Helpful Tips to Healthy Eating and Avoiding Bad Fats

Helpful Tips to Healthy Eating and Avoiding Bad Fats

Don't get too hungry: Our food choices tend to be rich in fat when we allow ourselves to go hungry. Experts say that we should be wise in judging our fullness. If judged on a fullness scale of 1 to 7 (1 being Very Hungry, 2 - moderate hunger, 3 - mild hunger, 4- not feeling hungry, 5- very full , 6 - very much full and 7 - too full)

When very hungry one can eat till they reach about 5 or 6 and this leads to overeating. Plan your meal when on hunger scale you are between 2 and 3. Remember eating smaller meals at regular intervals helps control hunger and appetite.

Menu modifications: When eating out make healthy choices. Ask about the ingredients used and avoid foods which you suspect may have these bad fats.

Replace bad fats with good fats: Opt for cooking oils instead of ghee, butter, or cream. Use the latter to minimum. Use a combination of cooking oils with a base of a MUFA rich oil (rice bran, groundnut oil), coupled with omega-3 rich oil (soyabean, mustard) in a proportion of 3: 1. These oils can be bought separately and mixed on portion basis. The above oils could also be changed after every 15 days (rotational system).

In a healthy heart diet, the total intake of visible fat should not be more than 500gms/ month/ person or it should not be more than 15 to 20 g per day per person. This limit includes all type of fats (oil, ghee, butter, cream, mayonnaise). Out of this the ghee, butter, cream intake should not be more than one teaspoon. If you can cut it further or replace it with oil, it would be an ideal situation.

Be informed: People still look at the total fat figure on ingredients label. One needs to ignore this and look at the content of saturated fat. Lesser the saturated fat, the better it is. Look for and avoid "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil" among the ingredients.

Maintain a Food Journal: Write down all that you eat including the colas and the pizzas you might have binged on. Maintaining a food journal could be the first step toward eating better.

Set your goals: We should be motivated and focused and set just one or two weekly healthy eating food goals for ourselves. E.g. I would limit my total fat consumption to not more than 3 teaspoons per day. That is you set an idea and try to abide by it. Above all, remember to avoid chips and other fried foods, red meat, full fat dairy products and processed baked foods as they are our biggest enemies.

References:

1. Kuller LH. Nutrition, Lipids, and cardiovascular Disease. Nutrition Reviews. February 2006; 64(2) : S 15 - S26
2. Isharwal S, Misra A, Wasir J.S, Nigam P. Indian J Med Res. May 2009; 129:485 � 499
3. Abete A, Astrup A, Martinez JA, Thorsdottir I, Zulet MA. Nutrition Reviews. April 2010; 68(4) : 191 � 255

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