"Eating fat makes you fat."

Undoubtedly, this is a sound you will have heard many times before.

And in the same breath, saturated fat has fallen victim to this macronutrient hate crime.

But does saturated fat warrant the bad press it attracts?

Saturated fat and trans fat are different things

Past research has often chosen to group both saturated and trans fats in the same bucket. Creating a potentially false association with cardiovascular disease, weight gain, and inflammation.

• Intake of saturated and trans unsaturated fatty acids and risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes: systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. De Souza et al, 2015. (PubMed Link)

A deeper look at available research shows negative associations between saturated fat and health issues.

• Associated with weight loss

  • Results of use of metformin and replacement of starch with saturated fat in diets of patients with type 2 diabetes. Hays et al, 2002. (PubMed Link)

• Decrease in circulating insulin concentrations.

  • Comparison of a low-fat diet to a low-carbohydrate diet on weight loss, body composition, and risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease in free-living, overweight men and women. Meckling et al, 2004. (PubMed Link)

• Relatively no impact on cardiovascular disease risk factors.

  • Is it time to revisit current dietary recommendations for saturated fat? Lamarche & Couture, 2014. (PubMed Link)

• No change in glycaemic response and satiety.

  • Fat saturation has no effect on glycaemic and satiety response to a high GI carbohydrate meal in healthy women. Ryan & Clarke, 2015. (Research Link)

• No change on risk of coronary events.

  • Dietary intake of saturated fat is not associated with risk of coronary events or mortality in patients with established coronary artery disease. Puaschitz et al, 2014. (Research Download)

As part of a balanced diet, some saturated fat is fine. There's certainly no need to avoid it for fear of damaging your health and destroying any hopes you have of losing weight.

At this time, it is likely best to ignore most mainstream guidelines relating to saturated fat, because they don't make much sense and paint an unnecessarily negative picture.

Specific fats are also frequently demonised for no valid reason, only adding to the confusion and hysteria.

For example, when it comes to fat, dairy is the devil, and coconut oil is held aloft as a deity, despite having a higher saturated fat content (eg. butter is 64% saturated fat and coconut oil is 87%).

So popular opinion leaves you no logical answers and only a mountain of unanswered questions.

Not wishing to leave you on the saturated fat ledge, here are a few practical guidelines that are actually of use:

• Aim for a balance across all fatty acids by obtaining dietary fat from a wide variety of sources.

  • Most foods containing fat have a mix of fatty acids, so varying your choices will help avoid your diet being negatively skewed.

  • Essentially, avoid a diet based around butter and bacon. It's not a good idea to put slabs of butter in your coffee either (sorry Bulletproof Coffee fans).

• Consumption of Polyunsaturated fat should be ≥ saturated fats.

  • Those Omega 3's are all important, so don't neglect them. If you're not getting 2 portions of oily fish per wee, consider supplementation.

• Limited foods you might consider "junk foods" and highly processed snacks.

  • You don't need to eliminate, just limit.

The bottom line, fat isn't making you fat.

And saturated fat isn't causing ill-health.

Have a sensible approach to your diet that doesn't involve a high intake of one specific type of fat.

On top of this, as long as you're managing calories in some way, there's no need to overthink things.