Should we try to eliminate saturated fat from our diets?
There has been a huge push to reduce the amount of saturated fat in our diets. The mantra “saturated fats – bad, unsaturated fats – good” is everywhere.
However, is consuming some saturated fat bad for us? Probably not. Could it even be good for us? Maybe. The pendulum (for yet another health factor) may be swinging back to a more neutral position.
There is no doubt that many people eat too much saturated fat and this increases the risk of a number of diseases such as heart disease. A question that is now being addressed is can you eat too little?
Our diet since the Stone Age has contained saturated fats from both animal and plant sources. Yes, plants do contain saturated fats. Examples with a high content of saturated fat are most nuts and coconut. Also there are some areas of the world where there is a relatively high intake of saturated fat (mainly from plant sources) where the incidence of heart disease in quite low.
Plus there is a small amount of evidence that certain combinations of saturated fats may have some health benefits.
The bottom line seems to be that consuming some saturated fat (preferably mainly from plant sources) may be healthy and not have negative health consequences. A question that needs to be addressed is there a lower limit for consumption of saturated fat for optimal health?
