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The level of fat intake recommended by experts is 20 to 35 percent of the total calories consumed daily. This means that a person eating 2,000 calories a day should eat no more than 700 of those calories as fat, which equals about 6 1/2 tablespoons of fat. Someone requiring 3,000 calories a day would ideally eat no more than 1,050 calories or 10 1/2 tablespoons of fat per day.
Of the 20 to 35 percent, no more than 10 percent should come from saturated fatty acids, up to 10 percent can come from polyunsaturated fatty acids, and the remainder comes from monounsaturated fatty acids. Although it may not be possible to totally limit trans fatty acids, strive for as close to zero as possible.
The first step in reducing fat intake is to look at the foods eaten. Most of the fat in the diet comes from visible fats, which are easier to identify. The following guidelines will help reduce visible fats in the diet:
*Bake, roast, or broil foods instead of frying in fat.
*Use non-stick skillets without fat or use vegetable sprays.
*Remove any visible fat from meats and the skin from poultry. Visible fat and skin may be removed either before or after cooking with no difference in fat content.
*Add spices and herbs to vegetables instead of butter, sauces, or gravies.
*Cool and refrigerate stews, broths, and meat drippings and skim off fat before serving.
Reducing the invisible fat in the diet may be harder to do, but adopting the following practices will help.
*Choose lean cuts of meat such as flank, round, or rump of beef; leg or loin of pork, and all cuts of veal instead of high-fat meats such as corned beef, sausage, cold cuts, bacon, and spare ribs.
*Include fish, chicken, and turkey in meals.
*Serve high-fat foods less often by substituting lower-fat foods. Compare the amount of fat in the following items:
Devil’s food cake with frosting: 8 grams; Angel Food Cake: Trace
Milk chocolate: 9 grams; Hard candy: none
Danish: 12 grams; Doughnut (cake-type): 12 grams; Croissant: 12 grams; Blueberry muffin: 5 grams
Roll (without butter): 2 grams; Roll (with 1 tsp margarine): 6 grams; Roll (with 1 tsp butter): 6 grams
Fried shrimp: 10 grams; Boiled shrimp: 1 gram
Ice cream: 14 grams; Ice milk: 6 grams
French fries: 8 grams; Potato chips: 7 grams; Hash browns: 6 grams; Baked potato (without butter): trace
Fruits: trace; Vegetables: trace
*Limit the intake of nuts, peanuts, and peanut butter, which are all high in fat.
*Substitute skim or low-fat milks and their products (uncreamed or low-fat cottage cheese, low-fat yogurt, ice milk, and low-fat hard cheeses) for whole milk and its products (cream, butter, ice cream, and most cheeses).
*Check Nutrition Facts labels on foods. Margarine may have high levels of saturated fat due to hydrogenation. Choose margarines with liquid or pure vegetable oils as the first ingredient. Non-dairy whipped toppings and cream substitutes may also be high in saturated fats.
Source: Online/OFA
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