Of all the nutrients, fat is most often implicated as a contributing factor to various diseases, such as diabetes, cancer, hypertension, and atherosclerosis. One of the most important changes you could make to your diet is to limit your intake of total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol. It is recommended that your total fat intake should not exceed 20-25 percent. Saturated and hydrogenated fats should contribute less than 10 percent of the day's total energy intake.

Animal fats found in meat and dairy products for the most part have high proportions of saturated fats. Fruit and vegetable fats, however, provide a higher proportion of polyunsaturated fats, with the exception of palm kernel, coconut, and palm oils, these are high in saturated fat. Almost everyone knows that butters, creams, and oils are high in fat, but many people are surprised to discover that some fruits and vegetables, and all nuts, are high in fat. Fruits and vegetables high in fat include avocados and olives, which are almost pure fat, as are nuts. However, these foods are rich in the good kind of fats – those that may improve cardiovascular health and decreased risk of heart disease

Anything fried such as French fries, fried wontons, fried fish, contain an abundance of fat – mostly saturated fat. In addition, many baked goods are high in fat: pie crusts, pastries, muffins, doughnuts, Danish sweet rolls, cookies, and cakes. As a general rule, anyone wanting to reduce the saturated fat in their diet, could accomplish this by selecting fish, poultry without skin, turkey, ostrich, and extra lean varieties of beef and pork; and by choosing fruits, cereals, and legumes; and limiting oils, egg yolks, and fried foods. Those of you who use milk, eggs, and cheese could shift to low / non-fat varieties, while limiting butter and margarine.