The amount of fat you need is a lot less controversial than the carbohydrate and protein in your diet. Everyone agrees that you should eat no more than 30 percent of your diet as fats. (Currently, the American population eats 36 percent of its diet as fats.)
 | Keep in mind that some fats are more dangerous in their tendency to promote coronary artery disease than others. These fats should make up less of the dietary fat than the safer fats. |
Cholesterol is the fat everyone knows. It has been shown to be the culprit in the development of coronary artery disease as well as peripheral vascular disease and cerebrovascular disease. The recommendation is that no more than 300 milligrams a day of fat come from cholesterol. One egg can take care of that prescription. Most other foods that you eat regularly do not contain a lot of cholesterol, but whole milk and hard cheeses like Jack and cheddar contain saturated fat, which raises the cholesterol in the body.
The other kind of fat is triglyceride, which comes in several forms:
- Saturated fat is the kind of fat that comes from animal sources. The streaks of fat in a steak are saturated fat. Butter is made up of saturated fat. Bacon, cream, and cream cheese are other examples.
Eating a lot of saturated fat increases the blood cholesterol level.
- Unsaturated fat comes from vegetable sources like olive oil, canola oil, and margarine. It comes in several forms:
• Monounsaturated fat does not raise cholesterol. Avocado, olive oil, and canola oil are examples. The oil in nuts like almonds and peanuts is monounsaturated.
• Polyunsaturated fat also does not raise cholesterol but causes a reduction in the good or HDL cholesterol. Examples of polyunsaturated fats are soft fats and oils, such as corn oil, mayonnaise, and margarine.
Eskimos eat a lot of fat (more than is recommended) and yet they have a low incidence of coronary artery disease. It has been shown that their protection comes from essential fatty acids. These acids are found in fish oils, which the Eskimos consume to a great extent. Essential fatty acids reduce triglycerides, reduce blood pressure, and increase the time that it takes for blood to clot, which protects against a blood clot in the heart. You can have the benefits of fish oil by substituting fish for meat two or three times a week in your diet. Pills containing fish oil have not been shown to provide the same benefit. If you don't like fish (which means you have probably never tasted salmon cooked on a barbecue), you can't get this benefit.
Keeping in mind that 30 percent of total daily calories should come from fat, it is recommended that less than a third of that amount come from saturated fats. You should also keep dietary cholesterol under 300 milligrams per day.
For the gentleman who weighs 142 pounds and needs 1,700 kcalories, slowly starving while waiting to figure out how much to feed him, his final 500 kcalories come from fat. Fat has 9 kcalories per gram, so he can eat about 56 grams of fat daily.
Remember that he has already taken in 40 grams of fat with his flounder and chicken, so he is only left with 16 grams, 8 of which come with his milk. That leaves about a teaspoon of butter from the fat sources.
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