What Do You Know About Saturated Fats?

I found this article in The Star which explains about saturated fats and its effect on our health. Most of us tend to relate saturated fats to health problems, but that has already been proven as being a misconception. Read this article to understand why we should not eliminate saturated fats from our diet.

Article: Saturated, but necessary
Link: http://www.thestar.com.my/Lifestyle/Health/2014/03/02/Saturated-but-necessary/

Here are some excerpts I find to be important from the article:

In fact, Assoc Prof Ng says that if we were to take away all saturated fats from our diet, and only consumed a diet of proteins, carbohydrates, polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats, we would get sick in a matter of weeks.

And then there is the fourth type of fatty acid that raises our cholesterol – trans-fat. This, according to Assoc Prof Ng, is the worst type of fat to have in the diet. “They are not saturated, but they have the trans configuration. They are really bad because they raise blood lipid levels and they raise lipoprotein(a), which is a risk factor (for cardiovascular disease),” he says. Trans-fat is deemed so harmful that the United States Food and Drug Administration is moving towards banning the use of partially-hydrogenated vegetable cooking oils, which are the main source of trans-fat in our diets.

Published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2010, the comparative study found no association between dietary saturated fat and increased risk of cardiovascular disease. ”Saturated fat intake, in fact, lowered the risk of stroke by some 19%,” says Assoc Prof Ng, adding this is a powerful paper as it is a summary of several clinical trials. He points out that while saturated fats do raise low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or “bad”) cholesterol, they also raise the high-density lipoprotein (HDL, or “good”) cholesterol. Conversely, polyunsaturated fats do decrease LDL-cholesterol, but they also decrease HDL-cholesterol.

It's important to get ourselves educated with facts rather than just rely on hearsay from others, just as how the article explains about a misconception which has lasted for one generation.