Saturated Fats Are Primarily Found in What Groups?

Your body needs some saturated fat for a variety of biological processes, but it makes more than enough for these purposes. When you get too much saturated fat from your diet, it increases the level of bad cholesterol in your blood, which makes arteries stiff and thus increases your risk of heart disease. Saturated fat comes from any food of animal origin and also many processed foods. By knowing which ones are particularly high in saturated fat, you’ll be better able to control your intake.

Meats

• While any cut of beef will have saturated fat, ribs and fatty beef chuck roast are the worst offenders. Three ounces of each could have over 9 grams of saturated fat. Some lamb shoulder cuts and pork spareribs are up there, too. A 3-ounce serving of either of these meats each contain 8 to 9.5 grams of saturated fat. By opting for beef sirloin or pork loin instead and trimming the visible fat, you’ll cut your saturated fat intake by at least half.

Dairy

• Milk, cheese, ice cream, butter and other dairy foods are well known for their high saturated fat content. An 8-ounce serving of whole milk or whole-milk yogurt each have around 4.5 grams of saturated fat. Cheddar, Camembert, Muenster and blue cheese each provide approximately between 5 and 7 grams of saturated fat per ounce. Even that seemingly harmless bowl of plain vanilla ice cream contains more than 7.5 grams in a half-cup serving. You’ll get 7.3 grams of saturated fat from just 1 tablespoon of butter. If you use margarine in place of butter, you’ll only get 2 grams of saturated fat or less per serving.
• Junk Foods

• Heavily processed junk foods are hidden sources of lots of saturated fat. If you’ve ever had a handful of white or milk chocolate chips, you consumed around 15 grams of saturated fat from that half-cup serving. A small 2.75-ounce wedge of cheesecake has approximately 8 grams of saturated fat. If you’re a donut-eater, you’re getting more than 5.5 grams of saturated fat from a single glazed donut. Even many chocolate candy bars have over 7 grams of this bad fat in each bar. You’ll get 12.5 grams of saturated fat from 4.75 ounces of plain potato chips or more than 3 grams from the same amount of French fries. These are foods you really don’t need in your diet anyway -- they’re full of calories and don’t offer a lot of fiber, vitamins or minerals.

Maximum Amount

• As long as you’re generally healthy, up to 10 percent of your total daily calories can come from saturated fat, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2010 advises. So if 2,000 calories a day is normal for you, for example, you can have as much as 200 calories from saturated fat. Since fats have 9 calories in a gram, this equates to no more than about 22 grams of saturated fat daily. But if you have a family history of heart disease or have high blood pressure or high cholesterol, keep your intake of saturated fat intake less than 7 percent of your total daily calories. This equals 140 calories or 15.5 grams for a 2,000-calorie daily diet.