Posts

Showing posts from October, 2011

Good Fats/Bad Fats

Good fats are ones like olive oil that are good for your heart. Bad fats are saturated fats because they raise your blood cholesterol. What are saturated fats and why should you cut back on them? Saturated fats are fats most of us consume every day. They are called saturated fats because their structures are saturated with hydrogen. When we think about heart disease we think about how much cholesterol is in our blood. Having an elevated blood level of cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease. Why? Because too much cholesterol can lead to accumulations in the arteries which eventually restricts blood flow in our arteries. This restriction can also raise your blood pressure. What causes elevated blood cholesterol? One of the major culprits is saturated fats. The more saturated fat you eat the higher your bad or LDL cholesterol becomes. Most of us know that we should watch how much cholesterol we take in each day. But dietary cholesterol actually has less an effect on o