Low-Fat Foods
Low-Fat Foods
Eating Lighter and Liking It
You've been down the low-fat trail countless times before. You know that the secret to looking good and living long is to clean up your act and get all that grease, lard and oil out of your diet. So you slash fat with a vengeance, blow your grocery budget on some green-colored "health food" and pretend that you're happy.
It doesn't take long before your taste buds start to tingle, your stomach begins to rumble and your imagination runs amok with bizarre images of oversize ice cream sundaes, sizzling steaks and buckets of golden-brown french fries. Before you know it, you're loading your shopping cart with enough chips and Twinkies to fill a warehouse. And another diet attempt bites the dust.
Low-fat eating used to be a lonely, miserable experience--thin on flavor and hardly satisfying. But these days, we don't have to starve, suffer or sacrifice taste to trim the excess fat from our diets. Today, supermarkets offer an array of fresh produce and aisle after aisle of satisfying, good-tasting low- or reduced-fat items that make keeping an eye on fat a piece of cake.
"It's a misconception that cutting back on fat means giving up all the foods we love," says Judy Dodd, R.D., former president of the American Dietetic Association and a food and nutrition adviser. "There are no bad foods, only bad eating habits, which are easy to change if you take things one step at a time." Here's how.
A Diet for Longer Life What if a special kind of low-fat diet would take you farther than you think--even into extra decades? Some scientists say that if you sharply reduce the total number of calories you eat, you may live years or even decades longer. The catch? This diet must be forever--and it calls for loads of self-denial. The Very Low Calorie Diet (VLCD) is also called a modified fast. Some researchers define VLCDs as diets containing 800 calories or less per day. But others consider a low-fat, nutrient-packed diet of up to 1,800 calories per day for women or men to be a reasonable modified fast. And it works, says Roy Walford, M.D., professor of pathology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and author of The 120-Year Diet. Dr. Walford served as chief medical officer for Biosphere 2--a closed ecosystem in Arizona where for two years the resident scientists experienced an unexpected food shortage. On strict daily rations of 1,800 to 2,200 calories (instead of the normal 2,500 they expected given their high levels of physical activity), they all lost weight and showed marked reductions in blood pressure and cholesterol. These results are consistent with food restriction in rodents, which increased life span and slowed down almost all age-associated physical changes and diseases, says Edward J. Masoro, Ph.D., a physiologist and director of the Aging Research and Education Center of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. But Dr. Masoro feels that a long-term modified fast is "unchartered" in humans and doubts that many people would adopt such a strict diet for most of their life span. But if you're a closet Spartan, here's how to do a VLCD safely. Ask your doctor to help. No one should embark on a long-term fasting diet without medical supervision, experts say. Know your history. If you are prone to gallstones, steer clear of VLCDs, says James E. Everhart, M.D., of the Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Studies have shown that up to 25 percent of people on VLCDs develop gallstones, he says. Eat no junk. "A healthy modified fast has to be very high in nutrients, with no junk food," says Dr. Walford. There's simply no room for high-fat food or wasted calories. Read Pritikin. Next to The 120-Year Diet, the diet closest to that of the Biosphere team is the Pritikin Longevity Center plan--largely vegetarian, high in fiber and with only ten percent of its calories from fat, says Dr. Walford. No alcohol. The Biosphere results came from an alcohol-free modifed fast, Dr. Walford says. Take a vitamin and mineral supplement. "Take a multivitamin with at least the Recommended Dietary Allowance of everything to avoid deficiencies," says Dr. Walford. Additionally, the Biosphere team took 400 IU of vitamin E and 500 milligrams of vitamin C each day. |
Do Your Body a Favor
Suppose you've gotten along fine for years with your old favorites. Or you're not particularly overweight. Do you really need to bother changing to a low-fat lifestyle as you get older? The answer is a resounding yes. Most experts agree that a high-fat diet is a major cause of all kinds of killers, including cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke and some types of cancer.
If a long, disease-free life isn't a good enough reason to go low-fat, here are three you can't ignore: your hips, your thighs and your tummy. "The fat you eat is much more likely to become the fat you carry," says Robert Kushner, M.D., director of the Nutrition and Weight Control Clinic at the University of Chicago. "Fat contains about nine calories per gram, which is about twice as many calories as proteins and carbohydrates. And unlike proteins and carbohydrates, which are easily burned and metabolized by the body, fatty foods burn slowly and are more likely to be stored in the fatty areas of the body."
The problem, says Dr. Kushner, is that our bodies store excess calories as fat cells. If we ate 100 calories of fat, almost all would be stored as fat cells on our waist and hips. But in converting the same amount of carbohydrates or protein to storage fat, your body would actually burn up about 20 percent of that total. In other words, fewer calories are converted to body fat when we eat carbs and proteins than when we eat fat alone.
In fact, a wealth of scientific research indicates that just a little less fat in your diet can lead to a trimmer, slimmer you. According to one study at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, people on low-fat diets lose weight even when they don't try to restrict their total calories or the amount of food they eat. For eleven weeks, the thirteen participants in this study merely reduced their fat intake to 20 to 25 percent of total calories and, in the process, lost weight at the rate of about one-half pound per week. Best of all, they experienced no hunger pangs, cravings or depression.
Studies also show that a low-fat diet reduces your risk of developing chronic disease. James W. Anderson, M.D., and researchers at the University of Kentucky showed that adults 30 to 50 years old with moderately high levels of serum cholesterol (the artery-clogging substance that produces high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke) can lower their cholesterol levels by as much as 9 percent just by trimming their fat intake to 25 percent of total calories. What's more, when that low-fat diet is coupled with a high intake of soluble fiber (the fat-free substance found in oat bran and whole-grain products), serum cholesterol can be reduced even further: up to 13 percent.
The bottom line: If health and longevity are among your goals, low-fat foods can help take you there.
THE FAT TALLY This table lists the percentages of saturated and unsaturated fat in commonly used cooking oils and fats. (The percentages may not add up to 100 percent since many of these fats have small amounts of other fatty substances.)
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Facts on Fat
So this all means that fat is a bad thing, right? Wrong! Actually, it's an essential nutrient that acts as a source of energy for the body and provides vital compounds to our body's cells so they can carry out their daily functions.
It's only when we eat too much fat--which most women do--that fat has the potential to start trouble. "The typical American woman gets as much as 40 percent of her calories from fat, which is far too much," says Diane Grabowski, R.D., nutrition educator at the Pritikin Longevity Center in Santa Monica, California. "That's much, much higher than the diets of other cultures. It's no coincidence that America also has a much higher incidence of heart disease and obesity than other nations in the world."
Most foods contain some fat in one quantity or another. Sometimes it's visible, like on a piece of steak; other times it's carefully hidden. And the make-up of fat can differ from food to food. When you look at it under a microscope, fat actually consists of compounds called fatty acids. Nutritionists have identified three primary fatty acids based on their chemical composition: saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated.
Every fatty food contains these three fatty acids in different combinations. For example, animal fats, butter and tropical oils (like palm and coconut oil) have extremely high concentrations of saturated fats. Margarine, fish and certain cooking oils (like safflower and corn oil) contain mostly polyunsaturated fat. And other oils (like canola and olive oil) as well as avocados and certain nuts, consist mostly of monounsaturated fats.
All three types are equally fattening to our waistlines, so if you're watching your fat intake, it's best to cut back on all three. But experts believe we should place extra emphasis on eating fewer foods that are high in saturated fats. "Saturated fats tend to raise the level of cholesterol in the blood, which raises the risk of heart disease," says Grabowski.
Monounsaturated fats, on the other hand, do not seem to produce this rise in blood cholesterol levels, while studies have shown that polyunsaturated fats can actually lower your cholesterol count. That's why if you are going to be using oils in your cooking or eating foods that do contain fat, you are much better off if those foods or oils contain mostly monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats.
Low-Fat Superstars
Cutting fat shouldn't be an all-or-nothing affair. In fact, many of the foods you love are already low in fat. And others aren't so bad--as long as you don't eat them every day. Here are some choices that Grabowski recommends that you include on your low-fat menu.
Potatoes and sweet potatoes. Spuds--of the baked variety--are a light and filling energy source. Just don't smother them with butter, sour cream or gravy.
Legumes. Beans, peas and lentils offer the same essential vitamins, minerals and proteins found in meats, but virtually none of the fat.
Fruits and vegetables. While there are a handful of high-fat fruits and vegetables (such as avocados and coconuts), most contain very little or no fat. And what little you find is usually monounsaturated or polyunsaturated. Fruits and veggies are also excellent sources of nutrients such as fiber, vitamins, minerals and carbohydrates.
Whole-grain breads and cereals, pastas, and brown rice. These foods are virtually fat-free, unless we overload them with butter and sauces. They're also our best sources for complex carbohydrates--the nutrients that give our bodies the most reliable, long-lasting form of energy--and fiber, which fights disease and aids digestion.
Fish and fowl. A low-fat diet doesn't mean you have to go without meat. If you make fish, shellfish and poultry your primary meat sources, you'll get all the protein and minerals of red meats, but not nearly as much fat.
Lose the Fat, Keep the Flavor
You don't have to go cold turkey to cut back on your fat intake. Some simple, gradual changes to your eating habits are all it takes to make some major reductions. "Look at what you're already eating and how you could eat the same foods with less fat," advises Susan Kayman, R.D., Dr.P.H., a dietitian and consultant with the Kaiser Permanente Medical Group in Oakland, California. Here are some suggestions.
Don't add fat to a good thing. A lot of the foods we eat are naturally low in fat until we heap on those extras like butter, dressings and creams. Your fat-reducing program can start by using less condiments and fatty add-ons. For example, using only a tablespoon of jam on your morning toast instead of butter will save you 100 calories of fat. Or try mustard on your sandwiches instead of mayo. "In a year's time, that'll make a big difference," Dr. Kayman says.
Season to perfection. Add herbs, spices or tomato or lemon juice to liven up less flavorful foods without adding fat, says Grabowski.
Choose low-fat cheese. Cheese is one of the most common fat boosters in a woman's diet, says researcher Wayne Miller, Ph.D., director of the Indiana University Weight Loss Clinic in Bloomington. Most cheeses average about 66 percent of calories from fat, but some shoot well into the 80 percent range. You can generally distinguish high- and low-fat varieties by their color, Dr. Miller says; white cheeses like mozzarella, Swiss, ricotta and Parmesan are lower in fat than yellow cheeses like cheddar and American.
Minimize milk fat. Switching from whole milk to 1 percent can substantially cut your fat intake: 1 percent milk gets 23 percent of its calories from fat, while whole milk gets 48 percent. For better results, choose skim milk; it has virtually no fat. If you have trouble getting used to the taste of skim or low-fat milk, Dr. Miller suggests you make the transition slowly, combining it with regular whole milk and gradually increasing the amount of skim or 1 percent in the mix.
Try low-fat versions of your favorites. "It's harder to totally swear off ice cream than to simply trade it for low-fat varieties or low-fat frozen yogurt," says Dr. Kayman. These days, with all the special low-fat and nonfat products available, finding healthy alternatives to favorite foods is easier than it's ever been. One study found that substituting fat-free products in just seven categories (cream cheese, sour cream, salad dressing, frozen desserts, processed cheese, baked sweets and cottage cheese) cut fat intake by 14 percent a day.
Look for leaner meats. There's room for red meat in a low-fat diet if you make the right choices and eat it only two or three times a week, says Dodd. Best choices include cuts like London broil, eye of round steak and sirloin tip, which get less than 40 percent of their calories from fat. Keep portions to about three or four ounces (the size of a deck of cards), trim all visible fat off before cooking and prepare it by grilling, broiling or baking.
Forgo frying. Cutting back on fried foods will cut a load of fat from your diet. Cooking anything in oil, even lean poultry, boosts its fat content considerably, says Dr. Miller. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the average breaded fried chicken sandwich at a fast-food joint has 15 grams more fat than a quarter-pound burger. Go instead for broiled or baked foods, he suggests.
Skin the bird. Chicken and turkey are already leaner alternatives to beef and pork, says Grabowski, but you make them even leaner if you peel the skin off before eating.
Fridge and skim. Grabowski recommends an easy way to make gravies and broths less fatty: After cooking, just stick them in the refrigerator for several hours. Much of the fat will congeal and rise to the top, and all you'll have to do is skim it off with a spoon or a strainer. When you're ready to serve, just reheat or microwave.
Fill up when hunger strikes. If you replace fat with other more filling, nutrient-dense foods, you can actually eat more and still lose pounds or maintain a healthy weight, says Annette Natow, R.D., Ph.D., of N.R.H. Nutrition Consultants in Valley Stream, New York, and co-author of The Fat Attack Plan. Count on carbohydrates--pasta, cereals, breads, beans and most fresh vegetables and fruits--to fill you up without the fat. Most of these foods in their whole or unprocessed forms are also full of fiber, which binds with fat and speeds it from your system.
Lose your sweet tooth. Many sugary foods are also high in fat. A chocolate bar, for example, gets most of its calories from fat, says Dr. Natow. Sweet cravings are often really fat cravings in disguise. If you want something sweet, try some fresh fruit or a bowl of sugared breakfast cereal with low-fat milk, she says. Or when you're cooking, use cocoa, which has less fat than baking chocolate.
YOUR PERSONAL GOALS This chart shows you the maximum number of grams of fat you should be eating each day to both ensure that you're getting no more than 20 percent of your total calories from fat and maintain your current weight. If you're trying to lose weight, aim for the fat limit of your goal weight.
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Managing Your Fat Intake
By following the guidelines above, you should be able to cut your fat intake to about 30 percent of total calories, which is the government's official recommendation.
Still, many experts say the 30 percent goal doesn't go far enough. For example, according to Grabowski, the fat-fighting regimen at the Pritikin Center calls for reducing your intake to 10 percent of total calories.
But unless your doctor specifically recommends that you cut back that much, a more realistic goal is around 20 to 25 percent. To achieve that, you'll need to closely monitor the amount of fat you're eating. "It's not enough to know that chips are bad," says Ron Goor, Ph.D., former coordinator of the National Cholesterol Education Program and co-author of Choose to Lose Diet: A Food Lover's Guide to Permanent Weight Loss. "You need to know how bad." Here's what you should do.
Make a fat budget. Knowing how much fat you can eat each day is like having a salary, Dr. Goor says. "Once you know what you can afford, you can blow your budget on a double cheeseburger if you want, as long as you eat less fat for the rest of the day." Your budget is based on your total daily calorie intake.
Keep a food diary. Get hold of a fat- and calorie-counting guide (available at bookstores and supermarkets) and keep a record of all the food you eat for about three days, says Dr. Goor. This will give you a good idea of how your normal diet shapes up. It will heighten your awareness of what you put in your mouth, making you more likely to consider low-fat alternatives. And months from now, it will give you a way to measure your progress.
Check labels. Most packaged foods list their fat content per serving. You'll need to tally these numbers throughout the day and keep a keen eye on portion sizes, which are often unrealistically small, Dr. Goor says. For example, the fat listing on a box of Oreos is for one cookie. If you eat six in a sitting, be sure to multiply accordingly.