Tips on Eating Less Fat at Home

Tips on Eating Less Fat at Home

This chapter is filled with good news. In just one minute, you are going to know how much saturated fat there is in dozens of different foods! Even if you have trouble remembering numbers, this is easy. The reason why this is so easy is because two big food groups contain essentially NO fat.

Think-fruits.

Think-vegetables.

And that’s it. Now you know dozens of foods that contain almost no bad fat. With the exception of avocados and olives, fruits and veg- etable have zero fat.

How many fruits can you think of, including your favorites and others you may not have tried?

Oranges, bananas, mangoes, watermelons, cantaloupes, pears, grapes, honeydews, apples, plums, tangerines, nectarines, apri- cots, peaches, lemons, limes, grapefruits, tomatoes, rhubarb, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries…

You can probably think of even more. As more exotic fruits become available, feel free to try them. All are essentially fat-free. Imagine you are the head of a large ad agency and in charge of creating a series of radio or television commercials for an apple—not the computer-the fruit! With a little thought and imagination, you could create a fantastic commercial for an apple, because the product is so perfect. Think about it-a self-contained, crunchy, delicious, you could healthful snack! With enough resources, just imagine what do to create a commercial for oranges, pears, bananas, strawberries or any other fruit.

Besides the popular Red Delicious apples, there are other tasty varieties such as Golden Delicious, Jonathan, Granny Smith, Rome Beauty, Winesap or Gala. Include them in main dishes or use them in a side dish—their use goes far beyond a simple snack food.

When you think about it, fresh fruits are far more appealing than candy or almost any other fast food or snack. Their natural sweetness and flavor are very satisfying.

Now, how many vegetables can you name?

Carrots, peas, green beans, asparagus, artichokes, squash, cauli- flower, broccoli, turnips, spinach, chard, lettuce, celery, beets, onions, chives, cucumbers, cabbage, potatoes…

And there are many others. Are there some of these you haven’t eaten for a while or thought you didn’t like? Did you know that none of them have any bad fat?

Now, add all the grains and legumes you can think of.

Whole-wheat, corn, oats, rice, split peas, black-eyed peas, pinto beans, navy beans, black beans, red beans, soybeans, barley and more.

They don’t contain fat either.

You can eat and enjoy all these nutritious basic foods and they won’t count against your daily saturated-fat budget limits. Take care in cooking and don’t add fats to sauces or toppings. We’ll help you fig- ure out how to enjoy these things with just a little healthy fat.

In addition to the many vitamins and other nutrients found in fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes, they are a great source of healthy complex carbohydrates and fiber, plus soluble and insoluble fiber.

Dietary fiber is the roughage in plant cell walls that is not broken down or digested by the enzymes in our digestive tracts. Some fiber in wheat, corn, rice or other grains that does not dissolve in water is called insoluble fiber. Insoluble fiber helps prevent colon cancer and intestinal problems.

Soluble fiber is found in dried beans, oats, black-eyed peas, soy- beans, potatoes, fruits and vegetables. This soluble fiber reduces the amount of cholesterol in our bodies-probably acting like little sponges in the intestinal tract absorbing the bile acids,¹ helping them pass from the body. To accomplish this, we must eat more food con- taining soluble fiber than the occasional bowl of oatmeal or a few beans now and then. They must become part of our regular eating pattern.

Oats

Whole-grain cereals like oats, hominy or grits used to be typical breakfast foods. But, the enticing aroma of bacon and eggs along with hurried-up lifestyles, changed the tradition of eating hot cereals for breakfast.

Oats start out with a tough outer husk that is scoured off. Then the oats are partially cooked with steam and crushed with a roller, which is why they are called rolled oats. When finally chopped or cut for faster cooking, they are called one-minute or quick oats. These are the bran-filled oats we want.

Even though some think oatmeal takes a long time to cook, it doesn’t. Cooking oatmeal cereal is quick and easy in the microwave or on the stovetop. Bring water to a boil on the stovetop or in a micro- wave oven, then add the oats and stir into a crunchy breakfast. Prepared instant oats only require adding hot water and giving them a quick stir. Read the labels because some instant oats, especially in individual serving packets, contain saturated fat from coconut, palm or palm-kernel oil. That you don’t need!

Try serving oatmeal with nonfat or lowfat milk, a little maple syrup or sugar and cinnamon or grated orange peel. You may want to add raisins, applesauce, sliced apples or other fruit before cooking. For added texture, top with your favorite cold cereal. Create your own combinations, but avoid using whole milk, cream or butter!

Although many cold breakfast cereals are made of oats, to get enough soluble fiber, you’ll need more than one bowl for breakfast.

Beans

As mentioned previously, soluble fiber reduces the amount of cho- lesterol in our bodies. Beans are one source of soluble fiber.

In the southern United States, black-eyed peas are a traditional food staple. When cooked, these legumes contain 1 gram of soluble fiber per cup. Cooked soybeans are the fiber champions of beans with 1 cup containing 4 grams of soluble fiber. By comparison, oat bran has 3 grams of soluble fiber per cup.

Red kidney beans often found at salad bars are also rich in soluble fiber, proteins and complex carbohydrates. So are pinto beans, a major source of these nutrients in the foods of Mexico and other Latin American countries.

Split peas, great-northern and navy are mild beans with consider- able soluble fiber as well as good flavors. See pages 169-175 for recipes with these excellent legumes.

Although traditional chili is made with beef, a delicious vegetarian chili can be made with pinto beans, onions, tomatoes, chiles and spices. Instead of pinto beans, you can use garbanzos (chick peas) and white kidney beans. Zucchini and carrots are also flavorful additions to vegetarian chili.

What about too many beans? Some people who eat beans or other foods with soluble fiber have uncomfortable and sometimes embar- rassing intestinal gas. Gradually increasing serving sizes over a period of time seems to help the body adapt.

If there is still a problem, some people find taking one or two cap- sules of activated charcoal before eating beans and then an hour later is helpful. There are products available to sprinkle on your food before eating it with the claim that they help to reduce intestinal gas.2 Other suggestions include changing the bean-soaking water two or three times.

Other Sources of Soluble Fiber

Green peas are also rich in soluble fiber. Eat them raw in salads or as a snack food. Or cook them briefly until they are tender, yet crisp. Corn, zucchini, Brussels sprouts, carrots, beets, cabbage, broccoli, egg- plant and onions also are sources of some soluble fiber.

Other fruits and vegetables don’t have much soluble fiber but it all adds up. The point is to make a conscious effort to eat soluble fiber every day. One way is to start your day with oat cereal and include beans and good-sized servings of other sources of soluble fiber in your other meals.

Potatoes and French Fries

Almost everyone likes baked potatoes. They are a good source of sol- uble fiber, especially when the skin is eaten, which we recommend. For those who long for French fries-even though they contain too much bad fat-you can roast or broil potato slivers in a hot oven. Spray lightly with lowfat vegetable-oil cooking spray before cooking. Add a sprinkle of dried herbs for more flavor.

Avocados and Olives

What about avocados and olives which, unlike other vegetables and fruits we know about, contain some saturated fat?

A medium-size avocado contains 5 grams of saturated fat-a lot if you plan to eat the whole avocado. The good news is that avocados also contain quite a bit of good monounsaturated fat. So, avocados eaten in moderation are not all bad. Take your time enjoying small servings instead of large ones.

When you make guacamole, add some finely chopped roasted green chiles, slivered onions and vinegar or lemon juice to the mashed avocado. Then, instead of dipping into the guacamole with tortilla chips or spreading it onto meat (as is traditional), consider adding the guacamole to 4 individual salads consisting of lettuce leaves and sliced tomatoes. That way you will be consuming only about 1 gram of sat- urated fat per serving as you enjoy that incredible avocado flavor.

As for olives, 4 medium-sized olives contain only a trace of satu- rated fat. Judging from the beneficial effects that olives and olive oil seem to have on heart disease in the Mediterranean cultures, it’s prob- ably a good idea to eat a few olives now and then. You can also use moderate amounts of olive oil in salads and in other ways. There is good evidence that the monounsaturated fat in olives, avocados and nuts (without added oil) may actually increase blood levels of health- ful HDL cholesterol.

Coconut is a NO-NO!

Something else that grows on trees is a real problem-coconut. The oil is used extensively in processed foods and especially in baked goods to add flavor and prolong shelf life. Just one tablespoon of coconut oil contains 11.9 grams of saturated fat. Do not use it in cooking. Don’t buy bakery goods made with it.

What about white coconut meat? A quarter cup of shredded coconut contains 6 grams of saturated fat. If you want to use it for fla- vor or texture, be sure each serving contains no more than one table- spoon which equals 1.50 grams of saturated fat.

Gelatin Desserts

Getting back to completely fat-free foods you can enjoy, take a look at the grocery shelves filled with various gelatin desserts which can be served chilled, whipped, mixed with fruit or even blended with ice into a frozen dessert.

These gelatin desserts can also be served with or used as a topping for angel food cake-also fat-free because it’s made with egg whites. Of course, angel food cake can be served plain or with fruit or syrup toppings.

Butter, Margarine and Trans-fatty Acids

Speaking of toppings, one of the big problems is tablespreads used on bread and vegetables. Butter has 7 grams of saturated fat per table- spoon, plus about 0.3 gram of trans-fatty acids. Even though you may not use a tablespoon of butter on a piece of toast or on a sandwich, the bad-fat grams add up rapidly. It’s easy to melt a tablespoon (or more) of butter on a hot baked potato. That’s at least 7.3 grams to consider against your 10- or 20-gram-a-day budget of saturated fat.

Solid-stick and soft margarines also contain worrisome trans-fatty acids in the same amount as the saturated fat. Consider these trans- fatty acids as additional saturated fat.

“What are these trans-fatty acids you’ve been talking about?” you may be wondering. Trans-fatty acids are one of the undesirable by- products produced during the hydrogenating or hardening process involved in turning oils into solid shortenings and margarine.3 Although trans-fatty acids are technically unsaturated fat, they are really bad fats. Like saturated fat, they raise LDL levels. Some reports show they may decrease HDL.

So how much trans-fatty acids are in margarine and what does this all mean? At this time, trans-fatty acids are not listed on any food labels. Why? It is nearly impossible to pin down how much trans-fatty acids there are in margarine because the manufacturers change the composition depending on the availability and prices of components that go into the margarine. As the composition changes, so does the amount of trans-fatty acids.

Some regular margarines with 2 grams of saturated fat per table- spoon typically have up to another 2 grams of trans-fatty acids per tablespoon. The 4 grams of bad fat in the worst kind of margarine is less than 7.3 grams of bad fat in a tablespoon of butter. We consider even 4 grams in a spread is still too much.

There are better choices than solid-stick margarine that starts with 2 grams of saturated fat and 2 grams of trans-fatty acids. We used to think a tablespread with 1 gram of saturated fat per tablespoon was a good choice. The trouble is that there is almost a gram of trans-fatty acid in these 1-gram saturated-fat spreads—including soft margarines.

Manufacturers have improved the taste and texture of spreads over the years without adding much saturated fat. Some are definitely bet- ter than others. You can choose the best-tasting one you can find that contains the least amount of bad fat.

For now, start with the tablespreads with little or no saturated fat. Even the ones labeled “Fat-free or 0 gram saturated fat” actually have just a little. Government rules allow rounding off the numbers so any- thing under 0.5 gram can be listed as 0. Because trans-fatty acids are produced during the hydrogenating or hardening process, a liquid spread with a little saturated fat is likely to have less trans-fatty acids than the soft fat-free tub spreads. Tub spreads have less trans-fatty acids and saturated fat than solid sticks.

In review, solid-stick margarine usually has almost 2 grams of trans-fatty acid plus 1 to 2 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon. Soft margarine usually has almost 1 gram of trans-fatty acids, plus 1 gram of saturated fat per tablespoon. “Fat-free” tablespreads are likely to have less than 0.5 grams of saturated fat and about the same amount of trans-fatty acids.

A helpful clue is to look at the list of ingredients, which are always listed in the order of amount in the product. One very safe ingredi- ent-water-usually heads the list in safer spreads. It tells you the spread probably has relatively little trans-fatty acid and saturated fat. Conversely, do not eat margarine or tablespreads that begin the list of ingredients with the words liquid, partly or partially.

What can you do? There are several good solutions. One is to eat bread and toast dry-without any spread or oil. Almost any spread is loaded with calories. You may like honey on your bread or toast, but remember that it is concentrated sugar. Lots of calories! Bread + spread is usually fattening! Instead, why not consider a mashed banana, fresh or frozen strawberries, raspberries or fresh, canned or frozen peaches?

You can also use jam on toast instead of any spread. Another idea is to dip bread or toast in a mild olive oil like Italians and others in the Mediterranean area do. In some Italian restaurants, you’ll find a little dish of olive oil on the table. This olive oil may be flavored with bal- samic vinegar, garlic or herbs.

At other times, you may want to pick the best-tasting fat-free spread possible-perhaps one of the newer butter-flavored liquid- sprays.

As you choose spreads and other products, be aware that foods containing hydrogenated vegetable oils as in solid margarine or short- ening also contain trans-fatty acids in addition to the saturated fat listed on the label.

We suggest completely avoiding solid-stick margarine and care- fully keeping track of the amount of trans-fatty acids and saturated fat in everything from potato chips to soft margarines.

Ice Cream and Frozen Yogurt

Just as there have been giant steps in better tasting and healthier table- spreads, it has been exciting so to see progress in the development of lowfat and fat-free ice cream and frozen yogurt. You will be surprised and delighted as you check out the labels on the frozen-dessert prod- ucts at your supermarket.

Breads, White Flour and Sugar

Most ordinary bread has only a half to one gram of saturated fat serving-usually 1 slice, 1 roll or 1 bun. A half gram or so isn’t much bad fat, but a sandwich is typically 2 slices and that can be 1 to 2 grams of saturated fat, not counting whatever is spread onto the bread.

A big problem with bread is calories. It’s easy to consume calories while eating bread. Eating too much bread, or other things made with white flour or lots of sugar, is a problem for three reasons:

1. Increased calories make it difficult for most people to con- trol weight-some more than others.
2. Consuming calories is a big problem for anyone who has a triglyceride problem. Whenever someone with a triglyceride problem consumes many calories, the triglyceride level in the blood increases almost immediately. So, even if your overnight fasting triglyceride levels seem controlled, if your triglycerides have ever been over 150, your triglyceride level will rise for a while every time you eat a lot of calories.
3. Eating high-calorie foods makes it difficult for those with diabetes to control their blood-sugar levels.

Is there an answer? For one thing, cut down on foods containing sugar.

What about bread and other things made with refined carbohy- drates? Looking at the big picture, a slice of white bread now and then probably isn’t a problem. It’s very easy to eat lots and lots of white bread without feeling full. Try switching from white bread to whole- wheat or multi-grain breads especially if you have problems control- ling weight, triglycerides or diabetes.

As you set out to choose your favorite whole-wheat bread, you will find all sorts of variations. Just the color won’t tell you if it’s really whole-wheat or not. Also, read the label for saturated-fat information.

For an occasional alternative to whole-wheat bread, one of the best-tasting breads you can buy or make is genuine French bread- especially when it’s fresh. French bread is also called baguettes or petit pain, referring to the shape or size of the loaf. Traditional French bread has a simple lineup of ingredients: flour, water, a little salt and a little sugar. There’s no oil!

Not every slender crusty loaf labeled “French Bread” is made with- out oil. Oil is sometimes added for flavor and a softer texture. If you make your own French bread, you’ll know it is fat-free.

We encourage you to eat plain bagels which are often fat-free. Egg bagels typically have over a half gram of fat. When you eat bagels, think about using a lowfat topping or spread. Fat-free cream cheese is one good choice. Forget about eating popovers and doughnuts. They soak up lots of fat, which you don’t need!

Eggs

Even though we may have convinced you to eat oatmeal or another cereal most of the time for breakfast, it’s still difficult to forget about eggs. Eggs taste great! Whether poached, boiled, scrambled or in a fancy omelet, they are quick and easy to prepare. One egg yolk contains 212 mg of cholesterol-more than a day’s ration of choles- terol for people at high risk. Those two-egg breakfasts or three-egg omelets contain 424 to 636 mg of cholesterol-all at once!

An egg yolk has lots of cholesterol, but an egg white doesn’t-no saturated fat either! Even though egg whites are great in angel food cake and in other baked things, it’s not very exciting to think about cooking a skillet of plain egg whites. Even so, you can prepare omelets made with egg whites or egg substitutes and they’ll taste better than you may think.

Those who love eggs don’t have to give them up completely. You’ve probably seen several egg-substitute products. They come dried, frozen or fresh in the market dairy case. Most of these products are made with egg whites, natural flavors, guar gum and a small amount of corn oil. Essentially, they contain NO FAT or CHOLESTEROL. They work well for most baking. For those who find the substitutes bland, try adding a dash of spice, hot sauce or fresh herbs for a tasty omelet or scrambled-egg dish.

Because these products are constantly changing, always read the fat content on the package and be willing to try new products as they appear.

There’s another way to use fresh eggs without overloading on cho- lesterol. To make an omelet, French toast or as a base for other egg dishes for your family, simply use one egg yolk with several egg whites instead of a whole egg or two apiece. Or use a few drops-maybe up to a quarter of one egg yolk-along with one, two or three egg whites. To make an egg-white omelet more interesting, simply add lowfat or fat-free cheese, tomatoes, onions, salsa, mushrooms or herbs. The key is that you do have choices. It’s your life. Spend your bad- fat budget any way you want or break it. It’s all up to you.

Milk and Dairy Products

As wholesome as milk seems to be, drinking it with a full measure of cream adds grams of saturated fat in a hurry. There are 5 grams of sat- urated fat in an 8-ounce glass of whole milk. You can do better by drinking 2% milk with only 3 grams of bad fat per glass, 1% milk (or buttermilk) with only 1.5 grams or nonfat (skim) milk that contains essentially no saturated fat.

Using skim (nonfat, fat-free) milk in cooking is something every- one can do immediately. For example, try instant puddings made with skim milk. You won’t notice much, if any, difference when you use skim milk in cooking.

If you’ve grown up drinking creamy homogenized milk with 4% butterfat, the idea of drinking skim milk may not appeal to you. We can understand this. When you think about those cream-colored plaques forming in your coronary arteries, drinking rich 4% milk may be even more unappealing. Don’t do it!

There’s more than taste causing the problem of changing from drinking whole milk to drinking skim milk. There’s color, thickness or thinness and the name skim. It may help to use the words nonfat or fat-free instead. Whatever you do as you change, be sure you are not drinking whole milk. If you are a milk-drinker, consider reducing the amount you drink, as well as the fat content. You’ll find it hard to keep within your daily budget of saturated fat if you are adding many units of 3 and 5 grams at a time.

We are not recommending limiting milk products to fat-free yogurt, cottage cheese or milk and avoiding rich ice cream for very young children. Remember, babies and toddlers need the fat in their milk and formula for the first two or three years.

Heavy Whipping Cream

If you enjoy heavy whipping cream, just one tablespoon has 6 of saturated fat and 25 mg of cholesterol; heavy cream has 3 grams of grams saturated fat and 12 grams of cholesterol per tablespoon. Substitute nonfat milk or one of the many nonfat creamer products for heavy whipping cream or heavy cream.

Fat-free Yogurt

A good way to get the calcium and proteins you need is to eat fat-free yogurt. Choose the flavor you want or start with plain fat-free yogurt and mix it with fresh, frozen or canned fruit and a little sweetening as needed. Mixing yogurt with hot or cold applesauce, sugar and a little cinnamon can be a quick and enjoyable snack or main dessert. Or try mixing or layering yogurt with your favorite flavor of gelatin dessert.

Cottage Cheese

Another popular dairy product is cottage cheese. If you eat a full cup of cottage cheese made from whole milk with 4% butterfat, you will consume 6 grams of saturated fat. If the cottage cheese is made from 2% milk, the bad fat is down to 2.8 grams per one-cup serving. You can enjoy lowfat cottage cheese made from 1% milk and spend only 1.5 grams of your bad-fat budget. Even better is fat-free cottage cheese with only a trace of saturated fat.

Cheese

What can take the place of good old-fashioned cheddar, mozzarella, Swiss and other cheese favorites? At first, the fat-free cheese substi- tutes had only fair flavor and were leathery or stringy. Little by little the creativity of food product developers has provided some amaz- ingly good fat-free or fat-reduced cheese products. Do your own taste-testing and watch for new products because they continue to improve. Keep reading those labels.

Most cheese has 7 grams of fat per 1-ounce slice and 5 grams of that are saturated fat. When was the last time you ate only one slice of a good cheese?

Cream Cheese

Traditional cream cheese has 6 grams of saturated fat in every ounce. This is really tough news because cream cheese is so good on a cracker, a piece of bread, a celery stick or in all sorts of favorite things, including cheesecake.

Now you can buy fat-free cream cheese that tastes good. While it isn’t as creamy as regular cream cheese, it’s close. With fat-free cream cheese, we can go back to enjoying cream cheese in myriad ways.

Fat-free cream cheese is just one more example of giant steps of progress by food producers who have developed and created excellent alternatives to foods laden with bad fat. We tip our hats and thank them for making outstanding products such as fat-free cream cheese.

The idea of being successful at keeping on your limited budget of bad fat is to be creative in thinking of combinations you like. Experi- ment and try new things along with modifying your own favorite foods with new products like this fat-free cream cheese.

Cooking Oils vs. Shortening

Never use any solid shortening. The fats in solid shortening are hydro- genated. Even when shortening is made from vegetable oil, it contains both trans-fatty acids and saturated fat.

Clue number one about cooking oil: Use liquid oil.

Clue number two: All cooking oils, even the good liquid vegetable oils, contain some saturated fat. Some more than others. All have unsaturated fat, which we only need a little of.

Olive Oil, Canola Oil and Two Kinds of Unsaturated Fat

There are two kinds of unsaturated fat: polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fat. We tend to favor monounsaturated fat. Why? People (like Mediterraneans) who use a lot of olive oil, one of the main monounsaturated fats, have little coronary-artery disease. The main oils that are mostly monounsaturated fat are olive oil, canola oil and peanut oil. There is evidence that monounsaturated fat may actu- ally help to increase the good HDL cholesterol, which is especially helpful for those with high cholesterol and/or high triglycerides.

Olive oil comes in various grades, with flavor from mild to pro- nounced. It is best to use olive oil soon after buying it because its taste tends to get stronger as it ages. The 2 grams of saturated fat in a table- spoon of olive oil should not dissuade anyone from using olive oil. It has a history of contributing heart-healthy monounsaturated fat.

Canola oil, known as rapeseed oil in Europe and elsewhere in the world, has become one of the most popular cooking oils in North America. Canola oil contains only 1 gram of saturated fat per table- spoon. With its monounsaturated fat, Canola oil may prove to be as good as olive oil, but we don’t know for sure yet. Canola oil has not been used in North America long enough for us to learn just how good it is.

We already know the value of olive oil. So, a good balance may be to use both olive oil and canola oil when preparing food at home, real- izing we will get small amounts of polyunsaturated safflower, corn or sunflower oils when we eat away from home.

You may want to choose canola oil mostly for the limited frying you do. Use either canola or olive oil in recipes that call for oil and use olive oil in vinaigrette salad dressings and as a dip for bread.

Fish

People who eat seafood regularly instead of fatty meat are less likely to have plugged coronary arteries or heart attacks. Seafood is also a won- derful source of protein. Japanese, Eskimos and others who consume lots of fish and seafood don’t typically have heart attacks from fat- plugged coronary arteries.

One of the factors that may help is omega-3 oil. Omega-3 seems to prevent platelet cells from getting sticky, cutting down the tendency for blood clots to form. Just taking capsules of this oil alone does not seem to produce the protection that eating fish does.

It is recommended that we eat fish or other seafood twice a week. Of course you can eat it more often than that, thereby increasing the benefits.

In addition to fish, there are two groups of shellfish. The group that doesn’t move during its lifetime includes clams, mussels, oysters and scallops. They lie on the ocean bottom and suck in phytoplankton- the vegetables of the sea. They contain very small amounts of choles- terol and saturated fat.

The other group of shellfish, crustaceans, are the ones that move— crabs, crayfish, shrimp and lobsters. They are fine to eat, too, even though they contain some cholesterol. Six medium-size shrimp, weighing about 1/4 pound (100 grams), contain about 120 mg of cho- lesterol, but only 0.3 grams of saturated fat-about the same as a sim- ilar amount of skinless chicken breasts.

Fish, clams, mussels, oysters and scallops are obviously the best. If properly prepared, they can be eaten without much limitation. Although low in saturated fat, shrimp, crab, crayfish and lobsters all contain some cholesterol. In other words, “an all-you-can-eat” shrimp dinner is not a good idea. A half-dozen boiled, broiled or grilled shrimp may be just fine.

Don’t be trapped into thinking because it’s seafood, it’s all right no matter how it’s prepared. Many people choose the right entrée, but get shrimp covered with breading that soaks up the deep fat it is cooked in or order scampi drowned in butter. Other times, fish are served or topped with butter or cheese sauce. Of course, you would not want to order fish this way, but if there’s no choice, just scrape off the sauce, breading or batter and don’t eat it.

Rather than dipping crab and lobster into melted butter, enjoy them with seafood cocktail sauce. You can easily make cocktail sauce by mixing a little fresh (non-creamy) horseradish with catsup or chili sauce. Although this tomato-based sauce is customarily served with cold shrimp, crab or lobster, it is delicious with almost any kind of hot seafood.

If salt and pepper are not enough flavoring for fish, grill it over wood or mesquite charcoal or chips to import excellent smoky fla- vors. Other flavor enhancers for seafood are malt vinegar or juice from a lemon or lime. You can prepare blackened fish without the usual load of fat by using the Cajun Pepper Mix.

Deep-frying fish or other seafood is a no-no. It’s better to bake, grill or poach it. The cod in “fish and chips” is a great choice, but the batter contains fat and also soaks in the oil, picking up even more sat- urated fat. Batter-coated frozen fish may be fine, but the batter will usually contain considerable amounts of saturated fat. Whether it is fresh or frozen, once you’ve cooked it, just take off the crusty batter and eat the fish.

If you aren’t accustomed to eating fish or seafood, you may want to begin with some milder-tasting varieties such as cod, haddock, orange roughy or halibut. Almost everyone who tries these fish likes them. Trout is another deliciously mild fish with a little more omega-3 oil than the others. Salmon has even more omega-3 than trout and, when fresh or smoked, is mild and has a deliciously distinctive taste.

Chicken and Turkey

Chances are you’ll find white-chicken and turkey-meat entrées among your favorite foods. Hopefully, you’ve already decided not to eat deep- fried chicken. Even if you grew up loving southern-fried chicken, remember that besides all the fat in chicken skin, the chicken meat soaks in more fat in frying than your arteries can handle.

Broiling boned-and-skinned chicken-breast strips on top of a grill is a good way to prepare an excellent dinner entrée. Cook them plain or seasoned with lemon juice, Cajun seasoning or lemon pepper. A 3-ounce serving of skinless chicken or turkey breast only has 1 gram of saturated fat, while the same size serving of dark meat has 2 For those limiting saturated fat intake, it is a big advantage to eat properly cooked white poultry meat.

Additional water, oil and flavoring are added to frozen turkeys. While it may enhance the flavor a little, the extra oil adds more bad fat. Look for turkeys without extra oil poured in or injected. They are hard to find unless you get a fresh turkey, which is probably a better idea anyway.

Whether chicken or turkey, poultry skin contains saturated fat, so don’t eat the skin. Because chicken and turkey are thought of as health- ful meat products, many people have switched to turkey burger. We suggest you avoid ground turkey because turkey burger (or any ground-turkey product) is made with turkey scraps, including fat, skin and scraps of dark meat with twice as much saturated fat. Anytime you are tempted to buy turkey burger, think twice and read the label four times. Then you may decide to buy extra-lean ground beef that doesn’t have any added fat you can see.

Beef

Meat producers have made big strides in raising beef and pork with less saturated fat than it once had. More and more meat from specially fed and cared-for animals is being advertised. So you don’t have to do without red meat completely. If you want to be a vegetarian, that’s OK. If you like beef or pork occasionally, that’s fine too. It’s OK to enjoy small servings of red meat without feeling guilty. Small amounts of very lean meat will not plug up your coronary arteries. Unless you are doing lots of heavy work in freezing temperatures, it’s a good idea to eat meat sparingly.

Every packing plant in the United States has an inspector from the Department of Agriculture to check how much fat is in the meat. Prime-heavily marbled to give meat a juicy flavor-used to be thought of as the best beef. Now we know prime meat is the most dangerous because it contains the most fat-usually over 35% and often as much as 40%.

The meat grade called choice ranges from 15% to 30% fat by weight. You can choose to put packages of choice meat back in the dis- play case along with those marked prime.

The third grade is what used to be good and is now called select, a much better name for this beef because it only contains 10% fat by weight. Those who don’t know how meat is graded and labeled and the relative fat content are likely to choose the more market-appeal- ing names of prime or choice. Choose SELECT BEEF.

Some producers now supply even leaner beef than is required to qualify for the select grade. Cuts of this leaner beef contain only about 7% fat. This is pretty good especially when you eat it sparingly. For now, buy the leanest-possible meat you can find, trim off all the visi- ble fat and then eat small portions.

How about hamburger? It’s easy to be confused by the different lean and extra lean name tags. Look for select beef and then choose the leanest of the lean.5 Incidentally, it is easy to identify because it costs more than any other ground beef.

Broiling is an excellent way to cook hamburger because some fat melts and drips into the fire or drip pan instead of onto a bun or into your chili or casserole. Two simple tricks can get even more fat out of hamburger. When you are broiling lean ground beef over a gas or charcoal grill, start with thin patties. As they cook on each side and after you take them off the grill, squeeze the burgers several times with a spatula, then blot them with a wadded paper towel. You’ll be amazed at how much fat comes out! This demonstrates how much fat is pre- sent, even in the leanest ground beef. You cannot squeeze and blot out enough fat this way to make using ordinary fatty hamburger a good idea.

There’s an even better fat-removal method for preparing lean ground beef for tacos, chili, rice and meat or other hot dishes: Cook it slowly in a large pan on the stove top, squeezing and blotting out or pouring off the grease several times. When the meat is about ready, pour the hot ground beef into a strainer and run a heavy stream of hot tap water over it so more of the melted fat is carried through the strainer and down the drain. This far-from-perfect method decreases the amount of saturated fat in your ground beef.

It’s hard to know how much fat is in this “degreased” beef. It depends on how careful you are in choosing very lean meat to start with and how diligent you are in squeezing, blotting and washing out the fat.

Regular hamburger has 5 to 7 grams of saturated fat in a 3-ounce serving. With the best of select lean steaks and roasts, you may be looking at only 2.5 to 4 grams of saturated fat in a 3-ounce serving— quite good as compared to 4 to 11 grams of bad fat in marbled steaks and roasts.

When you are ready to cook a steak or roast, trim off all of the fat you can see before cooking, just as you would before cooking chick- en, turkey or pork. This is important because while the meat cooks, a considerable amount of fat melts and is absorbed into the meat.

Taking the Fat Out of Broth

After you go to all the trouble to buy meat without much fat and then to go to these extra steps in preparing it, don’t turn around and load your potatoes with fatty gravy! You can make fat-free gravy with bouillon granules or cubes or with defatted chicken broth you can make after boiling chicken breasts or cooking leftover chicken bones and meat (without fat).

Even without the turkey or chicken skin and fat drippings we always used to add to our turkey or chicken soup, there is always some fat in the broth you cook. After cooking the leftover bones and lean meat scraps for 45 minutes to an hour, strain and discard everything except the white meat. Put the broth in the freezer or refrigerator. When it has chilled, you will see a layer of fat on the top. Carefully scoop off this fat and discard it. If elusive bits and pieces of fat are floating around, trap and discard them with a piece of paper towel.

If you are in a hurry, drop ice cubes into lukewarm broth. Some fat will cling to the cubes. Remove the ice cubes and skim off any remain- ing fat.

Another way to get fat off of broth is with a fat-skimmer. When the fatty broth is chilled, most of the fat rises to the top. The inside open- ing of the spout is near the bottom of the container, so the broth comes from underneath the fatty layer of clear grease. Of course, the idea is to stop pouring before visible fat begins to enter the spout. These skimmers are available where kitchenware is sold.

The lowfat broth you make is great for gravy or soup. You can make all sorts of wonderful lowfat soups beginning with your lowfat broth. Recipes for beef, chicken and vegetarian lowfat broths are in the recipe section.

Pork and Ham

Sometimes you see ads for pork with the words, “the other white meat,” implying it might have the same small amount of saturated fat as chicken and turkey white meat. Pork and white turkey or chicken meat do have about the same amount of cholesterol. Three ounces of lean pork usually contain about 4 grams of saturated fat. As a com- parison, chicken and turkey breasts without skin and fat contain only 1 gram of saturated fat per 3-ounce serving.

Some very good lowfat pork products are available, especially low- fat hams. You will probably see various packages of ham that say 97% FAT-FREE. This is pretty good, but 97% FAT-FREE still has 3% fat. It’s not fat-free.

While you may see ham advertised as completely fat-free, it isn’t. Producers can call the product fat-free when the amount of fat is less than 0.5 gram per serving. Check the serving size. Just because a par- ticular ham—or any other product—is labeled fat-free, it is not OK to eat very many thin slices because each one contains only half a gram of fat.

When you choose a ham, check the Nutritional Facts label on dif- ferent packages and pick the one with the best numbers and the least visible fat.

Hot Dogs (Wieners)

One regular hot dog typically contains 5 to 11 grams of saturated fat. The good news is that most of the major meat-packing companies have created special lines of lowfat wieners.

If you or your children really like them, you can get lowfat ones with only half a gram of saturated fat per hot dog. Some lowfat hot dogs are labeled fat-free, but you know half a gram of saturated fat or a little less allows them to be labeled fat-free. Expect to pay more for these wieners.

Picnics and Cookouts

For cookouts, consider cooking fish steaks or fillets (salmon, orange roughy or tuna) on your backyard grill. This is especially good eating.

Potato Chips

What about potato chips for your picnic, cookout or buffet? They’re traditional and some people expect you to serve them. We already mentioned that a package of ordinary potato chips that says “NO CHOLESTEROL” is misleading because the real problem is too much bad fat. There may be 2 to 3 grams of saturated fat in 10 to 16 potato chips-plus some trans-fatty acids and lots of unsaturated fat. Although you are only keeping a budget record of saturated fat, you always need to be careful not to load up on total fat. As much as you may like them, regular potato chips are not good for your heart.

You’ll see various kinds of chips with a little less fat. When you check the Nutrition Facts chart on the back of the package, you will see that each serving contains 1 gram of saturated fat, plus 4 grams of polyunsaturated fat and 1.5 grams of monounsaturated fat.

As you look further, you may find some fat-free and almost-fat- free potato chips that are baked instead of fried in hot grease. These are pretty good but maybe not as tasty as chips with some fat-even the reduced-fat varieties. Another potato-chip substitute is baked puffed chips made of potato flakes.

Talking about chips, you may want to try Frozen Banana Munchies. These different kind of fat-free “chips” are quick and easy to make:

Squeeze some fresh lemon juice in a bowl and add banana slices, stirring them around so they are well coated. Then line the banana circles on a small non-stick cookie sheet lightly sprayed with fat-free vegetable cooking oil. Place the tray of banana slices in your freezer. When frozen, scoop them into a plastic bag with a spatula. Put the bag of frozen banana munchies back in the freezer and save until you need a snack.

Other Possibilities

You can enjoy eating without killing yourself and your family with too much bad fat. It takes some thought, ingenuity and creativity.

If you are in a hurry, you can find some very good pre-prepared lowfat frozen dinners at your market. Some provide an enjoyable meal without much bad fat. Others are promoted with lowfat claims but contain more fat than you want. So read the labels and taste-test the ones that look like they meet your criteria. Don’t dismiss them all if you don’t happen to like one.

Try these and other ideas. While they won’t all work for will. Then get together with friends and family and have some potluck meals so you can try each other’s best fat-free and lowfat entrées, meals and snacks.

We hope you have fun trying these and other quick-and-easy recipes as well as some slightly more challenging ones that you and your family can enjoy. You’ll know you are not building up more fat plaques in your coronary arteries.

NOTES

1. Because one way the body gets rid of cholesterol is to convert it to bile acids, cho- lesterol is decreased when bile acids are passed with the help of soluble fiber.
2. We don’t know of any definitive studies to establish the effectiveness of either char- coal or sprinkle-on products in reducing intestinal gas. When charcoal is taken, expect stools to be black. And if you are on cholesterol-reducing or other medica- tions, get approval from your physician before taking charcoal because it absorbs and inactivates some medications.
3. Steinberg D., et al. Circulation 85:2338, 1992.
4. Polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) found in corn oil, safflower oil and sunflower oil are three of the most popular cooking oils because of their particularly good flavor. Cottonseed and soybean oil are also predominantly polyunsaturated fat oils. We don’t need much polyunsaturated fat oil-probably a couple of teaspoons a day are sufficient and we get that in tablespreads and other prepared products.
5. If your butcher shop or market does not have select grade beef, ask for it. As with other lowfat and fat-free products, it may not be carried till you ask-sometimes many times. Customer demand is what gets the products you want and need into your market.