Many foods contain both unsaturated and saturated fats. Polyunsaturated fat helps prevent high blood pressure and possibly some cancers. Monounsaturated fat helps reduce the amount of bad cholesterol in the blood while increasing the amount of good cholesterol. Therefore, you want a higher amount of unsaturated fat in your diet than saturated fat. You want only a low amount of saturated fat and trans fat in your diet, as high levels cause arterial damage. It is important to adjust the proportion of unsaturated, saturated, and trans fats in your diet so that most of your fats are unsaturated.

Here are some tips for consuming fats the fit foods way:

Increase the amount of unsaturated fat in your diet WITHOUT increasing your total fat intake

Less than 30% of your total calories should come from fat.

More than 7.5% of your total calories should come from polyunsaturated fat.

Less than 10% of your total calories should come from saturated fat.

Use cooking oils such as soybean and corn oils. These are rich in polyunsaturated fat, low in saturated fat, and low in transfats.

Make sure that most of your fat intake is from monounsaturated fat sources. Olive and canola oils are rich in monounsaturated fats and are low in saturated fat. Neither oil has trans fat.

Avoid butter, lard, coconut oil, or palm oil. These contain high levels of saturated fats.