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CHOLESTEROL SERIES · ARTICLE 6 OF 12
The saturated fat and trans fat problem
Foods to avoid and where it’s actually hiding.
The average South African eats about 30 – 40 grams of saturated fat a day. The Heart and Stroke Foundation recommends no more than 20 grams. We are eating roughly twice what the body was built to handle, and the LDL numbers show it.
The trick is that most of the saturated fat is not on the dinner plate where we expect it. Less than a quarter of what we eat comes from butter and obvious fat. The rest is built into food before it ever reaches us — into polony, into vetkoek, into takeaway chips, into baked goods, into full-fat dairy products. This article is about finding it, cutting it out, and understanding the swaps that make the biggest difference to your LDL.
The numbers in one place
20 grams of saturated fat a day — the Heart and Stroke Foundation target for adults.
10 grams a day — the tighter target for people with established heart disease, high cholesterol on treatment, or familial hypercholesterolaemia.
0 grams of trans fat a day — there is no safe amount of trans fat. South Africa has limited but not banned trans fats in food.
Cutting saturated fat in half and replacing it with unsaturated fat lowers LDL by an average of 10 – 15%.
Saturated fat vs unsaturated fat — quick refresher
All fats are made of fatty acid chains. Saturated fats have all their carbon atoms holding hands with hydrogen — they’re “saturated” with hydrogen. This makes them solid at room temperature (butter, lard, coconut oil). They raise LDL.
Unsaturated fats have at least one carbon-to-carbon double bond instead, which kinks the chain and keeps them liquid at room temperature (sunflower oil, olive oil, fish oil). They lower LDL when they replace saturated fat.
Trans fats are mostly artificial — unsaturated fats that have been chemically twisted into a saturated-like shape to make them solid (some margarines, some processed baked goods, vegetable shortening). They are by far the worst — raising LDL and lowering HDL at the same time.
Where the saturated fat actually lives
In rough order of how much it contributes to the average South African’s saturated fat intake:
1. Fatty cuts of red meat — boerewors, beef mince, lamb chops, T-bones
Lean cuts of beef and lamb are fine in moderation. The high-fat cuts — boerewors (often 25% fat), regular mince (15 – 20%), the visible fat on chops, the marbling in a T-bone — are the major contributors to South African saturated fat intake.
What to do: Choose lean mince (under 10% fat) when available. Trim visible fat off chops before cooking. Have boerewors as an occasional treat, not weekly. Eat less red meat overall — aim for two red-meat meals a week, with chicken, fish or beans filling the rest.
2. Processed meats — polony, viennas, ham, bacon, biltong, droëwors
Most contain 20 – 30% fat by weight, and almost all of it is saturated. Polony is roughly 25% fat. Bacon is 35 – 40%. Biltong and droëwors are 15 – 25% fat. Worse, processed meats are also high in salt and contain compounds that independently raise heart disease risk beyond the cholesterol effect.
What to do: Treat processed meats as a “once a week” food at most. Swap sandwich fillings to tinned pilchards, leftover chicken, peanut butter, mashed egg, or avocado. Save the biltong for hikes and braais.
3. Full-fat dairy — butter, cream, full-cream milk, hard cheese
Butter is roughly 50% saturated fat. Hard cheese (cheddar, mozzarella, gouda) is around 20 – 25% saturated fat. Cream is 35%. Full-cream milk has 1 g of saturated fat per 100 ml.
What to do: Switch to low-fat or 2% milk. Use a small amount of strong cheese rather than a lot of mild cheese. Replace cream with low-fat amasi or plain yogurt in cooking. Use sunflower or olive oil instead of butter for bread or cooking.
4. Coconut oil and palm oil
Both are plant-based but unusually high in saturated fat (coconut oil is 90% saturated; palm oil is 50%). Coconut oil has been heavily marketed as a “health food”; the cholesterol research does not support this. It raises LDL just like butter does.
Palm oil is the hidden one. It is used in many South African processed foods because it is cheap and stable — baked goods, instant noodles, biscuits, ice cream, ready-meal sauces, and most cheap margarines. Read the label; if it lists “vegetable oil” or “palm oil”, assume it’s saturated.
What to do: Use sunflower oil, canola oil, or olive oil for cooking. Don’t use coconut oil as a “healthy” cooking oil. Choose products labelled “palm oil free” where available.
5. Fried takeaways — chips, fried chicken, vetkoek, samoosas
The frying oil is usually palm oil or a cheap blend high in saturated fat, and the cooking process adds large amounts of fat to whatever is being fried. A typical KFC two-piece meal contains 25 g of fat, much of it saturated. A vetkoek with mince has 15 – 25 g. A samoosa, depending on size, 5 – 10 g.
What to do: Eat fried takeaway as an occasional treat, not a weekly meal. When you do eat it, choose smaller portions and skip the sides of cheese sauces or fried add-ons. Grilled chicken with rice is much better than fried.
6. Pastries, biscuits, cake, doughnuts, pies
Most contain a combination of butter, cream, palm oil, and sometimes trans fats from older recipes. A single iced cupcake or doughnut is 6 – 10 g of saturated fat — half a day’s allowance.
What to do: Treat these as occasional special-occasion foods. If you bake at home, use sunflower oil instead of butter (works in most cake recipes), unsweetened applesauce instead of some of the fat, and choose recipes that lean on fruit and oats.
7. Ready-meals, instant noodles, packet soups
The convenience products that South Africans eat more and more of. Hidden palm oil, hidden saturated fat, hidden trans fat. A serving of two-minute noodles with seasoning has 8 g of saturated fat. A frozen ready-meal pasta dish, 10 – 15 g.
What to do: Cook plain rice, pasta or samp and add your own sauce — even a quickly thrown-together tinned tomato sauce is healthier than the packet version.
8. Cheap margarines
Soft margarines in tubs vary widely. The cheapest tend to be high in palm oil and may still contain small amounts of trans fat. The more expensive tub margarines (Flora pro.activ, Rama Vita) are designed for cholesterol-lowering and contain plant sterols — these are genuinely useful.
What to do: Check the label for “trans fat 0 g” and for a saturated fat content under 15 g per 100 g. If you want a cholesterol-lowering margarine, the plant-sterol versions (Flora pro.activ, Rama Vita Heart) work and are worth the extra cost for high-risk patients.
9. Coffee creamers and condensed milk
Powdered coffee creamers are often palm oil. A teaspoon doesn’t matter; three teaspoons of creamer in five coffees a day adds up to 5 – 10 g of saturated fat.
What to do: Use a splash of low-fat milk instead. Skip the sugar and creamer combination — black coffee, plain tea, or rooibos with a splash of milk.
10. Ice cream and frozen desserts
Full-cream ice cream is around 12% saturated fat. A 200 g portion delivers about 12 g of saturated fat — more than half a daily allowance. Cheaper “frozen dessert” products often use palm oil instead of dairy, which is no better.
What to do: Reduced-fat versions are reasonable; frozen yogurt is better; fruit is best. Once-a-week ice cream is fine — most days, choose something else for dessert.
The hidden-saturated-fat scorecard
A quick reference for South African foods, ranked by saturated fat per 100 g:
Food Saturated fat per 100 g Verdict Coconut oil \~90 g Very high Butter \~52 g Very high Palm oil \~50 g Very high Hard cheese (cheddar) \~22 g High Cream \~22 g High Bacon (raw) \~13 g Very high Boerewors \~10 – 14 g High Polony \~10 g High Pies and pastries \~8 – 14 g High Beef mince (regular, 20%) \~8 g Moderate-high Doughnuts and cake \~6 – 10 g Moderate-high Ice cream (full cream) \~7 g Moderate Whole milk (3.5%) \~2.3 g Moderate Chicken with skin \~3 g Moderate 2% milk \~1.2 g Lower Skim milk, low-fat amasi \~0.1 g Very low Sunflower oil (unsaturated) \~10 g Heart-healthy Olive oil (unsaturated) \~14 g Heart-healthy Avocado, nuts, oats, beans \< 3 g Very low
Reading a food label for fat
South African nutrition labels show four numbers for fat:
• Total fat — the sum.
• Saturated fat — the bad one. Look here first.
• Trans fat — should be 0 g. Avoid anything with above 0.5 g per 100 g.
• Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated — the good ones. The closer total fat is to mono+poly, the better.
The 100 g rule (from the BP article 6) applies here too: always look at the per-100 g column, not the per-serving column. Serving sizes are designed to make the per-serving number look small.
Saturated fat per 100 g Category Under 1.5 g Low 1.5 – 5 g Medium Above 5 g High
Five everyday swaps that cut saturated fat in half
Butter on toast (10 g) → Avocado on toast (1 g) Saves 9 g saturated fat per slice. Lower LDL, more potassium.
Polony and cheese sandwich → Pilchards and tomato sandwich Saves about 12 g saturated fat. Adds omega-3.
Regular mince (20% fat) in a stew → Lean mince (under 10%) with extra beans Saves 8 – 12 g saturated fat per meal.
KFC two-piece chicken meal → Grilled Nando’s chicken with rice Saves 8 – 12 g saturated fat. Less salt too.
Cream-and-cheese pasta sauce → Tinned tomato and onion sauce with olive oil Saves 15 – 20 g saturated fat per serving.
Trans fats — the worst kind
Trans fats raise LDL and lower HDL at the same time — the only kind of fat that does both. The food industry used them for decades because they extended shelf life cheaply. Most South African manufacturers have phased them out, but they still appear in some imported processed foods, some baked goods made with old recipes, and the cheapest fried takeaways.
How to spot them on a label:
• The word “trans fat” with a number above 0 g per 100 g.
• “Partially hydrogenated vegetable oil” in the ingredients list — this is the chemical name for the most common trans fat.
• “Hydrogenated” anything in the ingredients.
Avoid these products. Even small amounts of trans fat over years add up to measurable extra cardiovascular risk.
Things you don’t have to give up
Saturated fat is not the enemy at small doses. The body needs some. The problem is the 30 – 40 g a day overload. Once you are inside the 20 g daily limit, you can absolutely:
Have an occasional boerewors at a braai. Eat a slice of cheese on a sandwich. Enjoy a chocolate brownie on a Sunday. Have a takeaway every couple of weeks. Have ice cream on a Friday.
You just can’t do all of those things every day at once. Pick your moments. Save the high-saturated-fat food for the times that matter.
What about sugar and refined carbs?
Saturated fat raises LDL. Sugar and refined carbohydrates do two things: they push triglycerides up, and they lower HDL. The same foods often contain both — biscuits, cake, sweets, sugary drinks, white bread with jam. So the “what to avoid” list for cholesterol and triglycerides overlaps heavily.
A simple rule for triglycerides specifically: cut sugar-sweetened drinks first. Coke, Fanta, fruit juice, sweetened iced tea, energy drinks. Just one a day pushes triglycerides up measurably. None a day is the target.
The bigger picture
Sucrose, saturated fat and trans fat are in everything because they are cheap and they make food taste like more. Removing them is mostly about awareness — once you know where they hide, the swaps are easy and most people quickly stop missing them. Within four to six weeks, the taste of less-fatty food starts to feel right again.
The prize for getting this right is large. A 50% reduction in saturated fat, paired with the food list in article 5, brings LDL down by 10 – 20% — enough to keep many people off statin medication entirely, and enough to make the statin work better when it’s needed.
The next article in the series moves from food to movement: how exercise specifically raises HDL, lowers triglycerides, and builds on the cholesterol benefits from food.
Where to get more help
Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa — heartfoundation.co.za · 021 422 1586 — Heart Mark food labelling helps you find lower-fat versions of common foods.
Phila Today Eat tab — recipes that lean on the article 5 ingredients without the article 6 ingredients.
Phila Today Cholesterol Series — next: moving your way to lower cholesterol — exercise and the HDL story.
Phila Today · Article 6 of 12 in the Cholesterol Series