Five simple steps to lower the fat in your cooking

The question that many people struggle with is whether fat should be avoided all together in a diet? The answer is NO! The human body needs fat for a number of reasons. It helps to maintain healthy skin and hair; it transports the crucial fat-soluble vitamins A, D and K; it helps a person feel satisfied after a meal because it slows down the emptying of food from the stomach and it supplies some of the essential fatty acids – the structural components of fat that the body needs, especially for manufacturing of certain hormones.

The question then is how much dietary fat does the body need? In lay-person’s terms; the body needs only about 1 tablespoon of dietary fat a day. But unfortunately, it is not that easy. Most people are taking in way too much dietary fat. The reason is that much of it is hidden in processed meats, pastries, other commercial baked goods and prepared foods such as French-fried potatoes, ready-made dinners, fast-foods, etc.

Taking into consideration that dietary fat is a necessity, the only objective then is to simply manage and control the intake of dietary fat by lowering the fat in your cooking. 

Here are 5 simple steps to lower the fat in your cooking:

1. Polyunsaturated or monounsaturated oils can help to reduce the cholesterol levels in the blood and therefore even health specialists recommend the use of these type of oils as the best choice for salads and for cooking. It is a proven fact that Safflower oil (family of the sunflower) is the most polyunsaturated of the many types of cooking oil. Others in descending order are sunflower, soybean, maize and sesame oil.  Commercially produced salad dressings may be loaded with saturated oils and therefore home-made salad dressing can be made by mixing 4 parts polyunsaturated vegetable oil  with 1 part yoghurt and 1 part lemon juice; adding seasoning to taste.

2. The yolk of an egg already contains a day’s quota of cholesterol. Therefore, limit egg yolks to three or four a week. Contrary to yolks, egg whites can be eaten as much as a person wants. They are a low-kilo joule source of protein. In preparing recipes containing eggs, discard every second yolk – this means for instance, make an omelette with two whites and one yolk. The same with pancake recipes, French toast, etc. You won’t notice the difference.

3. Instead of frying food, use low-fat cooking methods such as poaching, roasting and grilling.

4. Switch to leaner meats and other sources of protein. Instead of mince, sausages or fatty steaks; choose fillet, or rump or veal. Include more fish and poultry without skin in menus.

5. Select condiments with care. Try to avoid tartare sauce and mayonnaise, which is high in fat. Replace mayonnaise with mustard or plain low-fat yoghurt with crushed garlic added.