Fat is a fuel for the body, and the main form of fat is triglycerides. There are two main types of fat in food, saturated and unsaturated. Saturated fat is solid at room temperature, while unsaturated fats are liquids, or oils at room temperature. Saturated fat causes heart disease and high cholesterol in the blood. Unsaturated fat is healthier for the body, and helps reduce blood cholesterol levels.

recommendations: It is recommended that less than 30% of your calories in a day come from fat.
foods in: butter, margarine, oils, fried foods, convenience or packaged foods, desserts.

Polyunsaturated fat: This is an essential fat needed by the body for the building of hormones, and cell wall structures. It also helps lower blood cholesterol levels. Examples of this fat are oils like corn, soybean, sunflower, and safflower oil.

Monounsaturated fat: This type of fat is not essential to the body, but helps lower cholesterol. It is healthier for the body than saturated fat. Canola, olive, and peanut oil as well as avocado are examples of this type of fat.

Saturated fat: This type of fat is not essential to the body, and should be reduced as much as possible. In small amounts, this will not be harmful or have an ill effect on health. In large amounts, this fat can cause heart disease, and lead to a heart attack or block arteries surrounding the haert. This type of fat is solid at room temperature. Examples are lard, butter, and solid shortenings like Crisco. Solid margarine contains some saturated fat in order to make sticks of margarine. It is recommended that 10% or less of your calories come from saturated fat.

Trans Fat This fat is created during hydrogenation by making healthy, unsaturated oils solid into partially hydrogenated fats for use in food manufacturing and solid margarine. Food labels are required to list the amount of trans fat in one serving of the food. Research suggests that this fat like saturated fat increases the bad LDL cholesterol and reduces the HDL good cholesterol. This type of fat is solid at room temperature. Examples are found in processed foods like chips or crackers, solid margarine, processed and convenience foods.

The glyceride ester of a fatty acid. Any of various soft solid or semi-solid organic compounds comprising the glyceride esters of fatty acids and associated phosphates, sterols, alcohols, hydrocarbons, ketones and related compounds.

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