Does your diet contain enough of these good fats?

Why your body needs fat

Your body needs fat for energy, to control inflammation, as well as to build nerve tissue and hormones.

However, too much fat can lead to obesity and some fats might increase your risk of certain cancers, diabetes and heart disease.

Let's look at a few good fats and bad fats...

Bad fats

You should try to limit or eliminate these fats in order to stay healthy, or lose weight. There are generally two types of bad fats...

Saturated fats. These are found in meat, poultry, whole or two percent milk, cheese, cream, palm oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter and eggs.

Trans fats: These fats are usually found in man-made and processed foods, such as cookies, cakes, snacks, frozen foods, and fried foods.

Good fats

Studies have show that eating these fats in place of saturated fat, can help you lower your total cholesterol level. There are three types of good fats...

Monounsaturated fats. These fats are found in olive, canola, avocado, and nut oils, as well as legumes, nuts, seeds, olives and fresh avocados.

Polyunsaturated fats. These are found in vegetable oils like sunflower and corn oil, sunflower seeds, soybeans, sesame seeds, and various other legumes, seeds and nuts.

Omega-3 fatty acids. These are especially beneficial to help decrease your risk of a heart attack, and are found in flaxseeds, walnuts, salmon, sardines, herring and mackerel.

Quick tips for getting in more good fat

• Use olive oil when cooking, to spread on bread or as a salad dressing.

• Use canola oil when baking.

• Look for margarine that has low saturated fat and no trans fats.

• Add nuts to your salads.

• Cut down on eating red meat and eat vegetable proteins, poultry, or baked fish instead.

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