ADVICE

Kids’ special: Fat

Author: Catherine Sissons

Favs List PRINT

Did you know fat is a nutrient? It gives us energy and is the only source of some of the vitamins our bodies need.

It is important we have some fat in our bodies. Fat…

helps us keep us warm
helps protect our organs

There are two main types of fat:

Fat comes from animal-based foods such as butter, or the fat around meat. This kind of fat is called saturated fat, and we don’t want too much of this because saturated fat can clog up your blood flow when you are older.

HEALTHY TIP: Trim fat from meat and remove skin from chicken so you don’t get too much saturated fat in your body.

Fat comes from plant-based foods such as the fat in nuts or nut oils. This fat is better for us than saturated fat.

Watch out!

Small amounts of fat contain lots of energy (kilojoules), which means if we get too much fat from food, our bodies will store it and we can get fat ourselves!