So is saturated fat bad for me? It’s true that in the past, saturated fats, including the animal fats and egg yolks, have been demonized unfairly.

For a long time, we have all been bombarded with messages about how eating foods high in saturated fat and cholesterol will elevate our risk of getting high blood cholesterol, atherosclerosis and heart attacks, but very few people actually understand cholesterol and its role in the body. As Dr. Michael Eades once said, “The average American doesn’t know exactly what cholesterol is, but is quite certain that it’s dangerous.”

It is definitely overly simplistic to say that saturated fat and other animal-derived fats cause heart disease. It is even more simplistic and incorrect to suggest that foods high in dietary cholesterol such as egg yolks, will always lead to an increase in cholesterol in the blood. Many other factors are involved, including the type of saturated fat, the bigger picture of what else is consumed in the rest of the diet, as well as a person’s genetic predispositions.

The actual process of saturating a fatty acid does not inherently make it bad for you, and as such saturated fats are not inherently bad. Some may be, just as some unsaturated fats may also be bad, but saturated fats are sometimes labelled as bad due to their associations with a fast food lifestyle, and the calories and processed carbs that come with them.

Saturated fat in itself, has no significant evidence that it can beneficially or adversely affect heart health. However, swapping it out for sources of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats have been shown to improve heart health. So saturated fats are worse relative to the unsaturated fats, but they are not bad at all.

George Health – Is Saturated Fat Bad for me? Now we know!