If you’re worried about keeping your heart healthy, you may be working hard to avoid fat in your diet. In the 1990s, there was a huge trend to avoid all kinds of fat in the diet. But the truth is all fat is not created equal. A completely fat-free or low-fat diet may actually do more harm than good.

There are basically three types of fat. They can be broken into even more categories, but the big three are the most important: unsaturated, saturated, and trans fat. While saturated and trans fat are damaging to the heart, unsaturated fat actually improves the health of your heart.

Unsaturated fat is found in vegetable sources such as olives, nuts, avocados, and olive oil. It’s also found in fish, soybeans, and flaxseed. This type of fat actually helps to lower your cholesterol. Unsaturated fat is a liquid at room temperature.

Saturated fat is found in animal products. It comes from the fat on animal products as well as lard. This type of fat contributes to high cholesterol and causes your heart and blood vessels to become clogged. Saturated fat is solid at room temperature.

Trans fat is the fat that comes from taking liquid fats and chemically processing them to become solid. This process is often used to make vegetable shortening and margarine. It’s also a popular way to add shelf life to other foods such as peanut butter and cookies.

People once thought that margarine and vegetable shortening were healthier than butter and lard because they don’t contain saturated fat. However, modern research has found that trans fat is actually worse for your heart wellness than saturated fat.

When it comes to your diet, you should make sure that you have plenty of healthy fats in your diet. Just because an avocado or nuts have fat doesn’t mean you need to avoid them. You should also limit your consumption of animal fats. You can do this by choosing lean cuts of meat and eating more chicken and turkey than you do beef.

When it comes to trans fat, the best thing to do is completely avoid it. Many food manufacturers have worked to remove trans fat from their products. When you purchase any food, make sure to check the nutrition label.

The government now requires trans fat to be listed on the label. There’s no such thing as a healthy amount of trans fat. If a product even has 1 gram, you should put it down and find something else.