Heart Healthy HelperAbout the data
Where the numbers on this site come from, how they are calculated, and what they can and cannot tell you.
The short version
- Saturated fat and calories for 5,432 foods and dishes come from the US Department of Agriculture’s food database.
- The diet sources charts come from a US national eating survey, and from a small Finnish study for the vegan view, because nothing larger exists for vegans.
- Each number says what it measures. Nothing here scores a food as good or bad, and none of it is dietary advice.
Foods, servings and rankings
Food search and food concentration use USDA FoodData Central: Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Studies (FNDDS) 2021–2023 (release 10/31/2024, licence CC0 1.0). It describes foods as typically eaten in the United States, not specific brands, so a packaged product you buy can differ from the entry here.
The two measurements
- Per serving is the saturated fat in the amount you choose. The typical serving is the amount the database uses when someone reports eating a food without saying how much.
- Per 100 calories is saturated fat divided by calories, times 100, for the same amount of the same food. It lets foods of very different sizes sit on one scale. If a food’s calories are missing or zero, the site shows “Not available”, never zero.
Vegetarian and vegan labels
The database does not label foods as vegetarian or vegan. This site works the labels out from each food’s listed ingredients and its name. A food is shown in the vegetarian or vegan view only when its ingredients confirm it; when an ingredient is a prepared product whose contents are not listed, the food is left out of those views instead of guessed. The labels follow the database’s typical recipe, and they do not consider processing aids such as the vitamin D3 added to some foods.
The ranking and the five bars
4,588 foods and dishes are ranked by saturated fat per 100 calories. The ranking leaves out baby foods and formula, entries that are only a component of another food, forms that are not eaten as is (such as raw meat or unmixed powders), and catch-all entries for an unspecified type. Foods with fewer than 10 calories per 100 g are also left out, because the result is unstable when calories are close to zero.
The five bars beside a food show which fifth of the ranked foods its value falls in. Each fifth holds one in five ranked foods. More bars mean more saturated fat per 100 calories, and nothing else: the bars are not a health score.
Diet sources
The diet sources page shows which kinds of food add the most saturated fat to what a group of people eats. That depends on how much saturated fat a food has and on how often and how much of it people eat, so a food can be a large source without being especially concentrated.
No single study covers every eating pattern well, so each view uses the best source available for it:
| View | Source | Years | People | Saturated fat a day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All adults | US national survey | August 2021 to August 2023 | 4,798 | 27.5 g |
| Omnivore | US national survey | 2007 to 2010 | 10,932 | 26.4 g |
| Vegetarian | US national survey | 2007 to 2010 | 111 | 18 g |
| Vegan | Helsinki study | September 2021 to June 2022 | 34 | 20 g |
Because the sources differ, compare the omnivore and vegetarian views with each other, and treat the vegan view on its own. Its food categories are different, and the study broke mixed dishes down into ingredients, while the US survey counts a sandwich or a pizza as one item. Shares are percentages of each group’s own total, and the totals differ, as the last column shows.
All adults: US national survey, 2021 to 2023
The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) interviews a sample of people chosen to represent the whole US population, and asks them to recall everything they ate and drank the day before. It is the most recent and most reliable picture on this site.
- Who
- US adults aged 20 and over (civilian, non-institutionalized)
- When
- August 2021 to August 2023
- Groups
- 4,798 people: Everyone, regardless of eating pattern. This survey cycle did not ask whether people follow a vegetarian or vegan diet.
- How
- One 24-hour dietary recall per person from What We Eat in America, NHANES. Each reported food is assigned to its survey food category and grouped using the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee's rollup. Mixed dishes are counted as reported, not broken down into ingredients. Items reported as parts of a sandwich, taco or burrito count as burgers and sandwiches, parts of a salad as vegetables, and additions to cereal as breakfast cereals.
- Shares are of
- Total saturated fat from all foods and beverages reported on the survey day, weighted to the US population
- Limits
- Cannot be split by eating pattern.
- Both dietary interviews in this cycle were done by telephone. Earlier cycles did the first one in person, so comparisons with earlier years need care.
- One day of intake per person, so it describes the group on an average day, not any individual's usual diet.
- Mixed dishes such as sandwiches and pizza are their own categories, so the cheese or meat inside them is not counted under cheese or meat.
- Computed for this site as an approximation of the committee's method. Its files for assigning foods eaten in combination are not public, so shares can differ from the committee's by a few points.
- Percentages are point estimates without standard errors.
- Source
- National Center for Health Statistics. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, August 2021–August 2023 data files (What We Eat in America dietary interview, day 1). Category rollup from the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee food category sources analysis. Licence: Public domain (US Government work). Retrieved 2026-10-09.
Omnivore and vegetarian: US national survey, 2007 to 2010
The same national survey asked “Do you consider yourself to be a vegetarian?” in only two of its cycles, 2007–2008 and 2009–2010. Those years are the only national US data that can be split by eating pattern, so the omnivore and vegetarian views both come from them. That keeps the two views comparable with each other, at the cost of being older.
- Who
- US adults aged 20 and over (civilian, non-institutionalized)
- When
- 2007 to 2010
- Groups
- 10,932 people: Adults who answered no to “Do you consider yourself to be a vegetarian?”
- 111 people: Adults who answered yes to “Do you consider yourself to be a vegetarian?” and reported no meat, poultry or seafood on the survey day. 248 adults called themselves vegetarian; 55% of them reported a meat, poultry or seafood item that day and are left out.
- How
- One 24-hour dietary recall per person from What We Eat in America, NHANES. Each reported food is assigned to its survey food category and grouped using the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee's rollup. Mixed dishes are counted as reported, not broken down into ingredients. Items reported as parts of a sandwich, taco or burrito count as burgers and sandwiches, parts of a salad as vegetables, and additions to cereal as breakfast cereals. The two survey cycles (2007–2008 and 2009–2010) are pooled.
- Shares are of
- Total saturated fat from all foods and beverages reported on the survey day, weighted to the US population
- Limits
- Eating pattern is self-described, then checked against one day of eating. 55% of the 248 adults who called themselves vegetarian reported meat, poultry or seafood that day and are left out; someone left in may still eat meat on other days.
- Meat, poultry and seafood are found from each food's category and name, so an item inside a dish whose name does not mention it can be missed.
- The vegetarian group is small (111 adults), so its smaller shares are imprecise.
- The data are from 2007 to 2010, the only years the survey asked this question. Foods and eating habits have changed since.
- The survey has no question about vegan diets.
- One day of intake per person, so it describes the group on an average day, not any individual's usual diet.
- Mixed dishes such as sandwiches and pizza are their own categories, so the cheese or meat inside them is not counted under cheese or meat.
- Computed for this site as an approximation of the committee's method. Its files for assigning foods eaten in combination are not public, so shares can differ from the committee's by a few points.
- Percentages are point estimates without standard errors.
- Source
- National Center for Health Statistics. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2007–2008 and 2009–2010 data files (What We Eat in America dietary interview, day 1; Diet Behavior and Nutrition questionnaire, item DBQ915). Category rollup from the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee food category sources analysis. Licence: Public domain (US Government work). Retrieved 2026-10-09.
Vegan: a study in Helsinki, Finland
No national US survey asks about vegan diets, and no large study we could find publishes saturated fat by food group for vegans. The vegan view therefore comes from a small Finnish study that does. The study also recorded omnivore and vegetarian groups (32 and 27 adults), which this site does not chart because the US survey covers those patterns with far more people.
- Who
- Adults in Helsinki, Finland, who were caregivers of children aged 2–7 attending early childhood education and care
- When
- September 2021 to June 2022
- Groups
- 32 people: Self-reported: no special diet, or a diet that does not exclude meat entirely.
- 27 people: Self-reported vegetarian: excludes meat but may include fish, eggs or dairy. This group includes pesco-vegetarians.
- 34 people: Self-reported vegan: excludes all animal-sourced products.
- How
- 3-day food records (two weekdays and one weekend day). Mixed dishes were broken down into ingredients and grouped into food groups from the FAO/WHO GIFT classification, using the Finnish food composition database Fineli.
- Shares are of
- Each group's mean daily saturated fat intake from all foods, in grams
- Limits
- Small groups: 27 to 34 adults per diet.
- One city in Finland; not representative of any national population.
- Includes 10 breastfeeding and 4 pregnant women across the diet groups.
- Diet was inferred from food records for 5 participants who did not report it.
- Percentages are as published and were calculated from unrounded intakes, so they can differ slightly from the rounded gram values.
- Source
- Tilli V, Hovinen T, Kettunen E, et al. Food sources of macro- and micronutrients in young children and adults following vegan, vegetarian, and omnivorous diets. European Journal of Nutrition. 2026;65:88. Licence: CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-10-07.
Pictures
The food illustrations and the heart-leaf mark were made with an AI image tool in a watercolor style. They are decoration: a picture shows the kind of food, not the exact entry, and carries no data.
What this site is not
Heart Healthy Helper is for exploring, at your own pace. It does not give medical or dietary advice, and it does not know your health, your needs or your whole diet. For advice about what to eat, talk to a doctor or a registered dietitian.