Yet another risk from eating saturated fats

Saturated fats show up in butter fat, meat fat, lard, cheese, and tropical oils like palm, coconut, and palm kernel oil. In the U.S., this fat accounts for around 15% of folks’ total calories. The American Heart Association says that it’s best if it’s not more than 5%-6% of daily calories (around 13 grams).

That’s because saturated fats may raise lousy LDL cholesterol, fuel inflammation and seem to increase your risk for heart disease. When you reduce your intake of saturated fats, it’s smart to increase foods that deliver healthy fats like olive oil and omega-3s (in salmon and walnuts), instead of upping your carb intake, which tends to be from overprocessed foods. Those healthy mono- and polyunsaturated fats are proven to reduce your risk of heart disease.

Now there’s another reason to eliminate excess sat-fat from your diet (there’s some sat-fat in fish, for example, that isn’t a worry). It’s been found to be associated with serious risks for breast, prostate and colon cancer. A meta-review of 55 studies says that three types of sat-fats are particularly risky: stearic acid found in meat, eggs, dairy, lard, and cocoa and shea butter; palmitic acid found in palm oil, butter, meat, milk, and cheese; and myristic acid in palm kernel oil, coconut oil, butterfat and dairy.

So, if your heart health hasn’t been enough incentive to get you to go for a salmon burger instead of a hamburger, maybe this newly revealed cancer risk will help you embrace a plant-based diet with healthy oils, salmon and skinless poultry.