The Role of Healthy Fats in a Balanced Diet and Optimal Health

Healthy fats are unsaturated fats that offer numerous health benefits, including supporting heart health, brain function, and overall well-being.
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Nutrition | Wellness | Dietary Fats | Unsaturated Fats | Omega-3 | Heart Health
Prepared by Lee Cheng, reviewed by Dr. Helena Rodriguez

Healthy Fats FAQ


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What are the best sources of healthy fats?

Fat is needed by your body to stay healthy. Fat provides essential fatty acids and helps your body absorb certain vitamins. Excellent sources of healthy fats include nuts and nut butters, oils, and avocados.

What are the health benefits of healthy fats?

Adding healthy fats to your diet has shown to have numerous health benefits. Many foods high in fat such as fatty fish and chia seeds contain omega-3 fatty acids, which are good for your heart and brain function.

How much fat should you eat per day?

Based on advice from advisory committees, the Department of Health has for sometime recommended that average fat intake should fall to 35% of food energy or less and saturates to 11% of food energy or less. These figures are intended as population averages (goals for the population to attain on average), not specifically as targets for individuals.

What are healthy fats & why should you eat them?

Fat is an essential part of human diets, providing the body with energy, supporting cell function, helping to absorb some nutrients, and creating hormones. Fats also help keep your body warm and protect your organs. This article discusses what healthy fats are, the top healthy fat foods to include in your diet, and unhealthy fats to avoid.

What is a good fat & a bad fat?

Good fats include monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, which come mainly from plants and fish. Bad fats include trans fats, which are generated by an industrial process to solidify vegetable oils. Saturated fats fall somewhere in between.

Is a small amount of fat good for You?

A small amount of fat is good for you. Too much bad (saturated) fat in your diet can increase your risk of developing heart and circulatory diseases. There are lots of things you can do to eat less bad fats. Replacing some of them with healthy (unsaturated) fat will keep your heart healthy and manage your weight. Why do we need some fat?

Healthy Fats References

If you want to know more about Healthy Fats, consider exploring links below:

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