Fat in foods is bad right? Well not always. A few years ago the battle was between saturated and unsaturated fats, now the drum beats loudest against trans-fats, but what's what and how do you know the difference? It's easy:
Unsaturated fats are fats that are liquid at room temperature - for example olive oil is an unsaturated fat.
Saturated fats are fats that are solid at room temperature - butter is a saturated fat.
Trans-fats are unsaturated fats that have been chemically changed so that they are solid at room temperature - shortening, for example, is a trans-fat. The trans-fat you hear a lot of ire towards is partially-hydrogenated soy-bean oil - if an ingredient list of a packaged food includes this trans-fat, it means that regular vegetable oil was chemically changed to a solid before being added so that the product would have a longer shelf life. Trans-fats are a little tricky. Margarine is an unsaturated fat - because it is made with vegetable oils, but it is solid, so it is a trans-fat.
We don't have to run scared from all fats. Our bodies need some fat. I think it helps to know how they work so that you know when you can use a healthier fat (like olive oil) in place of a less healthy fat. Sometimes only butter will do to achieve the results you want. Different fats melt at different temperatures and speeds. Shortening makes for a tender cookie, but butter adds taste. Mixing the two can give you both postive attributes. When frying using different kinds of fats can affect cooking speed because some fats can get hotter than others without burning.
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