How much monounsaturated fat

The good news is, taking action to modify your diet can lower your risk of heart disease. Every five years, the Department of Health and Human Services, along with the Department of Agriculture, releases nutrition recommendations to help guide Americans toward healthy food choices.

Instead of recommending a low total fat intake, the guidelines recommend a low saturated fat intake. Of that amount, the goal is to get 50 to 65 percent from unsaturated sources. Using a 2,calorie diet as an example, that equates to to calories from unsaturated fat. Make adjustments if you follow a diet that is higher or lower than 2, calories, and use it as a guideline when making your food choices. We examine their differences and effects. Fats are an essential component of nutrition, alongside carbohydrates and protein.

The key is choosing the healthful, unsaturated fats. There are many…. Some fats have more health benefits than others. Learn about healthy fats for the keto diet, how to use them in cooking, and fats to avoid. It is not possible to spot-reduce back fat. What to know about monounsaturated fat. Monounsaturated fats Health effects Quantities Food sources Summary Monounsaturated fats such as olive oil are a healthy addition to the diet.

What are monounsaturated fats? Health effects. How much to eat. Sources of monounsaturated fat. Exposure to air pollutants may amplify risk for depression in healthy individuals. There's good evidence that replacing saturated fats with some unsaturated fats can help to lower your cholesterol level. Mostly found in oils from plants and fish, unsaturated fats can be either monounsaturated or polyunsaturated.

Monounsaturated fats help protect your heart by maintaining levels of "good" HDL cholesterol while reducing levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol in your blood.

Polyunsaturated fats can also help lower the level of "bad" LDL cholesterol in your blood. Some types of omega-3 and omega-6 fats cannot be made by your body, which means it's essential to include small amounts of them in your diet.

Most people get enough omega-6 in their diet, but it's recommended to have more omega-3 by eating at least 2 portions of fish each week, with 1 portion being an oily fish.

Vegetable sources of omega-3 fats are not thought to have the same benefits on heart health as those found in fish. Find out more about healthy eating as a vegetarian.

The nutrition labels on food packaging can help you cut down on total fat and saturated fat also listed as "saturates", or "sat fat". Nutrition information can be presented in different ways on the front and back of packaging.

But if the type of food in question is usually high in fat, the lower fat version may still be a high-fat food Also, foods that are lower in fat are not necessarily lower in calories. Sometimes the fat is replaced with sugar and the food may end up having a similar energy content to the regular version. But people following the high-unsaturated fat diet were able to reduce their medications more and had greater blood glucose stability.

Other studies have determined that diets high in monounsaturated fats may provide some benefits in the prevention of type 2 diabetes. A very small study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition investigated the role of monounsaturated fat in the lifestyle habits of young adults. It compared two groups of men and women 14 adults in one group and 18 in the other in their 20s and 30s.

Participants ate diets either high in saturated fat a typical Western diet or one high in monounsaturated fat a Mediterranean diet. They found that the diet high in monounsaturated fat was associated with less anger, better overall mood, and increased physical activity. Participants in the Mediterranean diet group also benefited from an increase in resting energy expenditure.

Monounsaturated fats come primarily from plant sources, such as nuts and seeds. However, many foods provide more than one kind of fat. To ensure a healthier intake of fats, look for foods with a high percentage of monounsaturated fats, such as:. While regular sunflower and safflower oils are not good sources of monounsaturated fat, some seeds have been specially bred to increase their monounsaturated content.

These oils will usually be labeled "high-oleic" safflower or sunflower oil. There are numerous ways to swap out saturated and trans fats in your diet for monounsaturated fats, including:. While consumers have avoided fat for years, it has become increasingly apparent that the type of fat, not just the total amount of fat, makes a big difference in overall health. We need fat in our diets to support important body functions. Many vitamins, for example, need fat in order to be dissolved and absorbed into the intestines.

Dietary fat also helps keep hair and skin healthy, while body fat insulates the body and protects the internal organs. As a result, the focus and recommendations regarding dietary fat have shifted. Many health organizations now propose that fat shouldn't be considered "bad" and the focus should be on avoiding excess consumption of the less healthy types. There is no specific intake recommendation provided for monounsaturated fat. Other health organizations have provided guidelines for the intake of MUFAs as a percentage of total daily calorie intake.

There are some guidelines that can help you make healthy decisions regarding fats to include to limit in your diet.

According to the USDA:. Lastly, remember that all fats provide nine calories per gram, whether they are monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, or saturated. Protein and carbohydrate provide four calories per gram. If reaching or maintaining a healthy weight is part of your goals, keeping your calories within a certain range may help you achieve that. Therefore, understanding portions of fat and their calorie equivalents could be useful.

While there is no specific guideline for the intake of monounsaturated fat, current USDA guidelines suggest adopting a healthy eating pattern that limits consumption of saturated and trans fats in favor of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats and oils.

This is your target fat-calorie range. For example, an adult who consumes 2, calories per day would have a target fat calorie range of to calories. Once you have a calorie range, you can determine the target number of fat grams. Since fat contains nine calories per gram, divide the fat-calorie target numbers by nine to determine your daily fat grams. For a 2,calorie diet, the recommended daily fat intake would be between 44 to 78 grams.

Remember, this is the target amount from all fat sources, not just monounsaturated fat. To ensure that you remain well within your daily target, pay close attention to food nutrition labels when shopping.

Or plan in advance by running your shopping list through a handy online nutrition calculator. You can even use it when preparing recipes to calculate the percentage of fat and saturated fat per serving in relation to the total calories. Even though all types of fats have the same caloric impact, the type of fat you're consuming matters when it comes to your health. It may seem daunting at first, but making the shift from saturated fats to monounsaturated fats is not as scary as it seems.

Start by making simple swaps in your everyday cooking and watching your intake of animal products.