What are saturated fats, unsaturated fats, and trans fats?
Saturated fats are fats that will stimulate your liver to produce more of the “bad” LDL cholesterol and increase your cholesterol levels. Saturated fats include • Butter • Lard • Shortening • Palm or coconut oil • Fat marbling in beef • Dark meat Unsaturated fats are generally vegetable oils. These oils will not stimulate your liver to produce more of the “bad” LDL cholesterol. Therefore unsaturated fats won’t increase your cholesterol level. There are two types of unsaturated fats: the mono-unsaturated and the polyunsaturated fats. Monounsaturated fats include • Canola oil • Olive oil • Peanut oil • Avocados Polyunsaturated fats include • Sesame oil • Sunflower oil • Corn oil • Soybean oil Trans fats are produced by taking an unsaturated vegetable oil and adding hydrogen to it, creating an oil called “partially-hydrogenated oil.” Trans fats add shelf life to many processed foods and many food manufacturers will use trans fats for that reason alone. Unfortunately, trans fats will stimu
