Fat Facts: Types of Fat Video Transcript

Participants

, Samantha L. Heller MS, RD, CD, Martha McKittrick RD, CDE, Cheryl Wills , Deanna Conte MS, RD, LD

Summary

In our weight-conscious culture, fat is usually viewed as the enemy. But fat is an essential part of every healthy diet. The key is keeping it under control -- and distinguishing good fat from bad fat. Join our panel of nutrition experts as they discuss how fat can -- and should -- be a part of a healthy lifestyle.

Webcast Transcript

CHERYL WILLS: Thank you for tuning into our webcast. I'm Cheryl Wills. For people who are trying to lose weight, fat is often viewed as the enemy. But we do need fat in order to survive, and there are good fats and bad fats. In this webcast, we'll distinguish between the two and talk about how you can make sure you're getting the right kind.

Joining me to discuss this issue is Samantha Heller. She's a registered dietitian and Senior Clinical Nutritionist at New York University Medical Center. Thanks for joining us Samantha.

Also here, Martha McKittrick. She's a registered dietitian at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Thank you for joining us.

Samantha, we've got three types of fat; saturated, unsaturated, trans fat. Let's start with saturated.

SAMANTHA HELLER: Saturated fat. Saturated fat is the bad guy. It's the bad guy because it messes with your body's ability to process certain things. Where do you find saturated fats? In animal products, in meat, in cheese, in butter, in ice cream, in lard. What happens?

When you eat saturated fat, it interferes with your liver's ability to process cholesterol. So, when you eat saturated fat, not only does it raise the cholesterol in your blood, but also it stimulates your liver to produce more cholesterol. So, it's a double whammy.

When you're eating an unsaturated fat, which comes from plants - olive oil, canola oil, flaxseed oil - it doesn't do that. In fact, those are actually healthier fats for your body.

CHERYL WILLS: I just want to be clear. How do saturated fats raise the cholesterol?

SAMANTHA HELLER: You're liver is a recycling processing plant. One of its major functions is to take cholesterol and fat and break it down and recycle it to help your body use it. Remember, we use cholesterol, for example, to make hormones like testosterone and for cell membranes. The liver helps us do that.

If you're eating saturated fat, it interferes with your liver's ability to process the cholesterol. The cholesterol can't get back into the liver. It interferes with the receptors there. So the cholesterol says, "I can't get into my recycling plant, so I'm just going to go float around in the bloodstream for a little while longer." Then you start getting into trouble.

CHERYL WILLS: Martha unsaturated fats?

MARTHA MCKITTRICK, RD, CDE: Unsaturated fats are mainly found from plant origin, and they will not raise your cholesterol. Those, in effect, are the good guys. What I recommend my clients to do is to eat more unsaturated fats and less saturated. Most people eat too much saturated fat. We need to focus more on the unsaturated.

There are two different kinds of unsaturated. There is a monounsaturated and a polyunsaturated.

CHERYL WILLS: Take one at a time. What is the polyunsaturated?

MARTHA MCKITTRICK, RD, CDE: Polyunsaturated is just a kind of unsaturated fat. It's found from a plant origin. It's mainly found in vegetable oils. There is a kind of polyunsaturated fat called and Omega-3 fatty acid.

There has been a lot of research and a lot of talk about that. These kind of fats are very heart healthy. They are found mainly in fatty fish. They are found in flaxseed. They are found in some leafy greens, and they are found in some soybeans. These are really the best kinds of fats; the Omega-3s.

CHERYL WILLS: What about the monounsaturated?

MARTHA MCKITTRICK, RD, CDE: The monounsaturated are another kind of unsaturated fat, and they are also very heart healthy. They are found mainly in olive oil, canola oil, nuts, avocados.