Excess levels of change: cholesterol in the blood can increase the risk of heart disease. One of the most common causes of high cholesterol is eating too much saturated fat. Saturated fats are found mostly in animal products such as butter, hard cheeses, fat on meat and meat products such as sausages and burgers. 

However not all fats are bad. Many fats have real nutritional benefits as well as adding vital taste and flavour to food.

Fats are a great source of energy and provide essential building blocks for the cells in your body - certain types of fat can actually help keep your heart healthy. So what's important isn't just the amount of fat, but the type of fat you eat.

Saturated fats and trans fats are fats that can raise cholesterol levels. Unsaturated fats are better for helping to keep your heart healthy. Unsaturated, good fats come in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated varieties.

These types of fats can actually help to keep your heart and arteries stay healthy, as part of a healthy diet. To improve heart health and to help reduce cholesterol levels it is recommended that Irish people switch to unsaturated monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.

Monounsaturated fats are found in olive oil, rapeseed oil, some nuts and avocados. Polyunsaturated fats are found in soft margarine such as Flora, oily fish, vegetable oils, nuts and seeds. Replacing butter with Flora is a convenient and effective way to replace bad fats with good fats, as just one tablespoon of butter contains more than a third of the recommended daily amount for saturated fats.