Health
| Good fat, bad fat |
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| Written by Margaret Foss, 2009 | |
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Denman College cookery tutor Margaret Foss looks at ways to lower the harmful fats in your diet. Before you start cutting fat out of your diet, whether for weight or heart reasons, you need to know the difference between the good fat and the bad. It is essential to include some fat in a healthy diet as the body cannot make all the types of fat it needs to work properly. The fats we must eat are those found from vegetable sources such as olive, rapeseed and sunflower oils as well as fish oils; these are unsaturated fats - the good fats. The fats the body could manage without are those from animal sources (meat, milk and cheese), artificially hardened oils such as hard block margarines and those found in many commercial products. These are the saturated fats - the bad fats. Surprisingly, coconut and palm oils - both vegetable oils - are saturated fats. Many people struggle to control their weight. The easiest way to lose weight is to cut down on fat as this contains twice as many calories per gram as protein and carbohydrate. Another common health problem is raised cholesterol levels. Cutting down on the saturated - or bad - fats, as well as substituting the unsaturated or good fats may help to correct the levels. Tips to help you cut down on fat'Fat carries flavour' is a well-known fact so when you cut down on fat, you can improve the taste by using good-quality ingredients and additional ingredients such as herbs and spices, strongly flavoured fruit and vegetables, and essences such as vanilla and almond.Cheese lovers should switch to lower-fat cheeses such as Edam, Brie, cottage cheese and ricotta. Eat smaller portions of traditional English hard cheeses, and less often. When using cheese in cooking, use a strongly flavoured one so that you can use less. Choose chocolate with 70 per cent cocoa solids, which contains less, as well as healthier, fat. Substitute cream with half-fat crème frâiche or half-fat Greek yoghurt. Substitute very hard fats such as suet and hard margarines with soft spreads, especially those based on olive or rapeseed oil or soya. Most pastry is fairly high to very high in fat. Consider whether you could substitute filo pastry brushed thinly with oil, or perhaps a scone topping. Choose tea breads and plainer cakes instead of cakes with cream or butter cream - and try to eat them plain, without fat (butter or margarine). Remember that plain and fruit scones contain less fat than cheese scones and spread them sparingly with fat. Choose to bake, steam, stir-fry, simmer and microwave so that you are not adding more fat to your cooking. Switch to skimmed or semi-skimmed milk - and in the coffee shop, instead of a cappuccino order a 'skinny latté'! Low-fat RecipesFresh Tuna with Green Beans and TomatoHerb Scones Italian Chicken* Pear and Chocolate Muffins Strawberry Pavlova Grilled Butternut Squash with Spiced Bulgar Wheat *Adapted from the WI Books Cooking for One by Margaret Foss. Recipes are taken from Best Kept Secrets of the WI: Low Fat Cooking by Margaret Foss. It is one of four Healthy Eating books in the Best Kept Secrets series (12 books in all). Details of all WI Books can be obtained by sending an SSAE to WI Enterprises, 104 New Kings Road, London SW6 4LY marking your envelope 'Book List'. Margaret is a member of East Bridgford WI, Nottinghamshire, and serves on the Nottinghamshire Home Economics committee. She teaches NFWI Food Skills Diploma and OCN cookery courses in her county and teaches at Denman College. |
