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00:00What's that?
00:08No, no, I think my steak will be fine without painting butter on it.
00:13Dear Tim and Moby,
00:15Is eating fat really bad for you?
00:18From Opie.
00:20Well, yes and no.
00:25Fat is actually an important part of a diet because it carries more energy than any other nutrient.
00:31Nutrients, including fats, are substances in food that your body uses for energy and proper cell function.
00:38All fats are made up of long chains of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon.
00:44When your body digests fats, it breaks them down into two substances, fatty acids and glycerol.
00:51Glycerol is used to make glucose, the main form of fuel in your body.
00:56Your body uses the energy from carbohydrates and fats to maintain body temperature, contract muscles, and to construct and repair tissues.
01:05And muscles use fatty acids as a source of energy.
01:10But too much of a good thing can be bad for you.
01:15Well, for one thing, eating too much fat gives your body more glucose than it really needs.
01:20And if you don't exercise enough, your body lets that glucose just sit there instead of burning it off through physical activity.
01:27When that happens, excess glucose in your blood gets converted into body fat.
01:32Well, food labels these days show not just fat content, but a breakdown of the different kinds of fat.
01:39Fat comes in two major types.
01:42Most animal products, including meat and dairy, have a lot of saturated fats in them.
01:47Too much saturated fat is bad because it contains lots of cholesterol.
01:52Cholesterol is a fatty acid found in the cell membranes of all animal tissue.
01:58It's really important. Your liver produces cholesterol every day to help your cells stay healthy.
02:04But when you eat saturated fats, cholesterol builds up in your bloodstream.
02:10It's kind of a waxy substance, and it sticks to the sides of your blood vessels.
02:16Cholesterol deposits called plaque form, restricting the flow of blood to your organs and increasing your blood pressure.
02:23That can cause heart attacks and strokes, among other problems.
02:28Vegetable oils contain more unsaturated fats, which are generally considered good.
02:34You can actually see the difference between saturated and unsaturated fats.
02:38Most saturated fats stay solid at room temperature, and unsaturated fats are usually liquids.
02:44Lately, some labels have been showing how much trans fat the food has.
02:49Trans fats are another type of fat that have especially high levels of cholesterol, so they're a good thing to avoid.
02:56If a label doesn't specifically mention trans fats, you can look in the ingredients.
03:01If there are any hydrogenated oils high up in the list of ingredients, you can bet that the food has a lot of trans fat in it.
03:10Well, even though fat is an important part of the diet, it's not like vitamins, where you have to make sure you get enough every day.
03:17Fat makes food taste good, so it's not hard to find.
03:21For most people, cutting down your fat intake is probably a good idea.
03:31Uh, yeah, yeah, I'm proud of you, but the garbage can is over there.