Fat

Fat is an important part of a healthy, balanced diet.


However, too much fat in our diet can be bad for our health. All types of fat are high in calories and so eating a lot of fatty foods can make it easy to consume more calories than we need. Over time, this can lead to weight gain.

Ask

• Do you know the difference between unsaturated and saturated fats?
• Do you know the maximum recommended amount of fat we should consume per day?
• Would you like to know more about how you can reduce your saturated fat intake?

Assist

Fats in foods can either be saturated or unsaturated. Most foods contain fat have a mixture of both saturated and unsaturated fats in different proportions. We normally describe a food as being high in saturated or unsaturated fat depending on which type they have more of.

We need to be aware of the fat in our diet. For a healthy diet, it is important that most of the fats we eat are unsaturated.

Saturated fats are mainly found in animal products such as fat on meats, meat products, butter, ghee, lard, and dairy products including cheese. products made using types of fats and combined with cereal products such as cakes, biscuits, pastries are also classed as foods high in saturated fat. Some vegetable fats are also high in saturated fat such as cocoa butter, palm, and coconut oil.

Unsaturated fats are found generally in plant foods such as seeds, nuts, olives, and avocados. They can be either polyunsaturated such as sunflower, soya, corn, and sesame oils/spreads or monounsaturated such as olive and rapeseed oils/spreads.

The government recommends that total fat intake should not make up more than 35% of our total daily calories. On average in the UK we are achieving this!

Our saturated fat intake should not be bigger than 11% of our total energy intake from food. This is about 30g per day for men and 20g per day for women.

Food swaps to reduce fat intake-

• Swap whole milk for lower fat milks e.g. semi skimmed milk, 1% fat or skimmed milk
• Swap cream for plain yoghurt or lower fat fromage frais
• Swap fatty cuts of meat, processed meat and processed meat products for lean cuts of meat, lean mince, chicken without skin or fish. Trim visible fat off meat before cooking and replace some or all meat with beans or pulses
• Swap foods roasted and fried in fat with foods that have been grilled, steamed, boiled, poached or baked (without fat). If you do roast or fry foods, add minimal fat and choose an unsaturated fat or oil to cook with (such as olive, rapeseed or sunflower oil)
• Cook with oil, rapeseed or sunflower oils and use unsaturated fat spreads instead of butter on bread, toast and in cooking
• Swap pastries and croissants at breakfast for plain wholegrain breakfast cereal or wholegrain/wholemeal toast
• Swap creamy salad dressings for non-creamy salad dressings. Make your own dressings from ingredients like balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, a dash of olive oil and herbs
• Compare food labels when you shop so you can choose foods that are lower in fat

Act

Signpost for more information -

Fat - Nutritional Information
British Heart Foundation