We’ve already touched upon the topic of different fat types. And I think one of them should be viewed in more details. Now I’m talking about saturated fats. It’s rather controversial theme: some experts consider that sat fat has a negative effect on our health and other think otherwise. I want to clear things up, explain what sat fat is and how to deal with all this information. 

What’s sat fat?

First of all, let’s start with a definition of fat. Fats are compounds that are made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen molecules. As for the category of saturated fats that are the most interesting for us now, they are saturated with hydrogen molecules and have only single bonds between carbon molecules. They’re usually solid at room temperature.

Due to different carbon chain length, saturated fats can be short-, long-, medium- and very-long-chain fatty acids, each of them have different effects on our health.

Sat fat is contained in animal products like milk, cheese and meat. It can also be found in different tropical oils.

Is sat fat bad for you?

Sat fat is often associated with negative health effects: heart disease, increased inflammation, mental decline, etc. But all these facts can’t be generalized to all foods that contain saturated fat.

For instance, when you diet consists of sat fat in the form of fast food and sugary bakery, it’s not the same if you eat sat fat in the form of grass-fed meat, coconuts and so on. See the difference?

Again, talking about what we eat in connection with diseases, it’s important to have in mind the whole diet itself and not only individual nutrients. As we don’t eat just fat or just carbs. That’s why I talk about balance so often. It’s important to limit sat fat under 10% of calories a day if you don’t want to boost up harmful LDL cholesterol.

A healthy diet with sat fats

As I’ve mentioned hundreds times before, any diet should be balanced and varied and contain lots of nutrients. The same with saturated fats. There are lots of highly nutritious products with sat fat that influence your health in a positive way. Coconut and its derived products, crate-free pork, grass-fed beef, hormone-free and grass-fed cheese and it’s not the whole list of examples.

Researches show that full fat dairy intake has a neutral or even protective effect on heart disease risk. At the same time the intake of coconut oil boost good cholesterol levels and has a good influence on weight loss.

Again, if you consume lots of processed foods that contain sat fat like fast food, of course, it may lead to obesity, heart disease and other health conditions.

Since I was pregnant and after the baby birth, I have started eating more and I also added some sat fat to my diet. I always try to listen to my body and I give everything it requires. Thanks God, it’s kind of a miracle one as it takes what it needs. Listen to your body carefully, take into consideration all the signals it send you and not those that tell you to eat frees and Big Macs.

So, my message is that a healthy and balanced diet should be rich in whole foods and that nutritious foods containing great amount of sat fat are also can be added to your diet. There’s nothing wrong with that. The most important thing you should always remember about is balance. Eat wisely!

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