Facts About Fat

* Most North Americans eat about 35% more fat than is considered healthy.

* Dietary fat yields more than twice the calories per gram (approximately 9 kcal/g) as that yielded by carbohydrates or protein (approximately 4 kcal/g each).

*Research has linked high dietary fat intake with heart disease, hypertension (high blood pressure), obesity, gall bladder disease, diabetes, liver disease, cancer of the colon and breast cancer in women.

* Reducing saturated fat intake (from animal products) can help reduce blood cholesterol levels.

* A healthy percentage body fat should be about 17 – 22% in men and 19 -24% in women.  These percentages usually increase with advancing age due to an increased sedentary lifestyle.

* The body’s fat stores are used as fuel for moderate, prolonged exercise.  Thus continuous cardiovascular exercise of greater than 12 minutes duration is the best way to reduce fat stores in the body.

Strategies For Reducing Dietary Fat

*When cooking: boil, bake, steam or microwave instead of frying.

* Try to eliminate all deep fried foods.

* Choose the low fat varieties of mayonnaise, salad dressing and gravy.

*Replace sour cream with yougurt.

* Choose low fat (skim or 1%) dairy products, and add milk to coffee rather than cream.

* Mozzarella is by far the least fattening form of cheese because it is made from skim milk.

*Avoid “fast foods”, which are high in fat and salt and low in fibre.

* Choose lean cuts of meat, cut off visible fat  (including poultry skin), and drain off any fat that cooks out of the meat.

TO MAINTAIN PROPER WEIGHT CONTROL AND OPDTIMAL BODY FAT LEVELS, A LIFETIME COMMITMENT TO PROPER EATING HABITS AND REGULAR PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IS REQUIRED!!