After years of having low-fat and no-fat foods pushed at us, it's no wonder that some people are a bit confused over the concept of a healthy fat. The American Heart Association has a fun way to clear up the confusion; meet the Better Fats Sisters:

• Mon. Short for monounsaturated fat, Mon is found in fish, seeds, nuts, avocado, and vegetable oils. Mon offers some heart health benefits but, as all fats are high in calories, it's important to practice moderation.
  
• Poly. Short for polyunsaturated fat, Poly is a heart helper like her sister; she can help lower your bad cholesterol.
  
  

Nutrition labels usually only list total fat grams, saturated fat and trans fat. To estimate how much monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats are in a product, just subtract the saturated and trans fat from the total fat. Want more of the skinny on fats? Check out AOL Health.

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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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Each week, we'll be naming a Super Food and offering unique ways to use those Super Foods that pack nutritional power. After all, you are what you eat -- make it count!

From an early age, we're told that fat is bad for us. We count it, avoid it, cut it from our recipes and diets. We stay away from things that are deep-fried or covered in cream, just in an effort to lower our fat consumption. We're drawn to flashy labels that say 'low fat!' and 'fat free!' And why? We're told it's the enemy, causing a myriad of problems like heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

But if you've been reading That's Fit for a while, you know it's not the enemy at all. In fact, it's an essential part of your diet.

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It appears that it may take as little as eating one meal that is high in saturated fat for it to have an affect on your arteries and good (HDL) cholesterol levels. Additionally, it can happen in a matter of hours.

In a two-year-old study, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology , 14 adults were given a piece of carrot cake and a milkshake that had been switched with one that contained either saturated (bad) or polyunsaturated (good) fat. While this may seem like some bizarre set-up for a Folgers commercial, it actually returned some interesting results with respect to how fast and how dramatically these fats can affect your health.

As it turns out, in merely three hours, participants that consumed the shake containing saturated fat had significantly narrowed large blood vessels. Three hours after that, the benefits of good (HDL) cholesterol showed a marked decrease in these same individuals. Those individuals who consumed the polyunsaturated (good) fat did not exhibit any signs of such physical detriment.

Today's Monday. Make that Meatless Monday. Yes, Monday is the day reserved for helping you move one step closer to a healthier lifestyle.

Starting off your week by going meatless can be an effortless way to skim saturated fat out of your diet, says Richard Bodge, executive director of the Meatless Monday campaign. Limiting your saturated fats -- present in most diets via meat and high-fat dairy -- can prevent heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer.

Not sure what to put on your table each Monday? Visit meatlessmonday.com for recipes and cooking tips.

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We all know by now that there are just some foods you should stay away from. Trans fats, for instance. And high fructose corn syrup too. But those are in lots of things -- what specific foods should you stay away from? eDiets recently put together a list of the foods you should always avoid:

1. Cheeseburger and Fries. Fatty meat topped with fatty processed cheese, in between white bread with a side of fatty deep-fried starch. Yikes.
   
2. Doughnuts. Deep-fried dough and sugar -- it's tasty, but not very nutritious.
   
3. Fried Chicken, chicken fingers and chicken nuggets. Chicken is good for you, but not when it's processed, battered and deep fried.
   
4. Packaged lunches. You know, those ones for kids. Convenient, but ... ick!
5. Sugary cereal. Start your day off with a whole bunch of energy-draining sugar? No thanks.
   
6. Processed Meats. You never know what goes into those meats -- and you don't want to.
   
7. Canned soup. It's got wayyyyy to much sodium.
   

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I picked up a copy of Curves' diane magazine while waiting to get my mammogram last Thursday. To pass the time before having my own curves examined, I read this enlightening bit about how having kids makes us fat.

It seems having kids predisposes moms and dads to gain weight. One study reveals that adults living with kids eat 4.9 more grams of fat daily. And 1.7 of those grams are saturated. Yikes. Hey, no one ever said having kids was easy.

Apparently, it's all the kiddie convenience foods -- pizza, burgers, chips, and whole milk -- that cause the damage. Have no fear, though, say nutrition experts. Just cut out the fatty snacks, skip the beef and take up turkey burgers, and trade whole milk for the low-fat variety and you'll be on your way to trimming that waistline. Oh, and don't forget to work in some exercise, a task that often slips off the radar once kids come barreling into our lives.

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The food sleuths at Good Housekeeping reveal in their October 2007 issue three food items that may appear healthy at first glance but in reality, are really not so good for us.

You might think Sun-Maid's Vanilla Yogurt Raisins are a health food. The raisins are OK. The yogurt is OK. But the white coating mostly consists of sugar and partially hydrogenated palm-kernel oil. A one-ounce box containing about 35 raisins has 120 calories and a pretty hefty dose of saturated fat -- 20 percent of the recommended daily limit, to be exact.

How about some Calbee Snapea Crisps? They're just baked peas. But they're also full of fat. One ounce -- about 22 chips -- packs 150 calories which is the same as regular potato chips. Eat the entire bag and you'll consume 500 calories.

Now get this. There's a lemon lime spritzer out there, made my R.W. Knudsen, that surprisingly contains 170 calories per can. For a seltzer? Yep. It's sweetened with fruit juice concentrates and even has more sugar and 30 more calories than a can of Coca-Cola Classic.

This news certainly inspires me to double check the labels on seemingly healthy food items. It hope it does you too.

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Want to model some of the best eating habits in the world? Then consider adopting a Mediterranean diet. People from this region of the world have low cholesterol, few incidences of coronary heart disease and cancer, and much longer lives than those who eat the typical American diet. Amazingly, their diet is significantly higher in fat than what the American Heart Association recommends. How do they do it?

Well, they eat loads of plant foods rich in antioxidants. Think colorful fruits and vegetables. Seafood, abundant with heart-healthy nutrients, is also a staple in their diet. Most important: Their diet is free of the two bad fats we tend to consume without a second thought -- saturated fats and trans fats, the ones that stick to our arteries like glue. Try extra virgin olive oil and grapeseed oils to trim your intake of these fats.

It seems the Mediterraneans have the right idea. We should be so wise to follow their lead.

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I hate news like this, I really do. I'm doing my best, along with everybody else, to live a better healthier life and avoid as many processed and saturated fats as I can. That's good, right? Well now experts are saying it's not good enough.

Even one meal high in unhealthy fats can get in the way of how well the good cholesterol works in your body and it can inhibit your blood vessels from expanding the way they're supposed to during periods of physical activity. Ideally you should avoid saturated fats altogether, but considering they're found everywhere limiting them to just 10% of your total daily calories is a good rule of thumb.

And FYI, softserve ice cream is apparently one of the worst offenders. (Damn!)

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A few years ago, low-fat and no-fat foods were all the rage. Many of us were convinced that the secret to losing weight was not eating fat. Most now know that fat is actually an essential part of a healthy diet, in part because it helps keeps you full and prevents you from overeating. That means that some fat can actually help you lose weight. While there are types of fat that you should avoid, there are others that play an important part of healthy eating.

It is important to stay away from trans-fats and to limit saturated fats as they can increase your levels of LDL, the bad cholesterol that leads to heart disease. However, monounsaturated fats (found in stuff like olive oil, avocados, almonds, Brazil nuts and sesame seeds) are great because they do the opposite -- they reduce cholesterol levels and can lower your risk of heart disease.

Essential fatty acids -- including Omega-3 fatty acids, which are in foods such as nuts, salmon, fish oils, flaxseed and more -- are necessary as your body doesn't naturally produce them, but they're required in order for your cells to rebuild and reproduce. So the next time you're label-reading, remember that not all fats are created the same, and know what to avoid as well as what to search out.

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Fat is an essential part of a diet, but it's also a dieter's worst nightmare. Want to know the facts about fat? Here are 5 things that Fitsugar thinks you should know:

• There are 9 calories in a gram of fat, compared to 4 calories in protein and carbs. So fat has more than double the calories of protein
• It's recommended that between 20% and 35% of your calories is from fat. So, in a 2000-calorie diet, that's 44-77 g a day
• However, saturated fats should only account for 10% of your calories a day.
• A pound of body fat burns 2 calories a day, and a pound of muscle burns 50. That's why strength training is so important in weight loss!
• Fats are an important part of your body, and are essential to many bodily functions.
  

Check out the original article for more handy information on fats.

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Are we really eating healthier than we were before? More than 1,200 new reduced-fat or trans-fat-free products were introduced last year, so like many others, you probably think you are. But the truth is that many manufacturers are replacing one evil (trans fat) with another evil (saturated fat). While saturated fats are less harmful, it seems that the newly formulated formulas may have slightly more saturated fat then they did before. And, to simply put it ... well, more fat is more fattening!

What to watch out for: Tropical oils, such as coconut, palm kernel, and palm oil.

Healthier alternatives would be: Soybean oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, ultra-low-linolenic soybean oil, or high-oleic canola oil.

That being said, Whole Foods Market gives a different point of view and defends the use of tropical oils.

Of course, the best approach would be to limit any packaged and processed foods. Instead, load up on 'whole' foods such as fruits, vegetables, grains, and lean proteins.

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At this point most food companies (the smart ones anyway) are avoiding trans fats like the plague, and the latest fad in product labeling has become the catch phrase "Trans Fat Free." Thank goodness for truth in advertising! Well, sort of -- you still have to be careful. Although it is great that trans fats are being eliminated from the American diet, you have to wonder: what's filling the gap?

Saturated fat, that's what. It's been around forever, and now it's making a sneaky comeback. Of course not all foods that say "trans fat free" are full of saturated fat instead, but fair warning that many of them are. Eating healthy is about the whole package, and understanding well-rounded good nutrition is becoming more and more important everyday.

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Not a sweet tooth, but a fat tooth -- do you have one or the other? I, unfortunately, have both! They seem to take turns coming out, though, as sometimes I crave sugary sweets and other times all I want is a big greasy hamburger with lots of cheese.

Scientists have found that the "fat tooth" is really an area of the tongue genetically designed specifically for recognizing fats. It seems that craving fatty foods may be a combination of both learned behavior and biological necessity -- it's well known that many good fats are necessary for a healthy system, but craving a mega-sized carton of French fries is not what your body had in mind. If you can find the right balance, probably through recipes that focus on healthy fats and not totally depriving yourself to the extreme, your "fat tooth" might be less active, and then the cravings will be easier to resist.

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