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.

How cholesterol affects heart health

 

The primary source of dietary cholesterol is foods of animal origin, with eggs, red meats, dairy products and prawns very high in cholesterol. 

The main concern is that regardless of the dietary intake of cholesterol, the human body continues to produce cholesterol every day. The body is in a position to try to balance the cholesterol it manufactures with what it takes in by means of food, tending to produce less and to eliminate more in response to a high cholesterol diet.

In most cases, healthy people are able to maintain a fairly constant level of cholesterol in the bloodstream, although this level may go up as a person advances in age.  A diet high in polyunsaturated fats is normally associated with lower levels of blood cholesterol, whereas a diet high in saturated fats tends to increase the amount of blood cholesterol.

Saturated fats are the main culprit – they are far more potent in raising the blood cholesterol level than a diet rich in cholesterol itself, for instance, eggs. A diet high in saturated fats also causes the body to retain cholesterol taken in the diet. On a diet low in saturated fats, dietary cholesterol has little effect.

Cholesterol appears in the fat deposits that form in the linings of the arteries, causing these arteries to become less elastic. This process is known as atherosclerosis and takes place gradually in any artery of the body. When these fatty deposits become heavy and irregular it is known as plaques. These plaques can restrict or even stop the flow of blood through the arteries or can cause rough spots that may break loose and form a site for blood clots. When this occurs in one of the major arteries of the heart, it causes a coronary. 

It must, however, be stressed that diet is not alone in creating a high risk of heart disease. A person’s heredity, physical activity, smoking habits, body weight, blood pressure and even a person’s personality may all play a part. 

There are two types of cholesterol-carrying lipoproteins who may either protect the body against or promote heart disease. Both of these lipoproteins contain cholesterol but the ‘protective’ higher density ones (HDL) are found in greater amounts in people who are lean, who exercise, drink moderately and who do not smoke,  while the ‘promoting’ lower density ones (LDL) are more prevalent in obese people, sedentary people and people who eat too much fat. 

In high risk people the majority of them have blood cholesterol levels that put them at risk of heart attack. A change towards a lower-fat, lower-cholesterol diet is a must. Those with additional risk factors such as a family history of heart disease, overweight, high blood pressure, smoking or diabetes should cut down on fats and cholesterol even further. 

It is a proven fact that lowering blood cholesterol will lower the risk of coronary heart disease.

Danie