Today is

By: Ikedi Ani-okoye

The fact about fat

Most of us can readily name the sources of Eat in our diets - the fat on our Sunday joints, the fat used to fry with, the butter we spread on our toast In the morning. 1 hese are all highly visible sources, but what about the invisible fat in foods?

Foods such as sausages, pastries, cakes and biscuits, milk, eggs and cheese also contribute to a daily intake of fat that medical experts agree is far too high. This can not ordy lead to the health risks associated with nwanted extra weight mentioned above to an increased risk of heart disease. Although many factors contribute to this including smoking, stress and high blood pressure - eating too much fat is one we can easily do something about.

Fat helps aswell

shouldn't attempt to cut out fat completely though - fat is necessary to the body: keeps us warm, provides padding, keeps the skin and arteries supple, is a store of energy, balances out hormones and is even essential for proper brain function. Perhaps what is more important is to be aware of the kind of fat we eat.

Saturafted fat

Saturated fats are usually solid at room temperature and have good keeping quality, e.g. butter, lard, hard margarine and meat fat, although there are some Exceptions palm and coconut oils being the most notable. Hydrogenizcd Fats start life as unsaturated fats but change through a manufacturing process called hydrogenation to become a type of saturated fat. They are often used in manufactured goods. They are also used in margarine manufacture to make sregctable oil remain solid ashen it is at room temperature.

Milk fat is saturated, and the butter, cheese and cream products produced from it also contain saturated fat. Dairy foods supply about a third of all the fat eve eat and about 40 per cent of all the saturated Eat in the British diet.

Eating too much fat does lead to obesity and the incidence of heart disease in obese people is twice as high. Too much saturated also raises dhe level oftriglycerides ~types of fat) and cholesterol in the bloodstream. Cholesterol is a fat essential for health and is a normal component of the body tissues, especially the brain, nervous system, liver and blood.

It acts as a lubricant for the arteries and is needed to make adrenal and sex hormones, as well as Vitamin D and bile, which helps in the digestion of fats. However, the fatty deposit or atheroma that 'furs arteries, causing a narrowing that can lead to heart attacks, is high in cholesterol some triglycerides, which is why eating a diet high in saturated fat is seen as a risk factor for coronary heart disease.

Most cholesterol in the blood is manufactured by the liver. Although many foods we contain cholesterol as well, this is usually insignificant part of the total. Nevertheless, people who have had a heart problems, who have heart disease in the family, are often advised to snatch the amount of chol-ssterol they eat.

Polyunsaturated fats

Polyunsaturated fats or oils are liquid at roone temperature and are found mainly in vegetable foods, especially in nuts and seeds, although oily fish is also a source of unsaturated fat. They contain essential fatty acids - essential because they are necessary for the brain and nerves to grow and develop properly and for their maintenance. Polyunsaturated fats also help to keep our bloodless sticky and less likely to deposit atheroma in our arteries. They also made the blood less likely to clot. However, polyunsaturated oil is high in calories and we donut need a lot the equivalent of two tablespoons a dry is ample.

Monounsaturated fats are those found in avocados, cashew nuts, olives and olive oil, peanuts and peanut butter. lentil recently, these mere thought to have a neutral effect on the blood, now they are believed to behave rather like polyunsaturates.

How to cut down on fat

Use a margarine spread high in polyunsaturates rather than butter or hard margarine. In cooking, use an oil high in polylansat-urates like corn or sunflower oil rather than a hard fat Ace margarine or butter. Avoid high-fat cheese like cream cheese, Stilton, Cheddar and other hard yellow cheese, Danish Blue and Lynles-wold. Medium-fat cheeses include Edam, Camembert, Feta, Tendale and Shape cheese, Curd cheese, Ricotta and Brie. lkow-fat cheeses include cottage cheese, low-fat fromage Anais and Quark. Choose low-Fat yogurt in preference to Greek yogurt or the sit varieties made from whole milk.

Choose fish and poultry rather than red meat (remove the stein before eating). If yon do eat red meat, buy lean cuts without too much marbling and trim off the fat before cooking. Try not to eat meat products like sausages and pies very often. Grill or bake food rather than frying it. But if you must Fry food, always drain thoroughly on kitchen paper before serving. In general, ase as little extra Eat as possible when cooking.

If you are cooking a casserole in advance, skim off the layer of fat which ?orms on top as it cools. Consider changing to semi-skimmed or skimmed milk as this is a good way of cutting down on fat in your diet. Low-fat milks contain all the protein minerals and important water-soluble vitamins that are found in full-fat milk. Keep cream for special occasions and try using low-fat yogurt instead. Cut doom on pastries and sponge cakes, too.