Top-10 Fatty Foods to Avoid in your Nutrition
Fact checked by Ievgeniia Dobrynina
Ievgeniia Dobrynina is the Head of Nutrition and a fact checker at Unimeal.
Your favorite cookies are dangerous! A slice of bacon for breakfast is dangerous; even popcorn at home is also dangerous! Why? They poison your body with bad fats. As a result, overweight and heart diseases. No panic! Forewarned is forearmed. Here is everything about health and unhealthy fat and how to protect your body from their harmful effects.
What you should know about fats
Fat in products is not scary if you intake healthy fat in limited doses. In this case, it can be your real friend. Our body needs fat to get vitamins A, D, E and K, which are fat-soluble and can be absorbed only with the help of fats. Fat provides energy, protects organs, and is also an essential structural component for the human body's cells.
Eat tasty food and lose weight with Unimeal app!
Take a Quiz – Get personal meal plan – Achieve your weight goals!
Start Quiz
However, fat can become your enemy if you consume too much. When you eat more fat than your body requires, the rest of it turns into body fat and contributes to weight gain.
There are four types of fat in food:
- Monounsaturated are healthy fats in small amounts. You can find them in nuts: almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, peanuts and pistachios.
- Polyunsaturated are healthy fats in small amounts. They are contained in fatty fish such as kippers, mackerel and salmon or in some oils: rapeseed oil, sunflower oil and corn oil.
- Saturated fats are unhealthy fats. There are many in red meat: pork sausages, bacon, or burger meat.
- Trans fats are unhealthy fats. Lots of them are in baking and fried goods: french fries, cookies, biscuits, and cakes.
Most fatty products contain both: saturated and unsaturated fats, but in different proportions. People have to consume saturated (healthy) fat for a healthy and balanced diet.
What are fatty foods
Fatty foods are called high-fat products. They can consist of good fats or bad fats. According to the Dietary Reference Intakes published by the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 20% to 35% of the calories we consume should come from fat. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are the best for your diet; they improve skin condition, nails, hair, and general health. The best healthy fats foods are avocado, fatty fish, nuts, fully fat greek yogurt and dark chocolate (more than 70% of cacao).
However, people are scared of fats for a reason. Besides the advantages, they can make you feel really bad. Overconsumption of fats can lead to health problems such as weight gain and obesity, fatty liver disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, neurological and gastrointestinal problems.
10 foods high in saturated fats to avoid
A healthy meal plan should include good fats but avoid harmful low-carb, high-fat fats. Here is the list of fatty products, the use of which is to abstain:
Butter
This dairy product is rich in vitamins A and E, which improve your skin and vision1Gilbert C. 2013. What is vitamin A and why do we need it? Community Eye Health. PMID:24782580 and protect cells against damage2Rizvi S, Raza ST, Ahmed F, Ahmad A, Abbas S, Mahdi F. 14 May 2014. The role of vitamin e in human health and some diseases. Sultan Qaboos Univ Med J. PMID:24790736. But unfortunately, it is also high in calories and contains saturated fat. You can continue to eat butter, but you have to limit the daily consumption of it, and it is better to combine butter with healthy fats products: avocado, nuts or fatty fish.
Margarine
Margarine is cheaper than natural butter; therefore, you can find it in the composition of some products, especially baked goods such as industrial cookies, cakes and biscuits. Most kinds of margarine are unhealthy; they contain trans fat, which increases blood cholesterol levels and the risk of heart disease.
Cookies, cakes, donuts
Cookies, cakes, and donuts are produced with butter or margarine; consequently, they are high in saturated fat and cholesterol. They also contain a lot of sugar, which can cause coronary heart disease.
Whipping cream
Despite the delicious look, whipping cream includes hydrogenated oils (in other words, trans fats). One tablespoon of whipping cream has 52 calories and 5.5 grams of fat; 21 grams of cholesterol and 3 grams of saturated fat significantly impair health and increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
Poultry Skin
Always remove the skin of the chicken before eating. Firstly, it contains additional calories: for comparison, 1 cup of cooked chicken breast without skin has 231 calories, but a cup of cooked chicken breast with skin has 276 calories. It means the removal of chicken skin reduces about ⅕ the calorie content of the dish. Furthermore, poultry skin contains 2.26 grams of unhealthy saturated fat.
Red meat
It doesn't matter which type of red meat you prefer. All of them - pork, beef or lamb - contain saturated fat and cholesterol. According to the American Heart Association recommendations, it is better to limit saturated fat consumption and replace it with polyunsaturated fat to reduce the risk of heart disease3Heileson JL. 1 June 2020. Dietary saturated fat and heart disease: a narrative review. Nutr Rev. PMID:31841151.
Bacon
Bacon contains cholesterol, saturated and polyunsaturated fats. One hundred grams of bacon is equal to 12.6 grams of saturated fat. Bacon increases the risk of chronic diseases such as asthma, heart failure, and kidney problems. It is also high in salt and can lead to stomach cancer4D'Elia L, Galletti F, Strazzullo P. 2014. Dietary salt intake and risk of gastric cancer. Cancer Treat Res. PMID:24114476.
Cheddar cheese
Compared with other cheese, the highest level of cholesterol (99 mg/100g ) and saturated fat (21g/100) is contained in cheddar cheese, which can harm your health. If you are a real cheese lover and can't imagine your life without cheese, look for low-fat or vegan ones and limit your daily consumption.
Popcorn
Popcorn is a low-calorie and high-fiber snack, but it depends on the manufacturers and additional seasons. The most significant part of popcorn for the microwave uses hydrogenated oils that contain harmful trans fats, which contribute to heart attacks and stroke5Ganguly R, Pierce GN. 2012. Trans fat involvement in cardiovascular disease. Mol Nutr Food Res. DOI:10.1002/mnfr.201100700. That's why always read the back of the packaging and choose one with minimal additional ingredients.
Fries
French fries and other fried food are high in saturated fats. While cooking, fries are dipped in oil and absorb all harmful substances, which is hazardous to your heart health. If possible, avoid fried food, and replace it with baked or grilled ones.
High fat foods replacement
You don't have to cut out any fatty food completely. In the market or grocery store, replace your favorite products with almost the same but healthier ones. According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, here is the list of alternatives that are lower in fat and calories and can help you to make an easy replacement in your diet:
- Instead of regular margarine or butter, give preferences to light spread kinds of margarine, diet margarine, or whipped butter, tub or squeeze bottle;
- Replace dairy products such as milk, whipping cream, or cheese with low-fat, reduced-fat, or fat-free ones. Avoid additional sugar toppings.
- For ice cream lovers, it is better to buy frozen yogurt, sorbet, and sherbet than desserts containing milk.
- Take a rule of choosing sweets and cookies with natural ingredients (like, for example, granola or fruit bar), without palm oil and margarine.
- Red meat such as beef (chuck, rib, brisket) switch to beef (round, loin) (trimmed of external fat) (choose select grades); or better choose poultry;
- Always skin off from chicken and poultry;
- Eat turkey sausage rather than pork.
Unimeal does not diagnose or suggest treatments. Any description of the diet, training plan or supplement should be discussed with your current physician or nutritionist. This article does not address specific conditions and is simply meant to provide general information on healthcare topics. Following any advice is at your own initiative and does not impose any responsibility on the blog authors for your health and safety.
Sources:
By choosing high-quality sources, we make sure that all articles on the Unimeal blog are reliable and trustworthy. Learn more about our editorial processes.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
