Excess amounts of saturated fat in your diet can lead to heart disease and stroke. According to WHO, coronary heart disease and stroke claim more than 14.1 million lives per year. But you should not avoid saturated fats completely.
Saturated fats are fatty foods that are solid at room temperature. So, how does saturated fat affect your health? Saturated fats affect the body by increasing the amount of bad or LDL cholesterol in it.
High levels of saturated fats from excess amounts of butter, animal fat, and the like leads to it.
LDL cholesterol gets deposited on the walls of the arteries, thereby preventing the free flow of blood to and from the heart to various parts of the body. If LDL cholesterol levels are not kept in check, it can lead to a clogged artery that can cause a heart attack.
So, you see, saturated fats are only good in small amounts. Here are 7 foods you should limit:
1. Mayonnaise
Who doesn’t love a dollop of silky smooth mayonnaise in salads, sandwiches, and wraps! It has a magical property of turning a boring salad into a delicious one. But the problem is the amount of saturated fats present in it. Plus, because of its creamy texture and feel-good taste, we all tend to overconsume it. The best way to consume it is to prepare low-cal salad dressing with olive oil, use cottage cheese in sandwiches and wraps, and to eat no more than 2 tablespoons of it per day.
2. Butter
Butter smells and tastes so great that it is almost impossible to eliminate it from our lives. But here’s the thing. Unless you start consuming it in limited amounts, you will end up paying for fixing your “broken” heart. If you look at the saturated fat content of butter, it is way higher than mayonnaise. That’s why you must consume as less butter as you can. Have 1-2 teaspoons of butter per day.
3. Animal fats
Meat drippings, lard, chicken fat, duck fat, goose fat, and lamb fat are all animal fats that apparently take the taste quotient of any dish to the next level. And if you are not careful enough, it has the full potential to take you to the upper level (if you know what I mean)! I know it does taste good, but why not find a substitute that’s lower in saturated fats and good for your health? Use herbed oils and homemade ghee instead of the animal fats mentioned above.
4. Cheese
It’s easy to overconsume cheese. Especially when you can have it with bread, in salads, as a dip, fried, or just nibble it. Though cheese has many beneficial nutritional qualities, overconsuming it can put your heart health at risk. In just a slice of cheese, you get half the daily recommended amount of saturated fat! Now, think about the amount of cheese used in pizzas and burgers. Slash the amount of cheese you consume per day and workout regularly to keep your heart fit.
5. Whipped cream
The much-loved whipped cream has high saturated fat content and can make you gain weight quickly. Consume sour cream instead of whipped cream or avoid it to prevent your health from going down south.
6. Brazil nuts
Brazil nuts have the highest amount of saturated fats. Though they have good nutritional qualities, you can easily overconsume them because they taste buttery and yummy. Consume other healthier nuts like almonds, walnuts, macadamia, pine nuts, and pistachios. Be sure to consume just a handful of these nuts per day.
7. Deep fried foods
We all crave fried, crunchy, comfort food once in a while. But the problem arises when you make them your breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack! Fried foods are known for their high saturated and trans fats content and the ill effects they have on health. Fried foods like French fries, fryums, fried chicken, and batter-fried foods are not at all healthy and should be avoided. If you have cravings, make guilt-free shallow-fried foods and use olive oil to make them healthy and super tasty.
