How to trim down the sat fat

THIS week the Food Standards Agency launches a campaign to drive down the nation's saturated fat intake. Nutritionist LYNNE GARTON explains how to become a sat fat detective and reveals easy ways and to cut your intake dramatically...

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FATTY Cakes contain high levels of sat fat FATTY: Cakes contain high levels of sat fat

There is much confusion about fat. Talk to a group of people and the majority would say it’s unhealthy and of course, fattening.

While it’s true that too much fat in our diet can pile on the pounds, it is not just overweight people who need to be fat aware.

More specifically, there is one particular fat, saturated fat, which is considered unhealthy and one that everyone needs to be conscious of.

As a nation we eat too much of it – around 20 per cent more than the recommended amount. So, although you may be slim on the outside, you may be putting your health at risk by being fat on the inside.

Why is saturated fat so bad?

Fat can be divided into two main classes – saturated (bad) and unsaturated (good).

A lot of sat fats come from dairy A lot of sat fats come from dairy

“Saturated fat is often termed the ‘bad’ fat because eating too much can increase cholesterol levels in the blood,” says Dr Sarah Berry, lecturer in nutritional sciences at King’s College London.

“Over a period of time this can build up in our blood vessels causing them to narrow and eventually block. This increases the risk of diseases such as heart problems and stroke.”

At a time when one in three deaths is due to cardiovascular disease (the combined name for heart disease and stroke), it has been estimated that a poor diet is responsible for one third of these.

In fact, reducing our intake of saturated fat to below the recommended amount could prevent up to 3,500 deaths a year.

Nevertheless, we do need some fat in our diet.

It helps us absorb certain vitamins, makes our food tasty and is important for making cells and hormones. For this reason it’s important to choose the right type of fat and the right amount.

“We should be replacing saturated fats with the unsaturated fats, or good fats, to help lower blood cholesterol,” says Dr Berry. “Good fats are found in oils such as sunflower and olive oil, margarines made from these oils, nuts and in oily fish.”

Remember though that if you are watching your weight, both saturated and unsaturated fats are high in calories. In fact weight for weight they contain the same amount of calories.

Where is it found?

On the whole most saturated fats come from animal and dairy foods. Sometimes it is easy to spot the saturated fat, such as the fat rind on meat. However it’s not always that obvious. The major sources in the UK diet include:

* Fatty meats and meat products such as sausages, burgers and meat pies

* Full-fat dairy foods

* Butter

* Cakes, biscuits and pastries

* Chocolates, ice-cream and dairy desserts

How much should we be eating?

It would be difficult to cut out all the saturated fat from our diets and so the Food Standards Agency advises that the average adult man should have no more than 30g of saturated fat a day and an average woman no more than 20g a day.

What’s shocking is how easy it is to eat this amount without even realising. A typical cooked breakfast can have a whopping 16g. That innocent looking mid-morning latte contains nearly 5g.

A cheese and pickle sandwich at lunch may have over 13g of saturated fat. A chocolate chip muffin as an afternoon snack can contain more than 9g. Two quarter pounder burgers at dinner, another 17g.

In total this adds up to an astounding 60g of saturated fat a day, over three times the recommended amount for a woman.

Cut down during cooking

* Cut down the amount of meat you have in a week; instead choose fish or turkey/ chicken without the skin.

* Use less meat in recipes. Instead have more vegetables, pulses (chickpeas, beans and lentils) or soya mince to replace the meat.

* Choose the leanest meat you can and cut off any visible fat.

* Use unsaturated oils such as olive, sunflower or rapeseed instead of butter, lard and ghee in cooking.

* If you use cheese in a recipe, choose a stronger flavoured one so that you use less, or try a reduced-fat cheese.

Be aware when shopping

* Check the label and choose the foods that are lower in saturated fat. Five grams or more of saturated fat per 100g of food is considered high, 1.5g or less per 100g is low.

* Watch out for the different terms for saturated fat: saturates, saturated fat or sat fat all mean the same thing.

Limit your snacking

* Eating regularly and including plenty of fibre-rich foods at meal times will keep you full for longer and less likely to snack.

* If you are going to have something sweet, instead of cakes or biscuits, try having a currant bun, scone or some malt loaf with a reduced fat spread. Need something savoury? Try unsalted nuts.

* Limit the amount of sausages, salami, pâté, beefburgers, pies and sausage rolls you eat.

While there is no such thing as a “good” or “bad” food, being aware of the foods that are high in saturated fat and making small changes to our shopping, cooking and eating habits can bring big benefits to our overall diet and health.

You can still have your cake and eat it, just watch how often and choose carefully.

* To learn more about saturated fat and to calculate your intake go to

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