Dietary Fats – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Dietary Fat, Dieting Misconceptions, Eating, Food Science / By Shannon

This article does a great job of explaining the downside of refined vegetable oils chemically known as polyunsaturated fats. The late Dr. Mary Enig, unquestionably one of the brightest scientists in understanding dietary fats, noted that the body requires only about 4.5% of fat calories to be from polyunsaturated fats; the remaining will be a balance of saturated and monounsaturated fats.

Mary G. Enig, Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils, and Cholesterol, Bethesda Press, Silver Spring, MD, 2000. pg.105

2 thoughts on “Dietary Fats – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly”

Gingersnap
May 15, 2019 at 4:28 pm

Wow…surprising to me that lard is a good fat and shortening bad. I always assumed the reverse was true. Good article!

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1. Shannon
  May 15, 2019 at 5:41 pm
  
  We always hear that animal fat is saturated and plant fats/oils are unsaturated. Lard (which is pig fat) is almost 60% monounsaturated (olive oil is 70% monounsaturated) and therefore more unsaturated then saturated!
  
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