by Olwen Anderson

Created on: March 18, 2009

Fats are fats are fats, and we should aim for a fat-free diet, right? Why should we aim to eat 30% of our calories from fat when we've been told in so many ways that fat is 'bad'.

WHAT ABOUT IF...

If I told you that eating the right kind of fat in the right quantities could make it easier to keep your arteries clear of cholesterol, give you soft glowing skin, more mobile joints, and a brain less susceptible to aging, would that soften your feelings about dietary fat?

Actually, some fats are well worth avoiding, but others are well worth including in your diet, probably in larger quantities than you use now. How can you tell what is 'good' fat and what is 'bad'?

HOW MUCH FAT SHOULD YOU EAT, EXACTLY?

A calorie-counting way to ensure you get enough of the right kind of fat, is to make sure that 30% of your calories come from fat, and that only 10% of your calories are from saturated fats. For a 2,000 calorie diet, this means 67g of fat every day, of which only 22g should be from saturated fat sources.

MAKE SIMPLE CHOICES FOR MUCH LESS SATURATED FAT

If you review the individual food choices you make during a typical day, you can strongly influence the balance of fats you eat for more beneficial fat.

Enjoying a poached egg on toast for breakfast? The egg is full of good fat, including lecithin, which will help your brain cells be more flexible. Great choice. But instead of buttering your toast, which would supply 7g of saturated fat, rest your yummy egg on half a sliced avocado (2.5g saturated fat). Not only have you automatically reduced your saturated fat intake here, but that avocado contains lots of vitamins and minerals too.

Its morning tea time. Do you reach for a donut with 6g of saturated fat, or one ounce of almonds containing only 1.4g of saturated fat? (This one's an easy choice!)

When you create a colourful salad for lunch, replace your usual chunk of yellow cheese with 100g of atlantic salmon. Only 1.2g of saturated fat in the salmon, but its also packed with omega-3 unsaturated oils that will help your skin stay soft. If you had chosen 1oz of cheese however, you would have eaten 6g of saturated fat, and a food that is renowned for causing constipation.

Feeling peckish mid afternoon? The drive-thru takeaway beckons, but you know the right choice to make. An all-beef patty will boost your saturated fat intake by 6g. You choose the low-fat chicken option instead. Well done!

Now you're really into the swing of this good fat diet, you plan a chicken stir fry for dinner. What should you use to fry the food? Choose one tablespoon of lard and you'll be ingesting 5g of saturated fat. Choose one tablespoon of olive oil to cook in and you'll ingest only 1.9g of saturated fat.

AND THE TOTAL IS

Just these small changes during the day have made a huge change to your fat intake. The fatty choices of butter, cheese and lard would have totalled 18g of saturated fat. By choosing healthier fats, you've ingested only 5.6g of saturated fat.

SEE THE PATTERN?

You've probably noticed a pattern here: Dairy foods and some meats contain large amounts of saturated fat; plant oils and seafood contain little saturated fat, but will still give you the oil you need to make your body work better. All you have to do is make a different choice when you decide what to eat at your next meal.

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