Dietary Fats: MedlinePlus

Dietary Fats

URL of this page: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/dietaryfats.html

 

Also called: Lipids, Monounsaturated fat, Polyunsaturated fat, Saturated fat 

 

 

Fat is a major source of energy and aids your body in absorbing vitamins. It's important for proper growth, development and keeping you healthy. Fat provides taste to foods and helps you feel full. Fats are an especially important source of calories and nutrients for infants and toddlers. Dietary fat also plays a major role in your cholesterol levels.

But not all fats are the same. You should try to avoid

• Saturated fats such as butter, solid shortening, lard and fatback
• Trans fats, found in vegetable shortenings, some margarines, crackers, cookies, snack foods and other foods made with or fried in partially hydrogenated oils

Try to replace them with oils such as corn, canola, olive, safflower, soybean and sunflower. Of course, eating too much fat will put on the pounds.

Food and Drug Administration

 

main MedlinePlus page:
Dietary Fats: MedlinePlus

MEDICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA  

• Butter, margarine, and cooking oils
• Dietary fats explained
• Fat

Related Topics

• Cholesterol
• Heart Diseases--Prevention
• Nutrition
• Triglycerides
• Food and Nutrition

National Institutes of Health

• The primary NIH organization for research on Dietary Fats is the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

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