- FRIDAY, May 30 (HealthDay News) — Fewer than half of Americans
realize there are two types of dietary fat that actually help their
hearts, a new survey shows.

So, while many have heeded the warnings about the cardiovascular
dangers of trans fats and saturated fats, the American Heart Association
(AHA) now thinks people need to pay more attention to the cardiovascular
benefits conferred by polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats.

As a result of its recent survey, the AHA's new Face the Fats
campaign has harnessed the power of the Internet to encourage people to
view these lesser known fats with new respect.

“We're trying to take education to the next level and say when you have
the opportunity to choose, choose the better fat, not the bad fat,” said
Dr. Clyde W. Yancy, the association's president-elect.

The campaign's Web page presents information at varying levels of
sophistication. The pages include an interactive quiz on fats, menus,
recipes and a Fats 101 course. A Fats Translator calculates a body-mass
index from the input of height, weight, age and level of activity. The
index is a scale ranging from under weight to obesity.

The AHA decided to go digital in this phase of its campaign because
“the Web really is becoming the world's premier information source, so we
have to be there,” Yancy added.

“When we have lots of polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats in our
diet, our HDL cholesterol goes up and helps protect our arteries from
clogging up and hardening,” explained Lona Sandon, an assistant professor
of clinical nutrition at the University of Texas Southwestern. “HDL kind
of acts like a broom and sweeps up the artery-damaging molecules and takes
them away.”

Trans fats and saturated fats are more able to stick to blood vessel
walls and harden arteries, Yancy added. This process can lead to the
rupture of an artery or obstructed blood vessels that can cause heart
attacks, strokes or blood vessel disease.

Sandon supported the idea of greater education on the different forms
of dietary fat. “I think it's still very confusing for people,” she said.
“They don't know if they should be eating low fat, what kind of fat.” She
also advised moderation in consumption of any kind of fat. All fats have 9
calories per gram, she explained, so even too much of the better fats can
lead to weight gain. “They're healthy, but you can't go wild with them,”
she said.

The Face the Fats campaign is funded by $7 million received from
McDonalds USA as part of the settlement of a California class action
lawsuit brought by a consumer advocacy group, bantransfat.com, according
to the AHA. McDonald's recently announced that it has eliminated trans
fats from its fried foods by changing to a canola-based cooking oil.

More information

For more on the Face the Fats campaign, go to the American
Heart Association.