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What are the differences between saturated and unsaturated fats?

Confused about fats? Renee McGregor explains all you need to know about saturated and unsaturated fats and how they differ

Renee McGregor
Credit :Getty Images

The NHS defines saturated fats as ‘those found in many foods, both sweet and savoury. Most of them come from animal sources, including meat and dairy products, as well as some plant foods, like palm oil and coconut oil.’ There’s good evidence that replacing saturated fats with some unsaturated fats can help to lower cholesterol.

Found primarily in oils from plants and fish, unsaturated fats can either be polyunsaturated (sources include oily fish, vegetable oils and walnuts) or monounsaturated (as found in olive and sunflower oil, avocados, and most other nuts).

Saturated fats have been a pretty controversial topic in recent years, with many high profile medics now dismissing the previous work associating a high saturated fat diet with higher risks of cardiovascular disease.

Nutritional guidelines still recommend that saturated fats are kept to a minimum and should be replaced with unsaturated fats, whole grains and pulses in order to reduce the risk of heart disease.

The exception to the rule is dairy such as cheese, milk and yoghurt; while these contain saturated fatty acids, there’s good evidence to suggest that these particular fatty acids are actually protective towards heart health.

Butter versus olive oil: which is best?

Butter is the fatty component of milk, and is 80% fat, 20% water. It’s one of the most complex structures of all dietary fats as it contains more than 400 different fatty acids, including butyric acid, which recent studies have shown plays several beneficial roles in the gastrointestinal tract

Olive oil is the oil extracted from the fruit of the olive tree. The predominant fatty acid is oleic acid, which constitutes 73% of total fat content. Oleic acid is a monounsaturated fatty acid and has been closely linked
to reducing inflammation in the peripheral tissue.

Verdict: While both have a place in the diet, olive oil is the better choice in this instance due to the high saturated fat content of butter and potential risks link

Profile image of Renee McGregor Renee McGregor Sports dietician

About

Renee McGregor (BSc (hons) PGDIP (DIET) PGCERT(sportsnutr) RD BASES) is a leading sports dietitian, specialising in eating disorders, REDs, The Female Athlete, athlete health and performance. Her practice and knowledge is supported by extensive experience of working in both clinical and performance nutrition, including Olympic (London, 2012), Paralympic (Rio, 2016) and Commonwealth (Queensland, 2018) teams. She is presently working with a number of national governing bodies, including Scottish Gymnastics, The GB 24 hour Running squad, Scottish Ballet, Women’s Reading Football and England National Ballet. She has also provided CPD to The Welsh Institute of Sport and Sports Institute, Northern Ireland. On top of this Renee is the diet lead for global ultra-marathon events series Ultra X, part of the Stylist Strong Women series and an ambassador for Bath MIND Charity. She is regularly asked to work directly with high performing and professional athletes that have developed a dysfunctional relationship with food that's impacting their performance, health and career. No matter who she is working with, whether that’s elite, club-level athletes or those with a dysfunctional relationship with food and training, compassion and care is always central to her practice. She provides a person-centred, holistic approach. She's the best-selling author of Training Food, Fast Fuel books. and Orthorexia, When Healthy Eating Goes Bad. She is the co-founder and director of #TRAINBRAVE a campaign raising the awareness of eating disorders in sport; providing resources and practical strategies to reduce the prevalence. In 2020, in order to increase accessibility to her knowledge and experience she started The Trainbrave Podcast and had over 40,000 downloads in its first year. She is on the REDS advisory board for BASES (The British Association of Sport and Exercise Science) and sits on the International Task Force for Orthorexia. Renee has been invited to speak at several high profile events including The European Eating Disorder Society Annual Conference as the UK expert in Orthorexia, Cheltenham Literature Festival, Cheltenham Science Festival, The Stylist Show and Google. She writes for many national publications and is often asked to comment in the national press. She regularly contributes to radio and TV, including News night and BBC 5 Live. On top of this Renee recently appeared on BBC to support as a diet lead in Freddie Flintoff’s ‘Living with Bulimia’ documentary.