Foods like full-fat cheese, unprocessed steak, and dark chocolate have a lot of saturated fat, but eating them doesn't seem to raise your risk of heart disease.

Eating saturated fat doesn’t always raise your risk of heart disease—it depends on where the fat comes from. For example, saturated fat in dairy and nuts might not hurt your heart, and could even be okay or helpful.

Not all saturated fats are the same—those in cheese and butter might not hurt your heart, and could even help, but the ones in bacon and sausages might make your heart risk higher.

People who eat cheese with saturated fat might actually have a slightly lower risk of heart disease, which is surprising because saturated fat is usually thought to be bad for the heart.

Eating lots of typical Western junk food — like fries, soda, and sweets — doesn’t seem to make heart problems worse for people who already have stable heart disease, even when you account for things like age, smoking, and exercise.

Eating foods with saturated fat, like butter or meat, doesn't seem to raise your risk of heart disease or dying from it, based on the studies reviewed.