Low Fat Healthy Food Tips

You've probably heard that too much fat in your diet can increase your risk of developing heart disease. (Read about "Coronary Heart Disease") But how much is too much? According to the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP), for the average healthy adult, daily intake of saturated fats should be less than 7 percent of the total daily calories and overall fat intake should be less than 35 percent of total daily calories.

Here are some suggestions from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the American Heart Association to put your diet more in line with those guidelines:

• Read nutrition labels - Food labels show you how much fat is in a product, in terms of both grams and in terms of calories. Food labels also show you how much saturated fat is in a particular item, as well as the percentage of total calories that amount would represent for someone on a 2000 calorie/day diet. Be aware that even if a food claims to have "no cholesterol" on the front of the package, it may still be high in fat and saturated fat. So always read the fine print. (Read about "Food Labels")
• Cooking styles - Even healthy foods can turn into diet disasters if they're fried or coated with butter and oil during cooking. Try to adapt to lower-fat cooking styles such as steaming, as well as stir-frying and baking with a minimum amount of oil. It's also important to trim off any visible fat from meat before cooking.
• Portion size - It's easy to overestimate the amount of food that makes up a "portion." For example, if your diet plan calls for a 3-ounce portion of meat, that's about the size of a deck of playing cards. Eating portions that are too large, means you're getting more fat than you should.
• Food choices - Another way to reduce the amount of fat in your diet is to increase your intake of fruits, vegetables and grains. (Read about "Fiber and Health") Most fruits and vegetables are fat-free. (The exceptions are avocados, olives and coconuts.) Pastas and breads are usually low in fat

To find more about healthy food just visit http://www.healthyfood.co.nz/