We all indulge in 'bad' foods from time to time, but what are the chances that most of us are indulging in bad things most of the time? Pretty high if you live in Britain. Recent studies out of the UK showed that in every region of the country, people were eating more than their recommended daily intake of saturated fat on a regular basis. In more urbanized parts of the country, the average person consumed 20% more saturated fat than they should have, while in more rural parts of the country, they were eating double the amount they should. Yikes.

Why should we care about what they're eating in England? I have a very good feeling that we North Americans aren't far off. Eating too much saturated fat can raise your cholesterol, up your chance of heart disease and shorten your lifespan, among other things.

You should be getting no more than 20 g - 30g of saturated fat a day. Lower your average intake by cutting out processed meats like bacon and sausages and cutting down on how much butter you consume.

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Google, the ingenious company that has seemingly single-handedly conquered the internet, could use some lessons in nutrition, apparently. Well, at least their NYC Cafe could. The eatery recently served up a stomach-churning, heart attack-inducing, vomit-inspiring doozy of a sandwich. The Bacon Krispy Kreme Burger is just that -- a cheeseburger with bacon served on a Krispy Kreme donut as the bun. The only way they could possibly make it less nutritious is if they deep fried it.

How many calories does you think is in one of these? Let's see, about 200 in the donut, 250 in the pattty, 150 in the bacon and 100 in the cheese? At 700 calories and about a jillion grams of fat, let's hope Google provides its employees with good insurance plans.

(via Celebrity Diet Doctor)

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After the "fat-free" frenzy of years past, it's no wonder that some people are scared off of eating any fats. But look around... did the fat-free trend solve the obesity problem? Nope... not at all. That's because food manufacturers raced to label their foods as "fat-free" in big, bold letters on the front of the packages, but they failed to mention other unhealthy ingredients such as high sugar or high sodium or unpronounceable chemicals that really have no place in our diet whatsoever.

The truth is we need fat in our diets. (Not as much as most people consume, of course, but we do need it.) Our bodies can generate a certain amount, but the rest must be consumed. The trick is eating foods prepared with the good fats. That's right... I said good fats. A recent survey revealed that more than half of Americans have no idea that there are some fats you should be including in your diet. To help people better differentiate between good and not-so-good fats, the American Heart Association has launched Face the Fats.

There are four types of fats: saturated fats, trans-fats, monounsaturated fats, and polyunsaturated fats. While all four varieties have the same number of calories (9 calories per gram of fat), they have different effects on health. Saturated and trans-fats are the culprits to avoid -- they can raise your "bad" cholesterol (LDL). But monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats are beneficial for health when consumed in small amounts; they help reduce cholesterol levels and provide essential fatty acids (omega 3 and omega 6) that your body needs but can't generate on its own.

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Healthy or not healthy? It's a pretty easy question to answer when you're comparing apples to, say, a candy bar. But when you take a look at coconuts, the answer just isn't so clear. Several years ago I worked with a Registered Dietitian who wrote a piece about the benefits of coconut oil. I ended up 86ing the article because I just wasn't convinced that her conclusions were sound nutritional advice. Coconut oil is rich in lauric acid which is said to benefit your immune system. But coconut oil is also crazy high in saturated fat. The RD swore by her stance, but I wasn't convinced. I'm still not. Do the benefits of coconut oil outweigh the negatives?

Fitsugar just ran an article with some further explanation about coconut oil. It has a long shelf life and high smoke point which makes it a good choice for many restaurants and bakeries (particularly those that have had to switch from trans fats). But coconut oil is 90% saturated fat; 60% of which is a form of lauric acid and is metabolized quicker than most saturated fats.

So, the debate continues. As for me, I'd prefer to boost my immunity through fruits and veggies and avoid the unnecessary saturated fat.

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We'd all like to know that we're going to make it to our retirement and still have a few good years in us to finally enjoy some time off. But the sad reality is that many of us won't make it to those golden years, or won't have the health to enjoy it, and in many cases, this is mostly preventable. As diet guru Julia Havey points out, there are five things that could very well keep you from enjoying you old age:

1. You smoke. Haven't you heard the news? It will kill you, man.
   
2. You don't walk enough. True, cars and elevators are great inventions, but they're also making you a little rounder in the waistline. If you have a couple of minutes to spare (come on, who doesn't?), walk.
   
3. You eat too much saturated fat. Saturated fat is only healthy in moderate amounts. Use with caution.
   
4. You eat too much trans fat. Unlike saturated fats, trans fats are never healthy, no matter what the amount. Rid them from your diet.
   
5. You don't eat enough fruits and veggies. 5-10 a day, that's all it takes.

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Are you a salad junkie? There's just something about the consistency of it, the colorful way it's presented on a plate or bowl, and the general feeling of health you feel from eating salad that makes it a lunch meal of choice. But, there may be more going on than meets the eye when it comes to salad, particularly when it comes to being healthy.

First of all, what types of greens are you eating in your salad? If it's iceberg lettuce, you would do well to switch that to either Romaine or red-leaf lettuce, or spinach. That's because iceberg lettuce has almost no nutritional value. More or less, it's a waste of space on your plate.

Second, how much fat is in that dressing? Unless you take a look at the label, you may be surprised that there's far more saturated fat than you thought there was.

And lastly, how much sugar is in that salad? You may have never noticed before, but many salad dressings have quite a bit of sugar added for taste. This, combined with the fact that many dressings also contain sodium benzoate (a chemical preservative that has been linked to ADHD in children in a British study), and your salad has suddenly become a nutrient-free, fat-laden, blood sugar-spiking, possible ADHD causing bowl of destruction.

Okay, so maybe I'm going a bit overboard here. Still, I think the point made was a valid one. Stick to healthier greens, low-fat and low-or-no-sugar dressings, and check the nutritional label for chemical preservatives such as the one mentioned. There ... now it's a healthy meal again!

As part of National Heart Month, Newsweek offered a multi-page advertisement for Vytron, a pharmaceutical drug that was supposedly shown to reduce bad cholesterol more effectively than either Crestor or Lipitor. However, unlike most ads, included in these four or five pages were articles on how to keep your heart healthy -- with or without resorting to the product that was paying for them.

Always a sucker for a good quiz, I was immediately drawn to the "Test Your Cholesterol IQ," a somewhat eye-opening look at how misunderstood this silent killer can sometimes be. Here's a quick, paraphrased version of some of the questions that appear in this True or False quiz.

1. There's Nothing Good About Cholesterol. - False. Cholesterol is required for life. The problem is when there is too much of it in the blood, increasing the risk of heart disease and heart attack.

2. When It Comes to Cholesterol, Less is More. - False. Depending on the type of cholesterol you're talking about, low cholesterol levels aren't always best. For bad (LDL) cholesterol, yes, this is the case, as an elevated level can cause plaque build-up on the walls of arteries and other blood vessels. But, insofar as good (HDL) cholesterol is concerned, no, this is not the case. That's because good cholesterol removes cholesterol from the blood and artery walls and to the liver, from where it can later be eliminated from the body.

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It sounds like an oxymoron -- saturated fat in the bloodstream being made worse by a low-fat diet. Does that not sound odd to you?

New research is supporting that conclusion, though -- and it was found that a low-carb diet was more conducive to lowering saturated fat levels in blood compared to a low-fat diet.

The researchers, who seemed to be very surprised by what they found, said that "A very low carbohydrate diet resulted in profound alterations in fatty acid composition and reduced inflammation compared to a low fat diet."

that's in direct contrast to earlier thinking, which has found that lower fat levels contribute to lower inflammation levels. Not in this research, though.

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We all have our dieting vices, and since one of the worst things you can do is deprive yourself completely (inevitably leads to binging later!) learning to indulge responsibly is key. Red meat is high in cholesterol and saturated fat, but like anything some types are worse than others. If red meat is something you find yourself craving in now and then do you know what the leanest and healthiest options are?

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A self-confessed cheese fiend, this post from Eat Right, Now! got me thinking -- in it, the author calls cheese liquid meat. And I supposed it is, in a way. Although you're not actually chewing on muscle and skin when you eat cheese, you can't ignore the fact that regular cheese has just as much calories and fat as a slab of meat, if not more. It's also very high in saturated fat.

Still, if cheese if your passion, I think it can be a part of a healthy diet, as long as you control the urge to eat pounds and pounds of cheese in one sitting. A snack of cheese should be a couple of slices of partly-skimmed cheese. And, when you make pizza, it should have just a sprinkling of cheese on the top, instead of a thick layer. Same goes for nachos and sandwiches.

How do you control the cheese cravings?

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When it comes to diet, I subscribe to the principle "everything in moderation." But when you're trying to lose weight, there's no way around the fact that some foods just add too much fat and too many calories to your meal to make them worth it. Better to use them sparing or to substitute them with something healthier.

So how to rehab a recipe? According to WebMD, you should consider how important the ingredient really is. If it's crucial for flavor, leave it in, but experiment with using less. Or you can try to cut fat and calories from other, less important ingredients. And if the item is really not a cornerstone flavor of the dish, play around with other foods to find a suitable substitute.

Here are WebMD's 13 scariest ingredients in homemade meals:

• mayonnaise
• bacon grease
• heavy whipping cream (liquid)
• puff pastry
• cheese
• light whipping cream
• cooked sausage
• bacon
• butter
• sour cream
• cheddar cheese
• pie crust
• half and half

Want to see what makes these 13 foods so scary? Check out our gallery to learn more.

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It's a well known fact that all fats aren't created equal. Trans fat? The worst fat you can possibly consume. Monosaturated fats? They're as good as it gets. Saturated fat? Most are quick to think this kind of fat is evil, but Men's Health thinks this answer might be too hasty -- maybe saturated fat isn't the devil we make it out to be?

Consider these pros of saturated fats:

• People on the Atkin's diet are healthier than most and they consume a lot of saturated fat.
• All saturated fats raise HDL (good) Cholesterol, while only some raise LDL (bad) cholesterol
• Since the 1970s, American men have decreased the amount of saturated fats they consume significantly. Yet rates of heart disease and obesity have soared, despite claims that saturated fat is the cause of these problems.

For more interesting facts on saturated fat, read the full article.

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We all know that deep-fried foods are bad for us, but there are always those moments when you just can't help yourself. So Japanese scientists have been working on a way to make fried fish lower in fat but still crispy, and the trick they came up with is to make the pores in the fried batter bigger. Bigger pores trap less oil.

Makes perfect sense! But I can't help but wonder how long it took them to figure that out, and how much money was spent on the research? Priorities people, priorities!

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Bacon is a breakfast staple across North America and some other countries too. I know it was for my family; growing up, Sunday mornings were always accompanied by the smells of coffee and bacon, made just how I like it -- crispy. Now that I'm on my own, I rarely have bacon, if only for the fact that I am too lazy to cook it on a Sunday morning (what a mess!) But I still like the occasional slice when I'm eating breakfast elsewhere.

Fitsugar recently asked the question Is Bacon Really That Bad For Me? And the answer was a resounding YES. Even if you overlook the fact that bacon has more sodium and saturated fat than is good for you, you can't ignore the nitrates -- those chemical additives that are carcinogenic when cooked at high heat.

So unless you can find nitrate-free bacon, skip the salty goodness and start your day off with a healthy, non-cancer-causing dish.

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There's a common misconception that fat is the source of all nutritional woes. eDiets has set the record straight by asserting that fat does not instantly become converted to fat, nor does it automatically coat the inside of your arteries. Fat even has important nutrients, like Omega-3s, so it's important to incorporate some healthy fats, like olive oil, into your diet.

This isn't a green light to go fat-crazy and consume all the fatty foods you can find, however. Some fats -- trans fats and saturated fats -- should never be consumed, and the healthy fats should be consumed in moderation, because they're still high in calories.

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