Recommendations about dietary fat.
Below you can find some guidelines and tips how to minimize the  intake of cholesterol, saturated and trans fatty acids and how to increase the amount of unsaturated fats in your diet.
 Prefer fish, shellfish, skinless poultry and very lean red meat, like beef or pork and try to trim away any apparent fat before cooking. Perhaps a lot of people will be surprised after the recommendation about shellfish. Seafood and especially oysters used to be notorious for their cholesterol content. Late researches do not verify this notion, though. On the contrary, show that crabs, oysters, lobsters, shrimps, octopuses and other seafood contain less cholesterol than meat or poultry.
Limit the consumption of full-fat dairy products. Low-fat fortified cheese, milk, creams or yogurt are very good options, whereas butter should be excluded. Bear in mind that yellow cheeses, such as guda, emental or parmesan contain far more fats than the white ones, like the Greek feta. Zero-fat milk does not provide any beneficial fatty acids and vitamin D.
Avoid eating too many eggs, since they contain large amounts of cholesterol. Studies have shown that one egg per day is highly unlikely to affect blood cholesterol level, unless a pathological background exists. In fact, eggs contain important nutrients including proteins, vitamin D, cobalamin, riboflavin and folic acid. All of these nutrients contribute to a healthy heart status.
Include oils or alternatively soft margarines in your diet rather than lard, butters, solid shortenings and hard margarines. Remember the harder the fatty food, the higher the content in saturated, hydrogenated and trans fats.
Try to do home cooking as frequently as possible and use vegetable oils, especially olive oil. Keep a distance from tropical oils, such as coconut or palm kernel oil, because they contain saturated fats.
Try not to eat fast food regularly. These restaurants claim that they have reduced saturated fat content in their products and this seems to be true. However, nobody mentions the increased amounts of trans fatty acids, which although are not saturated, are considered more harmful. The presence of trans fats is inevitable because of the deep frying and the use of part-hydrogenated oils.
Limit as much as possible the consumption of commercially prepared backed goods, snacks and processed foods. When buying them, check the nutrition facts table. Do not prefer products that contain fat more than 20%. Check, if in this percentage any saturated, hydrogenated or trans fatty acids are included.
If they are, try to find similar preparations with less of such fatty content and with more unsaturated fats.
It has to be cleared that a statement "No trans fat" on the label does not always mean zero trans fatty acids. According to the FDA, a product claiming to have zero or no trans fat can actually contain up to a half gram per serving. In Canada the relevant limit is 0.2 grams. In general, the intake of small amount of trans fats is inevitable for most of the people, since they are naturally found in dairy products and meat.
Be skeptical about hydrogenated margarines and eat them rarely. Partially hydrogenated oils are more likely to contain trans fatty acids than the fully hydrogenated ones which are high in saturated fats.
Limit the amount of calories obtained from fats to less than 30%. This is strongly recommended on behalf of American Heart Association. |
