Avoid Fat in Your Diet

Limiting the fat that you eat can help you lose weight by reducing your total calorie intake, and reducing your intake of saturated fats can help to reduce your risk of heart disease. Ideally, less than 30% of your daily calories should come from fat – though you can’t, and shouldn’t, avoid fat completely. Cooking meals with healthy fats can significantly decrease how much fat you eat on a daily basis.

Steps

Recognizing Sources of Fat

1. Read ingredient labels. The best way to avoid fat is to know what to look for on food labels, and check the ingredients of everything you buy. There are several types of fats, and not all of them are bad for you. In fact, your body needs some fat to absorb vitamins and minerals, to make many of the hormones in your body, and to keep you healthy. Choose foods with “good” fats over “bad” fats by reading the labels before purchasing food.
   • When shopping, compare similar ingredients to ensure that a company’s claim of “light” is accurate based on the nutrition facts provided.
2. Keep track of your daily fat intake. If you’re serious about minimizing your dietary fat, you need to be good at reading food labels and keeping a record of what you eat. Fat should make up less than 30% of your daily calories, with the average caloric need for an adult being around 2,000 calories per day. Of that 30%, you should get less than 10% of your fat from saturated fats (or 200 calories), and as little fat as possible from trans fats. The rest – or as much as possible – should come from the “good” unsaturated fats.
   • Start a journal, log, or record. You may need to get a small scale in order to weigh your portions and calculate your percent of fat from each food you eat based on its nutrition facts. There are also websites online and phone apps that can help you do this.
3. Recognize sources of saturated and trans fats. Many types of saturated fats can increase your “bad” LDL cholesterol, and trans fats negatively impact your cholesterol in multiple ways. Fried food and products listing hydrogenated oil in the first few ingredients are high in bad fats.
   • Foods with high saturated fat content are dark meats (beef, pork, lamb, veal), chicken and turkey skin, processed meats like hot dogs and bologna, palm oil, and – due to the butter and oil content – pastries like cookies and pies. Saturated fats are usually solid at room temperature.
   • Try to avoid trans fats as much as possible. These fats are highly processed to stabilize them so that they will have a longer shelf life. That is why they are commonly included in processed foods like packaged cookies, crackers, margarine, shortening, powdered and liquid flavored coffee cream, and most processed or pre-packaged snacks and “junk food.”
4. Get your needed fat from unsaturated fats. Unsaturated (mono- and polyunsaturated) fats are not detrimental to your health like saturated and trans fats, and in appropriate amounts are good for your heart. These occur naturally in nuts like almonds, walnuts, pistachios and cashews, olives, olive and peanut oil, avocado, and some seeds. Fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, and herring give you good omega-3 fatty acids, which are important for health in many ways.

Preparing Low-Fat Meals

1. Cook with non-stick pans and saucers. Invest in cookware that is “non-stick,” and you won’t have to use butter to grease pans for cooking. For a little needed glide, use a teaspoon of olive oil.
2. Grill, steam, smoke, braise, broil or BBQ rather than fry. Frying your food is the quickest way to increase its fat content. Avoid frying, and instead use other healthier methods of cooking. There are many cookbooks and websites that can teach you how to cook with various methods.
   • Choose similar methods of food preparation when eating out at restaurants.
3. Season your food with herbs and spices. Instead of using butter, cream, and cheese to flavor foods, experiment with different herbs and spices. This will decrease the fat-content of your meal, provide more nutrients, and expand your kitchen repertoire. Citrus flavors like orange, lime, and lemon juices can add nice flavor and vitamins to a meal.
   • You can usually buy spices and herbs in bulk at good prices in certain stores.
   • Many multicultural recipes use delicious seasonings. Wherever you live, it can be fun to experiment with cuisine from other nations, or with new recipes from your native country.
4. Buy lean cuts of meat. Meat is graded by its fat content, with “prime” cuts being the highest in fat. Lower cost cuts of meat have less fat, and are healthier options. Loin and round cuts are good lower-fat selections.
   • Cut visible fat off of meats before cooking, and drain the grease afterwards.
   • Broil or grill meats on a rack so that fat can drip off of them.
5. Choose fish and fowl over red meat. Red meats like beef, pork, lamb, and veal contain the highest amounts of saturated fats of any meats. Skinless poultry and seafood are much lower-fat options if you opt to eat meat, so try to choose them as often as possible.
6. Take the skin off your poultry. Chicken and turkey meat are pretty low-fat options, but the skin of poultry has lots of saturated fat in it. Remove the skin before or after cooking to minimize fat from poultry. If your chicken is fried, definitely take the skin off before eating it.
   • Removing skin before cooking can make the end product drier, so it is best to marinate the meat or cook it in a liquid such as stock.
7. Limit your meat portions. Whatever animal-protein is in your meal, whether it’s fish, poultry, or red meat, limit the size of your portion to that of a deck of cards or the palm of your hand. Base meals on vegetables, whole grains and other sources of protein like tofu, nuts, and beans, with only small portions of meat.
8. Replace meat with other protein. Substitute beans or tofu for meat in soup, sandwiches, and salads. You can make delicious meals without using any meat, while still getting the nutrients and protein your body needs. Aim to replace one to three meat meals a week with a meat alternative such as quinoa, beans, lentils, soy, or textured vegetable protein (TVP).
   • Try different brands of veggie burgers to find one you like. Some are made with black beans, quinoa, or vegetable blends. If you can’t go vegetarian, replace ground beef with ground turkey for burgers.
9. Make your own snacks and sides. When you make your side dishes and snacks at home you can control how much fat goes into them, versus high-fat frozen and processed foods. For instance, instead of buying frozen french fries to add to your meal, make your own fries. Cook fries with a little bit of olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and bake them in the oven.
   • Think about what sides and snacks you usually buy or get at a restaurant, and write your own low-fat recipes for them. If you enjoy potato salad or coleslaw, make it with low-fat mayonnaise. If you find yourself snacking on sweets like cookies, get a cookie recipe that uses bananas instead of butter.

Choosing Low-Fat Food Options

1. Minimize sweets. It might seem like most of the calories in donuts, cookies, pies, cakes and other sweets come from sugar, but often sweets contain high amounts of fat. Most pastries are made with butter, and lots of it. When shopping, read the labels and avoid high fat content sweets. If baking, substitute healthy oils or bananas for butter for healthier, low-fat options.
   • Eating healthy, balanced meals throughout the day will keep your blood sugar levels stable and prevent sweet cravings.
2. Ditch junk food, snack on vegetables. “Junk food” like potato chips and crackers often have high fat content, especially trans fats. Baked chips may be better, but check the ingredients list. Your best option is to snack on fresh fruits and vegetables, rather than processed foods.
   • Vegetable spears dipped in almond butter contain good fats and have great protein content.
   • Nuts like almonds, walnuts and cashews contain healthy fats and protein.
   • The sugars in fruit are natural and healthier than refined sugars in grocery store snack foods.
   • Dip raw veggies in guacamole or hummus rather than ranch or bleu cheese.
3. Purchase “low fat” or “non-fat” dressings and toppings. Even if your dinner consists of a big healthy salad, it can still contain a lot of fat if it’s drenched in salad dressing. Dressings, gravy, butter, and sour cream are all high-fat additions to a meal, even in small amounts. Opt for “non-fat” varieties of toppings.
   • Consider dressing your salad with olive oil or balsamic vinegar rather than salad dressing. Olive oil contains good fats and is even a healthy part of a Mediterranean diet.
   • Top your salads with nuts and olives rather than cheese and bacon bits – you can get a flavorful salad with added nutrition and protein rather than added fat.
   • Spread a healthy alternative to mayonnaise on your sandwich, like hummus, guacamole, or olive tapenade.
   • Remember to check the nutrition label of fat free and low-fat dressings as some of them are loaded with sugar to make up for the taste. Also, remember that some vitamins in salads are fat-soluble so they are better absorbed with fat, so adding a teaspoon of full-fat dressing will help you absorb these vitamins better.
4. Choose low-fat dairy products. Skim and 1% milk have as much calcium as whole milk, but much less fat. You can also get low- or non-fat versions of dairy products like cheese and sour cream.
   • Cheese counts as “low-fat” when there’s less than 3 grams of fat in each ounce.
   • If you’re flavoring a meal with cheese, use smaller amounts of one with a stronger taste.
   • For dairy-free ice cream, make "nice cream" by blending frozen fruits, like banana, peaches, and strawberries, with coconut cream and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
5. Request healthy substitutions when eating out. Restaurants tend to cook with lots of butter and fat, because it makes food taste good. Request your dish be prepared without extra butter or margarine, and request sauces and gravies on the side so you can choose your portion. Get salad dressing on the side or ask for oil and vinegar, or a balsamic – vinegar-based dressings have less fat than creamy dressings like ranch, french, and bleu cheese. If you want dessert, have fresh fruit or sorbet instead of butter-heavy pastries or ice cream.

Tips

• Keep in mind that not all saturated fats are considered bad, so it is okay to include them in moderation. The saturated fats contained in dairy products may lower your risk of diabetes and provide some cardiovascular protection, and the saturated fats in red meat have properties similar to olive oil. However, keep in mind that the healthcare community has linked saturated fat with an increase in LDL cholesterol, so it is a good idea to try to replace some of the saturated fats in your diet with unsaturated fats.

Warnings

• It’s almost impossible to cut fat completely out of your diet, and you shouldn’t try. Your body needs some fat in order to stay healthy and absorb important vitamins and minerals.

Related Articles

• Eat Healthy
• Drink More Water Every Day

References

What links here

• Perform a Water Fast
• Have Clear Skin Naturally
• Choose Low FODMAP Foods As a Vegetarian
• Choose a Diet That Suits You
• Eliminate Processed Foods From Your Diet
• Gain Muscles with a High Metabolism
• Make Salads More Flavorful
• Overcome Obesity
• Stick to a Diet
• Stop Stomach Problems

Read more ...