Previous slide Next slide Carousel slide Pause slide movement Resume slide movement
use left or right arrow keys to navigate the tab,
Page First page Last page More pages Next page Previous page
Press Enter or Space to expand or collapse and use down arrow to navigate to the tab content
close menu open menu
Click to read more about this recipe
Includes
Your webbrowser is outdated and no longer supported by Microsoft Windows. Please update to a newer browser by downloading one of these free alternatives.
Saturated Fats

Saturated Fats

Saturated fats are also known as bad fats as they are known to increase the bad cholesterol levels in the blood which may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Saturated fats are known to increase the bad cholesterol levels in the blood which may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. This is due to the chemical structure of the saturated fats which is different from that of unsaturated fats.

Fats are always made up of a combination of saturated and unsaturated fats. A fat is called saturated, if the major portion of it contains saturated fat. Animal products mainly contain saturated fats. For example, Butter, cheese, cream sausage and fat meat are high in saturated fats.

The Nutritionists recommend that no more than ten percent of your daily calorie intake should be saturated fats. For women this amounts to about 22 grams of saturated fat per day, and for men a maximum of 28 grams. The amount of saturated fat varies depending the type of food you eat. For example, a pizza contains 13.6 grams of saturated fat, a piece of butter cake 4 grams and a prepared piece of chicken breast 1.4 grams. It is advised to replace as much saturated fat as possible with unsaturated fat to reduce the risk of high cholesterol. For example, by replacing cream butter with spreadable margarine, low-fat margarine or vegetable oil, as they contain relatively less saturated fats than butter.