Food Tip: Saturated Fats in Chips and Snacks

by Sherren Jegtvig

There are several types of fats in many of the foods you eat.  Some of the fats are good like omega-3 fatty acids (a type of polyunsaturated fat), and monounsaturated fats.  But some fats are bad like saturated fats and their evil cousins the trans-fats.

Saturated fats are bad for your health because when you eat too much of them you’ll raise your bad  cholesterol and increase inflammation in your arteries.  You don’t have to completely avoid all saturated fats, but keep your intake to less than 10% of your daily caloric intake (about 20 grams for 2000 calories). 

Where are the saturated fats?  Mostly in meats (especially red meat), dairy products, eggs, lard, butter, coconut oil, palm oil and other tropical oils.  Of course, you might find saturated fats lurking in your snacks too.  Let’s look at some snack chips:

They’re not all bad, but the three at the top contain a lot of saturated fats.  Even the snacks in the middle of the chart can be bad if you eat the whole bag instead of a single portion.

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