Bee Active Personal Training 8 Week Challenge Nutrition Handbook - Sept 2013 | Page 19

Bad fat sources – The stuff you should be reducing
The types of fat you should be reducing in your healthy eating plan:
Saturated fats

Trans fatty acids

Saturated fats are the main type of fat in butter,
dairy products, fatty meats, fried take-away
foods and many processed foods. Too much
saturated fat in the diet can increase the levels
of ‘bad’ cholesterol (LDL) in the blood, a major
risk factor for coronary heart disease.
It is recommended that we moderate our intake
of total fat and that we limit our intake of
saturated fats.

There are two groups of trans fatty acids
(TFAs), naturally occurring and manufactured.
The naturally occurring TFAs are in food
products from animals like cows and sheep.
These foods include butter, cheese and meat.
Manufactured TFAs (also known as artificial
TFAs) are formed when liquid vegetable oils
are partially hydrogenated or ‘hardened’ during
industrial processing to create spreads such
as margarine, cooking fats for deep-frying and
shortening for baking. Some TFAs are also
formed during high temperature cooking.
Foods high in TFAs have been shown not only
to increase the ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol but also
to reduce the ‘good’ HDL cholesterol. The food
industry has been reducing the amount of trans
fatty acids in the Australian and New Zealand
food supply over the past few years.

Cholesterol
Cholesterol occurs in animal foods such as
offal, meats, full-fat dairy products, egg yolks
and kidneys but is not found in oils and fats
from plants. Cholesterol in food can raise your
blood cholesterol level, particularly in people at
high risk of developing heart disease. However,
cholesterol in food doesn’t raise levels of
blood cholesterol as much as eating saturated
and trans fats. Replacing saturated fats with
polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fats is an
effective way of reducing cholesterol in your
blood.
Cholesterol claims on food labels such as
‘cholesterol free’ do not mean a food product
has no fat. Many foods can be ‘cholesterol free’
but still be high in fat, for example oils, avocado
and margarines.

Important
note

:

Generally a pe
rson’s daily food
intake should be
made up of
20 - 35% daily
fat intake.
This should then
contain at
most 7% satura
ted fats.