Fat makes fat. In terms of weight management, it is a killer: 1g of fat has almost twice as many kilojoules as 1g of carbohydrate or protein. Too much fat can also be bad for your heart.

It clearly makes sense to cut fat intake, yet you do need to include some fat in your diet – your body simply can't function without it.

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It isn't hard to get the balance right. The golden rule is to limit unhealthy fats, mainly saturated fats from animal products and trans fatty acids (like hard margarine, coffee creamers and coconut); and to include healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats from plant oils (canola and olive oil, avocado pear and peanut butter).

In terms of lowering your overall fat intake, here are a few useful tips:

• Always choose low-fat or fat-free milk and dairy products. These options can also sometimes replace cream in recipes.
• Go for soft rather than hard margarines.
• Wait until toast has cooled before spreading margarine or butter onto it, and spread thinly.
• Choose lower-fat (sometimes labelled light or "lite") options for mayonnaise, bottled salad dressings and margarines, and use them sparingly.
• Avoid using two "fats" (for instance butter plus peanut butter, or mayonnaise plus avocado) on bread. Choose one, and don't go overboard.
• Remove all visible fat from meat before preparation. Steer clear of the skin of chicken and other poultry (ideally remove it prior to cooking; if not, definitely remove it before eating).
• Eat red meat only two or three times a week. Use lean meat options, such as lean mince, lean beef or lamb, ostrich or venison. Just so you know, the fattiest meat is lamb, followed by beef, pork, chicken, ostrich and then venison.
• Eat fish (fresh or canned) once or twice a week.
• Avoid processed meats such as ham and salami.
• Don't add extra fat - margarine, butter, cream, mayonnaise, oil or cheese - during food preparation.
• Concentrate on low-fat cooking methods where possible. Boil, steam, grill, braai over the coals, bake in the oven or poach wherever you can. When you need to fry, it's useful to know that a stir-fry in a non-stick wok or pan requires just a drop of oil. Another trick is to get your pan good and hot before you add canola or olive oil - you'll need to use much less. Better still check out the "fat-free frying" methods below.
• Limit gravies and sauces.
• Read nutrition labels for fat content - don't rely on packaging declarations. A product is "low fat" if it contains less than 3g fat/100g and "fat free" if it has less than 0.5g fat/100g. There's a wide range of foods that have a fat content of between 3% and 10%; aim for 10 to 13g fat per meal.

Fat-free frying
The way in which you prepare food can go a long way towards lowering the fat content of your meals. When browning meat, chicken or vegetables, stock with water or vegetable juices can be used instead of oil. A non-stick frying pan is useful, but not essential. There will be little difference in the flavour of the final dish, although sautéing food without using oil or butter does take a little longer.

Simply follow these steps when doing fat-free frying:

• Fill a teacup halfway with boiling water and add a teaspoon of stock powder. Stir until dissolved and then fill the cup to the top with red or white wine. If you don’t drink alcohol, vegetable juice or apple juice can be used instead.
• Place chopped onion to sauté in a frying pan over high heat. Toss the onion with a wooden spoon as it begins to cook. When it starts to brown and stick to the pan, add a few teaspoons of the stock mixture to the pan (enough to cause a cloud of steam without making the onion simmer).
• Continue tossing until the onion begins to stick again and then pour in the rest of the stock mixture, stirring until the brownish residue has lifted off the bottom of the pan.
• Cover with a lid and leave for 5-10 minutes until the fluid has reduced and the onions will be soft, brown and slightly caramelised.
• Add other ingredients, proceding as you normally would.

- (Health24, January 2008)

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	fat 2/4/2008 1:10:52 PM fat - gretha   Raw fats are good, cooked fats are bad 2/4/2008 6:57:02 PM I urge everyone reading this article to not simply believe the views of so called "experts" out right. Do your own research into the myth of saturated fats and heart disease, you will see there are differing schools of thought, and there is no direct evidence that saturated fats cause heart disease. I leave you with the example of the primitive Eskimos, who ate a diet of 90% raw animal products, including a large percentage of raw saturated animal fat and had no heart problems. - Oliver Powell   Coconut Oil is saturated and healthy! 2/4/2008 6:59:37 PM Also, with regards to Coconut Oil , do a bit of googling and you will find that many doctors (not that this makes it right) agree that Coconut Oil is one of the healthiest alongside Olive Oil that you can consume, and superior to Olive Oil for cooking purposes. This article is clearly misguided. Please do your own research never trust experts. - Oliver Powell   Fat, podgy, plumpolicious, love handles etc. 2/4/2008 9:14:37 PM Never trust experts? Eskimos have a genetic predisposition to process fat alot more efficiently than other ethnic groups from other areas. Eskimos survived on that eating lifestyle for ages. Don't go gorging on fat now please... - Mike   Really? 2/4/2008 9:44:36 PM Thats pretty funny because I eat a diet pretty high in saturated fat and I don't seem to be getting any fatter, i guess I must have Eskimo blood? I also guess the entire forum of people in the raw food forum I belong to that eat the same way also have this magical predisposition, pretty remarkable! You should get the book "Trust us, we're experts", look for it on amazon. - Oliver Powell   I agree with Oliver Powell 2/5/2008 6:06:36 AM Do some (wide) research before changing any form of your lifestyle. I have personal experience of family members being encouraged to induce HUUGE amounts of carcogenic materials to assist with weight control. Now that they have full-blown cancer, they are told that they should have know better! Watch out for "experts". - George   Cut the fat 2/5/2008 8:18:39 AM Rou vleis is ons voorland. Ek dink hierdie artikel kom direk van Eskom af.Eskimos het nie hart probleme nie......hulle vier ook nie Valentines day nie - Julie   Low fat 2/5/2008 8:19:47 AM The author says use low fat products like milk and mayonnaise and the goes on to say read the labels as low fat still contains 3% fat. Everyone says use low fat milk when full cream milk is only 5% compared to 3% of low fat, so you save yourself 2g of fat on 1 liter of milk. And the dairies have conned every one into buying their bi products because it is "healthy" for you. - Shmee   Fat 2/5/2008 8:22:47 AM fat makes fat but any thing that you eat more than what you burn turn into fat. The reason why Eskimo's dont suffer fom haert problems is their lifestyle active and not severly stressed get more exercise(walking running cycling swiming horse riding, gardening and sex (one partner only otherwise the stress factor comes back) Sleep wel work hard and play hard love without limits and get a pet soon there wil be less of you to worry about Enjoy life - Jan Terblanche
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