Too much saturated fat in the diet appears to raise your risk of yet another health hazard: diabetes.

Saturated fats promote insulin sensitivity and the metabolic syndrome, conditions that increase your risk of diabetes, a study suggests. Keep tabs on both the quantity and quality of the fats you eat. Choose mostly healthy fats, such as those in nuts, olive oil, and avocados, and limit total fat consumption to 30 percent of your daily calories.

Easy ways to get healthy fats into your diet are to serve salmon or tuna instead of red meat, dress salads with olive oil and vinegar, and add nuts to salads, cereals, and low-fat yogurt. Salmon, tuna, olive oil, and nuts all contain polyunsaturated and monounsaturated forms of fats, which are a much healthier choice than saturated fats and will help your body regulate insulin. Saturated fats, found in red meat, butter, creamy salad dressings, and full-fat dairy, not only interfere with the body's ability to properly utilize insulin, but they also raise your LDL ("bad") cholesterol and promote heart disease.