What You Need to Know about Fat and Your Family’s Diet

So, now you know that not all fats are created equal: Unsaturated fats have many important health benefits, and saturated and trans-fats, eaten in excess, can damage your health.

How do you protect your children and yourself? The key is to read food labels, pay attention to the amounts and types of fats in the foods you eat, and seek to emphasize the healthy fats. Try to substitute the saturated and trans-fat in your diet with unsaturated, healthy fats. This will greatly decrease your and your child's risk for heart disease. Eating healthy fats also contributes to satiety (i.e. feeling full).

The total number of grams of fat recommended for a day is 70 for a typical 2,100 calorie diet. Keep in mind that a maximum of 21 of these grams should come from saturated and/or trans-fat (but even less is certainly desirable).

Having the right amounts of healthy fat in your daily diet will lead to greater satiety and help you to manage the overall number of calories you and your family consume.