantra to live by.