Bad fats are the saturated fat that stimulate our liver's production of bad cholesterol. Notorious are egg yolk, red meat, organs, lard, ghee, whole milk, hard cheese, vanaspati and margarine as well as coconut and palm oils. We should avoid them.

Good fats are unsaturated fats are of plant or marine origin. They are of 2 types -- better fats and best fats. Better fats are polyunsaturated fatty acid found in oily fish, nuts, dark green vegetables, incorn, stunflower and Saffllower oils. It lowers both bad and good cholesterol.

Best fats are mono-unsaturated fatty acid found in olive, mustard, groundnut, soyabean oils. The reduce the harmful cholesterol without lowering the good one.

Fat from the food we eat is digested and sent off to the liver where it is processed into cholesterol to commute to different parts of the body. After delivery, the cholesterol returns to the liver and the circle goes on and on the liver makes packets of lipoprotein from lipids (fats and cholesterol and protein). VLDL (very low Density Lipoprotein) -- transport the fat and becomes LDL after it unloads fat.

LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein) or “bad cholesterol” can build up and clog the walls of the arteries making them harder and inflexible.

HDL (High Density Lipoprotein) or “good cholesterol” shovels out stuck LDL pieces, specially stubborn pattern and steers them back to the liver where they are recycled, broken or excreted.

Triglycerides also causes a particularly dangerous type of fat particle, specially prominent in aged person to clog up the arteries. They even more lethal when combined with small dense bits of LDL or low HDL.

To much fat makes two things to happen. One, liver makes extra VLDL to transport the fat.

Two, more LDL pieces cling on to the arteries and there are not enough HDLs to dislodge them. These can result a brain a Hack or heart attack.

The lipid profile
Different types of lipids are present in plasma of blood in different amounts. It in known as lipid profile. A person should view his/her lipid profile after the age of 40 or in cardiac disease. Blood lipids with their normal values are --
Total Lipid 450-800 mg/dl
Triglyceride 50-160 mg/dl
Cholesterol 150-220 mg/dl
Combined cholesterol 155 mg/dl
Free cholesterol 45 mg/dl
Free fatty acid 6-16 mg/dl
Phospholipid 200mg/dl

What to do?
Keep your total fat intake not more than two tablespoons a day.