Oils and herbs

FATS
Fats can be divided into soft, or unsaturated, and hard, or saturated fats. Hard fats also include trans fats, which should be avoided in the diet like saturated fats.
Essential fatty acids for humans are
- linoleic acid, or omega-6 fatty acid, and
- alpha-linolenic acid, or omega-3 fatty acid.

Nutrition and food recommendations suggest that fat should account for 25–40% of daily energy. The increase in fat intake should come from soft fat, and the recommended intake of monounsaturated fatty acids is 10–20% of energy. The share of saturated fatty acids in energy should not exceed 10%.

SOFT fat
Soft fat consists of fatty acids with double bonds between their carbon atoms, i.e. unsaturated bonds. According to nutritional recommendations, the diet should contain 25–40% of energy from fat, and two-thirds of this should be soft fat.

Sources of soft fat include:
- vegetable oils, such as rapeseed, olive, soybean, sunflower and linseed oils
- margarines and vegetable fat spreads
- fish
- nuts, almonds and seeds

HARD fat
Hard fat consists of fatty acids with simple, or saturated, bonds between carbon atoms.
Sources of hard fat include:
- butter, butter-vegetable fat mixtures
- hard baking and commercial margarines
- especially fatty red meat, sausages and cold cuts
- full-fat milks, creams and cheeses
- fatty sweet and savoury pastries (e.g. pizzas and pies)
- coconut fat, palm oil and palm kernel oil.

Hard fat increases the bad LDL cholesterol level in the blood, which is one of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Hard fat, when it replaces soft fat in the diet, is also linked to other risk factors for chronic diseases, such as low-grade inflammation and sugar metabolism disorders.

Trans fatty acids are produced during industrial processing and in the rumen of ruminants. Trans fatty acids are mainly comparable in their health effects to hard fat.
Sources of trans fat include:
- full-fat dairy products
- butter and fats rich in butter
- baked goods containing butter-based fats
- meat products.
Approximately 80% of the trans fats in the Finnish diet come from animal products. When you avoid foods rich in saturated fat, you also avoid trans fats.