How much saturated fat is in butter, beef, or other foods?

How much saturated fat is too much? For someone who eats 2,000 calories a day, the Daily Value is 20 grams a day, max. (The DV is a recommended limit that corresponds to 10 percent of your daily calories.) Here’s a look at which foods have the most—or least—saturated fat, plus how many grams of sat fat are in a typical serving.

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The basics on saturated fat

To keep saturated fat in check, eat foods high in healthy (unsaturated) fats most often and eat foods high in unhealthy (saturated) fats only occasionally:

Healthy-fat foods: nuts, seeds, avocado, salmon, and liquid vegetable oils like olive, soy, canola, etc.
Unhealthy-fat foods: beef, pork, lamb, whole milk, cheese, cream, and solid fats like butter, beef tallow, coconut oil, palm oil, etc.

It also helps to substitute lower-fat versions of animal foods or coconut products for higher-fat ones:

Sub poultry (especially skinless) or seafood for beef, pork, or lamb
Sub skim or 1% milk for whole or 2% milk
Sub non-fat or low-fat yogurt for whole milk yogurt
Sub part-skim, lite, or reduced-fat cheese for full-fat cheese
Sub buttery spreads for butter (tubs have less sat fat than sticks)
Sub canned light coconut milk for full-fat coconut milk in cooking

How much saturated fat is in a serving of common foods?

This chart shows examples from many top sources of saturated fat compared to lower-fat versions. Keep in mind that even foods with mostly healthy fats (like nuts, seeds, or salmon) contain small amounts of saturated fat. And standard servings of cheese (1 oz.) and meat (3 oz.) are tiny; many dishes have far more of them. That’s why you’re likely to exceed the recommended sat fat limit of 20 grams a day if you eat red meat, full-fat dairy, butter, etc., more than just occasionally.

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