Fat and dieting. Saturated, unsaturated fats effects. Reducing dietary fat
Fat provides essential vitamins such as A, D and E and other fatty acids to the body. However fat does contain a lot of calories and it has been recommended that fat should not make up more than 30 percent of your ration. It's important if you are dieting.
Saturated fats are mainly found in animal products (dairy). One of effects of eating too much of saturated fats is raising blood cholesterol.
Unsaturated fats, which can help lower harmful cholesterol (LDL) and increase beneficial Cholesterol (HDL) can be found in healthy oils such as olive oil, sesame oil and rapeseed oil.
Polyunsaturated fats provide omega-3 and can be found in walnuts, soy beans, wheatgerm and rapeseed oil. Omega-3 has been found to reduce the risk of heart disease.
If you are trying to reduce the fat in your diet some good choices are low fat cheeses, low fat yogurts and milk products and using smaller amounts of strongly flavoured cheese in recipes.
Reducing dietary fat:
- use strong tasting cheese such as fresh parmesan or smoked cheese as a little will add a lot of taste to your dishes or use lower-fat versions of your favorite cheeses
- make your own dressings for salad using orange juice, yogurt, herbs and spices instead of mayonnaise or oils
- use very little oil for stir frying or use vegetable or chicken stock in place of oils
- use plain low-fat yougurt instead of cream in recipes when you can. If it is a cooked recipe then put a tsps of cornflour mixed into a little water to form a paste into the yogurt to prevent it from curdling when heated