fats 101

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So Why Limit total Fat?

Fat is a concentrated source of calories, so higher fat diets tend to be higher in calories. And diets higher in calories can lead to a higher than desirable weight. Maintaining a healthy weight is one way to protect your heart.

While some fat is good, too little is not. The body needs a certain amount of fat in order to run normally. Children in particular need fat for brain development and for the calories their bodies require to grow and develop normally. Extremely low-fat diets can backfire, causing HDL (“good”) cholesterol levels to go down and triglycerides, a fat-carbohydrate molecule, to go up. Neither of these is good for heart health.