Unsaturated fats, found in foods like olive oil, nuts, seeds, and fatty fish, are the fats that benefit your health. They improve cholesterol levels, reduce inflammation, and support heart and brain function. The World Health Organization recommends keeping total fat intake at or below 30% of your daily calories, with no more than 10% from saturated fat. That leaves plenty of room for the fats that actually do your body good.
Monounsaturated Fats
Monounsaturated fats are the workhorses of a heart-healthy diet. They help lower LDL (bad) cholesterol while preserving HDL (good) cholesterol. Your body also clears blood fats more efficiently when you eat monounsaturated fats compared to saturated ones, because the fat particles formed during digestion are larger and easier for your system to process.
The richest everyday sources include olive oil, avocados, and most nuts. A single teaspoon of olive oil contains 3.3 grams of monounsaturated fat. One ounce of oil-roasted peanuts packs 7.4 grams. Almonds, cashews, and hazelnuts are also excellent sources, as are sesame seeds at about 5 grams of monounsaturated fat per ounce.
Polyunsaturated Fats
Polyunsaturated fats include two types your body cannot make on its own: omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. You have to get both from food, which is why they’re called essential fatty acids.
Omega-3s are especially valuable. The long-chain omega-3s found in fatty fish (salmon, sardines, anchovies, tuna) shift your LDL cholesterol toward larger, more buoyant particles that are less likely to damage artery walls. They also reduce blood triglycerides. Plant-based omega-3s, called ALA, come from walnuts, flaxseed, chia seeds, and soybean products. Your body converts ALA into the active forms, though not very efficiently, which is why eating fish directly provides a bigger benefit.
Omega-6 fats are found in sunflower seeds, corn oil, safflower oil, and soybean oil. They’re essential too, but most people get far more omega-6 than omega-3. The two compete for the same pathways in your body: omega-3s trigger anti-inflammatory signals, while excess omega-6 tips the balance toward inflammation. Research suggests a ratio of about 5:1 (omega-6 to omega-3) supports optimal health, but typical Western diets run much higher than that. The fix isn’t necessarily eating less omega-6. It’s eating more omega-3.
For sheer polyunsaturated content, walnuts are hard to beat at 12.4 grams per ounce. Sunflower seeds deliver 9.3 grams, and sesame seeds provide 6 grams per ounce.
The Best Food Sources at a Glance
- Nuts and seeds: Walnuts, peanuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, flaxseed, chia seeds, sesame seeds, and hemp seeds. These are among the most concentrated sources of healthy fat in any diet.
- Oils: Extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, canola oil, flaxseed oil, and walnut oil. Even a teaspoon adds meaningful amounts of unsaturated fat to a meal.
- Fatty fish: Salmon, sardines, anchovies, and tuna provide the long-chain omega-3s your body uses most readily.
- Whole foods: Avocados, olives, edamame, tofu, and eggs. A single hard-boiled egg contains 2 grams of monounsaturated fat and 0.7 grams of polyunsaturated fat.
Fats to Limit or Avoid
Saturated fat, found primarily in red meat, butter, cheese, and coconut oil, raises total and LDL cholesterol. Coconut oil is sometimes marketed as healthy, but a tablespoon contains just 0.9 grams of monounsaturated fat and 0.2 grams of polyunsaturated fat. The vast majority of its fat is saturated. Keeping saturated fat below 10% of your daily calories is a widely accepted guideline.
Artificial trans fats are the most harmful dietary fat. They were once common in margarine, baked goods, and fried foods because partially hydrogenated oils extended shelf life. The FDA determined in 2015 that these oils are not safe for consumption and banned manufacturers from adding them to foods, with a final compliance deadline of January 2021. Trace amounts of naturally occurring trans fat exist in some meat and dairy, but the industrial versions that once dominated packaged food are largely gone from the supply.
Cooking With Healthy Oils
Every oil has a smoke point, the temperature at which it starts to break down and produce off-flavors. For everyday cooking, you want an oil that can handle moderate to high heat without degrading.
Refined avocado oil has the highest smoke point of the common healthy oils at around 520°F (271°C), making it ideal for searing and high-heat roasting. Extra virgin olive oil handles most cooking just fine at 374 to 405°F (190 to 207°C), depending on quality. Higher-quality, lower-acidity olive oil tolerates more heat. Canola oil falls in the middle at roughly 400 to 450°F (204 to 232°C).
For salad dressings, dips, and drizzling over finished dishes, unrefined oils like walnut oil or flaxseed oil preserve more of their omega-3 content when they’re not heated at all.
How Much Fat You Actually Need
Fat is calorie-dense at 9 calories per gram, more than double the 4 calories in a gram of protein or carbohydrate. That density is exactly why a little goes a long way. On a 2,000-calorie diet, 30% of calories from fat works out to about 67 grams of total fat per day. If you keep saturated fat under 10%, that’s no more than 22 grams from saturated sources, leaving at least 45 grams for unsaturated fats.
Hitting that target is straightforward when your fat sources are varied. An ounce of walnuts, a teaspoon of olive oil for cooking, half an avocado, and a serving of salmon in the same day would deliver a strong mix of both monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, with a healthy dose of omega-3s. You don’t need to track grams precisely. The practical rule is simpler: replace solid fats (butter, lard, the fat in processed food) with liquid oils and whole-food fat sources whenever you can.