Fat – Check Your Labels
Trans fat is detrimental to heart health, yet it is found in many foods sources. It is so important that we educate ourselves on food labels, and how to replace unhealthy fats in our diets with healthier ones, doing this will allow us to make small changes that will improve our overall health.
Limited consumption of saturated fat can be beneficial not only to heart health but to your over all health & well being. It is so important to check labels on everything you consume. Things to look for in regards to fat intake are: *serving size (they can often be a smaller portion than what would be consumed), percentage of fat per serving (our daily fat intake should be between 20 – 35% of overall kcalories for adults), and *percentage of saturated and trans fat (no more than 10% of total kcalories should come from saturated fat, and less than 1% of total calories should be from trans fat).
The easiest ways to lower unhealthy fat consumption is by choosing lean cuts of meat, eating a vegetarian diet once per week (or more), choose skinless chicken, low fat dairy products and trim visible fat from meat. Replace your fats with healthy fats from nuts, fish, vegetable oils, seeds etc.
Meat labels (percentages by weight):
“Lean” meat contains less than 10% fat
“Extra Lean” meat contains less than 7.5% of fat
Ground Meat Labels:
“Lean” ground meat is less than 17% fat
“Extra Lean” ground meat it less than 10% fat
Suggestions for fat replacements:
- Try replacing your salad dressing with vinegar & olive oil (cold pressed)
- Replace a high fat snack with a healthy fat (replace chips with an apple and a serving of nuts)
- Replace full fat fruit yogurt with low fat plain yogurt and add fresh cut fruit & chia seeds (source of omega 3, fiber & minerals)
- Replace a drive thru breakfast with a fruit smoothie, include ground flax seed (source of omega 3 and fiber)
If you would like any further information please email me at: naturallynourished@hotmail.com or follow me on Instagram @anaturallynourishedlife
Sources:
Nutrition Science & Applications – Smolin, Grosvenor, Gurfinkel
http://www.floraproactiv.co.uk/article/detail/1055354/saturated . -and-unsaturated-fats
