Facing the Fats

By Amy Campbell Fat is a necessary nutrient, and we need it to sustain health. But it's also had its share of hard knocks in the past, and many people (including some dietitians) are still leery about promoting its goodness. In light of the new cholesterol management guidelines from the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology, as well as the FDA's recent proposal to ban trans fat, I decided to write about the different types of fat in our diets this week. I won't get into either of these stories in much detail, but suffice it to say that cholesterol has been in the news big-time recently. New guidelines are advocating the use of statins for a whole lot more people now. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, what seems to have been overlooked is the use of lifestyle management to help with managing cholesterol and reducing heart disease risk. Just like with diabetes management, medication, eating, and exercise all work together to lessen heart risk. So now is a good time to refresh your memory or revisit what you thought you knew about fat but that may no longer be the case! Types of fat Saturated fat. There are two main types of fat in the diet: saturated and unsaturated. Saturated fat has, for many years, been known as the "bad guy." Back in the 1970's, a landmark study declared that saturated fat was linked with raising blood cholesterol levels; increased cholesterol, in turn, was linked with raising the risk of heart disease. Recently, however...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - Category: Diabetes Authors: Source Type: blogs