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You've probably heard that too much fat in your diet can increase your risk
of developing heart disease. But how much is too much? According to the National
Cholesterol Education Program, for the average healthy adult, daily intake of
saturated fats should be less than 7 percent of the total daily calories and
overall fat intake should be less than 35 percent of total daily calories.
To keep your fat level down, here are some useful tips to follow:
- Read nutrition labels - Food labels show you how much fat is in a product, in
terms of both grams and in terms of calories. Food labels also show you how much
saturated fat is in a particular item. Be aware that even if a food claims to
have "no cholesterol" on the front of the package, it may still be high in fat
and saturated fat.
- Cooking styles - Even healthy foods can turn into diet disasters if they're
fried or coated with butter and oil during cooking. Try to adapt to lower-fat
cooking styles such as steaming, as well as stir-frying and baking with a
minimum amount of oil. It's also important to trim off any visible fat from meat
before cooking.
- Limit your consumption of nuts, oils, butter, margarine, mayonnaise, salad
dressings and peanut butter.
- The fat we eat can be divided into three types: monounsaturated,
polyunsaturated, and saturated. Choose less saturated and use monounsaturated
fats like olive oil and canola oil as your main sources of fat.
Saturated fats have been linked to higher levels of blood cholesterol. Saturated
fats are the ones mostly found in animal products (meat, butter and whole milk
for example) and they tend to be solid at room temperature. Certain oils
(coconut, palm and palm kernel oil) are also high in saturated fat. Saturated
fats can raise your blood cholesterol level.
Unsaturated fats (safflower, sunflower, corn, canola and olive oil for example)
tend to be liquid at room temperature. According to the American Dietetic
Association, unsaturated fats can help lower overall blood cholesterol levels,
as long as they are used within moderation as part of an overall healthy
reduced-fat diet.
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