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Eating food that contains saturated fats raises the level of cholesterol in your blood which increases your risk of heart disease and total cholesterol levels in the body. They are often referred to as "bad fats" and are not essential for good health.

Saturated fat is a type of fat that is solid at room temperature. It is most often found in animal products but can be found in some plant sources.

Animal sources of saturated fat include dairy foods such as butter, cheese, and cream. Meat also has saturated fat such as beef, pork and processed meats like sausages and bacon, and fatty cuts of meat.

While plant sources of saturated fat are palm oil, cooking margarine, coconut oil, and milk. They are also commonly found in many manufactured and processed food such as cakes, biscuits, fatty snack foods, and pastries.

Saturated fats are one of the main causes of high blood cholesterol levels. The Heart Foundation has found out that increasing amount of saturated fats in your diet will lead to a rise in the level of bad cholesterol in your blood thus decreasing the level of good cholesterol.

This can cause fatty deposits to build up in your arteries causing them to narrow and this increases the risk of blockages. When this happen around the heart, it can cause a heart attack. While if the blockages occur in the brain it can cause a stroke.

Humans are advised to eat less fat, especially saturated fat. World Health Organization recommends that the average man should eat not more than 30g of saturated fat a day. While an average woman should eat not more than 20g of saturated fat a day.

Therefore it is important to select unprocessed meats and always cut the visible fat from meat and poultry. People should choose foods that contain the lowest in saturated fat because it will help to decrease the risk of having high cholesterol levels and heart disease.