Am I supposed to count how many calories I eat every day or am I allowed only a certain amount of fat grams per day? Which do I monitor? A: It all depends on you, your body’s chemistry and what works best for you, babe.
Both are intended to help you understand the fat content of foods. However, looking at fat grams is probably the most useful way to monitor how much fat you’re getting in your daily diet.
Health experts at the Institute of Medicine recommend that healthy adults get Only 20 to 35 percent of their total calories from fat. Each gram of fat has 9 calories. So, if you’re trying to eat 1,800 calories a day, you should have no more than 70 grams of fat a day.
Fat Grams Per Day
This amount blew my mind considering that I try to stay under 10-20 grams of fat per day. Normally, I don’t look at -nor care - how many calories there are in my food; I watch & count the fat grams. This may not work for you however. Counting calories might be better, if not healthier, for you. If you’re a reasonably active person, walk much during your day at work, are the type of person that takes the stairs instead of the elevator, then you are burning calories all day long. Watching your fat gram intake might work best for you. And conversely, the opposite if you’re not as active or burning that many calories per day.
Calories Per Day
Regardless — 35 percent of 1,800 calories = 630 calories. But don’t forget, you still have to divide that by 9 (the number of calories per gram of fat) = 70 grams. Is this just too confusing or what?
Food labels also list calories and calories from fat per serving. So if a food label says 250 calories and 110 fat calories, it means that almost half the food’s calories come from fat. That’s not necessarily a reason to avoid that food, though. For example, 55 percent of the calories in part-skim mozzarella cheese come from fat, but a 1-ounce serving (28.47 grams) has just 4 grams of fat and 72 total calories.
The percentages you see on food labels are designed to show how much of a specific nutrient a food contains compared with the Daily Value (DV). The DV is based on a 2,000-calorie diet. So, for example, if the label lists 18 percent next to fat it means that the food provides 18 percent of the suggested daily total for fat. You may be eating more or less than 2,000 calories a day, but this percentage can still help you choose foods that are lower in fat.
So, what are you going to do? Count fat grams? Or count calories? We would be interested in finding out what works best for you. . . . so blog it and let us know.
KINDS OF FATS
Most foods contain several different kinds of fats — including saturated, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and trans fats — and some kinds are better for your health than others are.
You don’t need to completely eliminate all fats from your meals. Instead, choose the healthier types of fats and enjoy them in moderation.
Healthy Fats:
When choosing fats, your best options are unsaturated fats: monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. These fats, if used in place of others, can lower your risk of heart disease by reducing the total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels in your blood.
Monounsaturated fat remains liquid at room temperature but may start to solidify in the refrigerator. Foods high in monounsaturated fat include olive, peanut and canola oils. Avocados and most nuts also have high amounts of monounsaturated fat.
Polyunsaturated fat is usually liquid at room temperature and in the refrigerator. Foods high in polyunsaturated fats include vegetable oils, such as safflower, corn, sunflower, soy and cottonseed oils.
Omega-3 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fats found mostly in seafood and may be especially beneficial to your heart, appear to decrease the risk of coronary artery disease and may also protect against irregular heartbeats and help lower blood pressure levels.
Below are the best food sources of these healthy fats:
- Flaxseed Oils
- Cold-water fish, such as salmon, mackerel and herring
- Fish Oils
- Many nuts
- Basil, Oregano, Chinese Broccoli, Cloves
Harmful Fats
Saturated and trans fats are less healthy kinds of fats. They can increase your risk of heart disease by increasing your total and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. Dietary cholesterol isn’t technically a fat, but it’s found in food derived from animal sources. Intake of dietary cholesterol increases blood cholesterol levels, but not as much as saturated and trans fats do, and not to the same degree in all people.
Here are how these fats differ and what their common food sources are:
Saturated fat: Usually solid or waxy at room temperature, saturated fat is most often found in animal products such as red meat, poultry, butter, whole milk and half and half. Other foods high in saturated fat include coconut, palm and other tropical oils.
Trans fat: Also referred to as trans-fatty acids, trans fat comes from adding hydrogen to vegetable oil through a process called hydrogenation. This makes the fat more solid and less likely to spoil. Hydrogenated fat is a common ingredient in commercial baked goods such as crackers, cookies and cakes and in fried foods, such as doughnuts and french fries. Shortenings and some margarines also are high in trans fat. Food manufacturers are required to list trans fat content on nutrition labels. Amounts less than 0.5 grams per serving are listed as 0 grams trans fat on the food label.
Dietary cholesterol: Your body naturally manufactures all of the cholesterol it needs, but you also get cholesterol from animal products, such as meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, dairy products, lard and butter.
Tips for choosing the best types of fat
Bottom Line? ~ Limit the fat in your diet, but don’t try to cut it out completely. Focus on reducing foods high in saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol, and select more foods made with unsaturated fats. Consider these tips when making your choices:
■ Saute with olive oil instead of butter.
■ Use olive oil in salad dressings and marinades. Use canola oil when baking.
■ Sprinkle slivered nuts or sunflower seeds on salads instead of bacon bits.
■ Snack on a small handful of nuts rather than potato chips or processed crackers. Or try peanut butter or other nut-butter spreads — nonhydrogenated — on celery, bananas, or rice or popcorn cakes.
■ Add slices of avocado, rather than cheese, to your sandwich.
■ Prepare fish such as salmon and mackerel, which contain monounsaturated and omega-3 fats, instead of meat one or two times a week.
