How are saturated fat and trans fats related to cholesterol levels?
Like cholesterol, saturated fats are found mostly in animal products. Limiting the saturated fat in your diet is just as important as limiting cholesterol because your body makes more cholesterol when you eat saturated fat. Trans fats are another type of fat in animal products and also many processed foods, such as cakes, cookies and potato chips. Trans fats also raise cholesterol levels in the blood. How much cholesterol do animal products have? As the table below shows, foods vary in their cholesterol and saturated fat content. They may be high in both, or low in both, or high in one but not the other. The healthiest diets contain mostly foods that are low in cholesterol and low in saturated or trans fat. Most foods in the meat group, such as red meat, chicken and turkey (even white meat), pork, and lamb, have about the same amount of cholesterol per serving, regardless of the type or cut of meat. However, the amount of saturated fat in these various meats can be very different. High
