Is Saturated Fat Good for You Now? Why Everything You Knew Just Changed

In the 1980s and 1990s, “low-fat” everything dominated store shelves. By 1992, the food pyramid cemented fat’s status as Public Health Enemy Number One and brought a decades-old recommendation limited to people at risk of heart disease into the mainstream. The tide started to turn when studies emerged showing that some fats, like those from nuts and avocados, could have health benefits. Updated dietary guidelines reflected the fundings, recommending that Americans eat more monounsaturated (MUFA) and polyunsaturated (PUFA) fats.

But saturated fat retained its bad-guy status as a potential driver of heart disease. The 1995 guidelines set a limit of less than 10% of daily calories from saturated fat, a recommendation that remained even as the 2025-2030 guidelines flipped the food pyramid to place saturated fat sources like red meat and dairy on top.

Not everyone agrees that saturated fat should be denounced. Recent evidence showing potential benefits from eating certain types of saturated fat is leading some to call the decades-old dietary limit into question.

So who’s right? Is saturated fat really good for you? Or should you still be careful about how much of it you eat?

Why is saturated fat good for you?

First off, it would help to understand what saturated fat actually is. At a molecular level, saturated fats are made up of carbon atoms linked by single bonds into chains of different lengths. Each carbon is bonded to two hydrogen atoms, which “saturates” the molecule with hydrogen. This structure makes saturated fats more rigid than unsaturated fats. (That’s why butter is solid at room temperature but olive oil isn’t.)

Saturated fat plays a role in synthesizing cholesterol, which your body uses to make hormones like estrogen and testosterone and to synthesize vitamin D. That means you need some saturated fat for your body to function the right way. Exactly how much is still up for debate.

Saturated fat is good: The legacy of Weston A. Price

Many popular defenses of saturated fat draw on the work of Weston A. Price. Price was a dentist from Cleveland who traveled the world in the 1930s, observing indigenous people and their diets. He concluded that cultures with diets high in animal-based foods, particularly animal fats like saturated fat, were the healthiest because they showed the least signs of dental decay, had the best dental structure and appeared resistant to many of the diseases that plagued the West.

In 1995, Sally Fallon Morell published Nourishing Traditions, a cookbook that espoused many of Price’s dietary recommendations. Four years later, she founded the Weston A. Price Foundation to continue promoting Price’s work. The Foundation’s website lays out 11 principles for healthy eating and living, which include eating full-fat animal foods and other sources of saturated fat.

Reducing saturated fat may not help heart health

Some research appears to support the idea that saturated fat could be good for you. A 2023 study published in Frontiers in Physiology showed that higher saturated fat intake was associated with less abdominal obesity, lower triglycerides and a lower risk of developing atherosclerosis. It also showed that saturated fat from dairy products may reduce markers of inflammation. Another analysis saw a slight reduction in stroke risk among people who increased their saturated fat intake.

Analyses of other evidence suggest that saturated fat may not have much impact on cardiovascular health if you’re not at high risk for heart disease. In some cases, reducing saturated fat didn’t significantly reduce cardiovascular disease, and a look at evidence that didn’t hit the mainstream during the low-fat era points failed to show a connection between saturated fat and poor heart health.

While this research doesn’t establish saturated fat as a health food, it does call into question the blanket recommendation to limit or avoid all sources of saturated fat.

Why is saturated fat bad for you?

The recommendation to eat less saturated fat dates back to 1965, when the American Heart Association first began advising Americans to eat less saturated fat and more polyunsaturated fat. Even as recently as the 2020-2025 guidelines, the Dietary Guidelines Committee pointed to a body of evidence showing cardiovascular benefits from reducing at least some sources of saturated fat, such as red meat and butter, and replacing them with either PUFAs or plant-based sources of protein.

Cutting back on saturated fat is likely still a good idea if you’re trying to lower your cholesterol or you’re at risk for cardiovascular disease. Research suggests that:

• Replacing saturated fat with PUFAs or carbohydrates may lower total cholesterol and reduce your risk of a cardiovascular event like a heart attack.
• Reducing overall saturated fat intake may lower total and LDL cholesterol, support healthy bodyweight and support blood sugar balance.
• Increasing your intake of PUFAs could lower your risk for heart disease mortality if you’ve never had a heart attack.
• Swapping saturated fat from red meat for PUFAs or carbohydrates may decrease the risk of developing heart disease by up to one-third.
• Following a Mediterranean diet pattern low in saturated fat and high in MUFA may protect the lining of your blood vessels and reduce your risk of developing atherosclerosis.

Saturated fat and health: Consider the source

Conflicting study results may be explained by emerging evidence that different types of saturated fat have different health effects. For example, red meat and butter may increase your risk of heart disease, while yogurt and fish may reduce it.

Chemistry could hold the key to this mystery. Remember how saturated fats are made up of carbon chains? Saturated fats with more carbons, known as long-chain saturated fats, appear to be associated with a higher risk of heart disease. Short- and medium-chain saturated fats, on the other hand, may be beneficial or have no effect. The longest chains, known as very-long-chain saturated fats, may also be protective.

How much saturated fat should you eat?

So where does this leave the saturated fat debate? Research still suggests that keeping your intake low and replacing saturated fat sources like red meat with unsaturated fats may lower your risk for heart disease or cardiovascular events like heart attacks. But it doesn’t appear to support the idea that all fat, even all saturated fat, is a dietary enemy.

The updated dietary guidelines provide some straightforward advice for making food choices that include healthy fats while avoiding foods known for their negative effects: Focus on whole, nutrient-dense choices while reducing or eliminating ultra-processed foods and added sugars. Following this type of dietary pattern keeps saturated fat in balance and gives you a wide range of other nutrients known to support health. Plus, it tastes a lot better than those “low-fat” snack foods of the ’90s!