Your saturated fat intake should be no more than 7% of your total calorie intake

[Jebus]

Says the American Heart Association.

Does anyone here have any idea why 7% is the magic cut off point? Six % must surely be better than 7% and 5 must be better than six. I'm also guessing that 0 is better than 1. Is this yet another case of setting a realistic (albeit still unhealthy) target for fat, gluttonous Americans?

[miniboes]

Probably, yes. Saying "No more than 7%" may be more effective than "as little as possible".

[brimstoneSalad]

7% seems unnecessarily high. It may be a point of diminishing returns, but I'm guessing they just found that was practical for most people.

3% should be pretty easy to obtain (eating a third of your calories from healthy plant fats). Any less than that, and you're probably avoiding plant fats too, which is not necessarily healthy.

[Jebus]

Any less than that, and you're probably avoiding plant fats too, which is not necessarily healthy.

By healthy "plant fats" are you referring to the polyunsaturated fats or the saturated plant fats?

[brimstoneSalad]

Poly and monounsaturated. None of them have 0% saturated fat content. Olive and soybean, for example, have a little over 10% saturated fat content. That doesn't make them bad, since the good outweighs it for the most part.

[Jebus]

Olive and soybean, for example, have a little over 10% saturated fat content. That doesn't make them bad, since the good outweighs it for the most part.

Doesn't that depend. I mean if I already have a good Omega 3 to 6 balance, what good would it do to add olives to my diet?

[Jebus]

Although there seems to be a strong positive correlation between saturated and polyunsaturated levels, the two are not entirely positively correlated. Brown rice for example has almost no sat fat but is quite high in polys, particularly Omega 6. Corn has no sat fat but is rich in Omega 6.

[brimstoneSalad]

Olive and soybean, for example, have a little over 10% saturated fat content. That doesn't make them bad, since the good outweighs it for the most part.

Doesn't that depend. I mean if I already have a good Omega 3 to 6 balance, what good would it do to add olives to my diet?

Fat is a good calorie source.
Carbs are optimal if you're going to burn them right away (like about to go for a long calorie burning swim).

Fat is better for long term energy. If you don't burn carbs right away, your body has to convert them into fat, and that's probably not ideal (conversion is always a burden).
A low fat diet, at least anecdotally, doesn't seem to be optimal. We know healthy plant fats, particularly from nuts and fatty fruits (but also some oils like canola if they're unheated), are good for you, and keeping them out of your diet could be bad. I aim for around 1/3rd of my calories from healthy fats.

You never really want to be using protein as a substantial energy source (that's for building and repairing cells). It's mainly a war between fat and carbs as the "best" source of energy, but I would suspect that we do best with a balance between them, as long as they're healthy ones (from plants, and not with all of the nutrients processed out of them).

Although there seems to be a strong positive correlation between saturated and polyunsaturated levels, the two are not entirely positively correlated. Brown rice for example has almost no sat fat but is quite high in polys, particularly Omega 6. Corn has no sat fat but is rich in Omega 6.

The saturated fat in corn is over 10% of the fat content.

What I'm talking about is a third of your calories from fat. Since most plant fats (even that in corn) are around 10% saturated, that works out to around 3% saturated. It seems to be a safe level that your body can handle, the good comes with a little bad.
I would scoff at 7% though. That's unnecessary. Nobody needs that many calories from fat (unless they have some kind of condition that makes it impossible to eat any carbs), and it's unnecessary to eat such highly saturated fats.

[Jebus]

the good comes with a little bad.

Do you think that there is a benefit of reducing that "little bad," i.e. looking for foods where the sat fats are less than 10% of total fats?

I just found this video where Greger discusses the absorption advantage of including fats in your diet, but it doesn't mention which kinds of fats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyMCXRomULU

[brimstoneSalad]

the good comes with a little bad.

Do you think that there is a benefit of reducing that "little bad," i.e. looking for foods where the sat fats are less than 10% of total fats?

Maybe, but I think you would see diminishing returns. I would only do it if it were convenient and you equally enjoy the other food.
There is a point where the collective months of effort over your lifetime aren't worth the five minutes of hypothetical life extension.

Heart disease/stroke is much more predictable.
As long as your numbers are very good and fall in the "heart attack proof" range, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Cancer is the scary one, which is much more random. One cigarette can kill you, or you could smoke all your life and get really lucky. So, avoiding the single cigarette makes sense since it could do you in. A very small amount of saturated fat is much less likely to hurt you since it's more of a buildup than a roulette.

I just found this video where Greger discusses the absorption advantage of including fats in your diet, but it doesn't mention which kinds of fats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyMCXRomULU

Any and all liquid fats that you absorb, because these vitamins are lipid soluble.
But there's a limit; if you eat more than you can absorb, the excess fat will ferry the vitamins out your back side. This was the controversy with olestra.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olestra

It would be perfectly healthy if they added in enough fat soluble vitamins to compensate for the ones it absorbs and puts on an express down the toilet. Although the oily discharge would still be an issue.

Aside from things like Olestra and waxes that you just don't absorb at all, it's hard to eat that much fat unless you're eating a large meal of greasy fried food. If you're poop is oily, sloppy, floats around, and leaves a sheen on the toilet water, that may be an indication that you're overdoing it on the fatty food. I doubt it's possible with whole foods or with modest use of oil for cooking.