Cholesterol too high: Which fat you eat is crucial. Men consume around 16 percent and women around 15 percent of saturated fatty acids every day.

The more often you consume larger amounts of these unhealthy fats in your diet, the greater the risk of hardening of the arteries and cardiovascular disease. The fatty acids are named by the different chemical connections between their chains of carbon atoms. If there is one or more double bonds, they are commonly referred to as monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fatty acids; if there is no chain of carbon atom, they're saturated.