If you're "fat" and don't eat low fat food in public, do you get
comments from others? Eating fat has become such an emotive
thing to the point that when an overweight person eats a burger
in public, fingers are pointed and heads are shaken.
Fat is not bad for you. That's right. I said it. Low fat is not
the ultimate healthy food. If you can eat it in moderation, fat
is not bad for you. In fact, fat plays an important role in the
optimum functioning of your body. It cushion the body's major
organs and transports vitamins A, D, E & K around your body.[1]
Your body definitely needs fat.
The problem with fat is that fat also delivers over twice the
kilojoules that protein or carbohydrates can per gram.
So the idea with fat, is to eat it in moderation. Eating
healthily to lose weight can often mean that you have to eat low
fat food in order to cut your calories, but it doesn't mean
removing fat altogether from your diet.
So exactly how do you moderate your fat intake to healthy
levels. Well, one way that you can do this is to look at the
nutritional value of the meals you're eating. Even fast food
restaurants these days are publishing the nutrition panels on
their wrappers. So have a look, it's free.
If the nutrition panel states that the food contains more than
50 - 60 grams of fat, then it might be in your best interests to
choose something else to eat. Around 50 - 60 grams of fat or 25
- 30% of your total daily caloric intake should be coming from
fat. The 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans states
that 20 - 35% of your calories should come from fat. They also
state that the fats that you do eat need to be coming from poly
or monounsaturated sources such as fish.
So by looking at the nutrition panel each time when you purchase
food, you can eat low fat food and cut your fat intake to around
25 - 30% of your total intake while choosing to eat unsaturated
fats from sources such as fish, nuts and vegetable oils such as
olive oil.
Sources:
[1] Saxelby, C (2002) Nutrition For Life Hardie Grant Books P.
18.
Date Written: 13th February 2006.
My name is Jenny Mathers, I certainly hope that you've enjoyed
this article about low fat food. Now go to part 2 of this
article, where I give a mild fish curry recipe which contains
only 3.61 grams of fat!
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