Further information

Fats

Everyone needs some fat in his or her diet. Eating the right kind of fat helps to reduce your chance of having heart disease. To do this you need to cut down on trans fats and saturated fats.

There are two main kinds of fat:-

1. Saturated fat can raise your blood cholesterol.
It is found in pies, cheeses, palm oil, sausages, cakes, biscuits, and food containing coconut. Try to avoid these by choosing foods containing unsaturated fats.

2. Unsaturated fats can help to lower your blood cholesterol. There are two kinds:-

a) polyunsaturated;
b) monounsaturated.

Try to choose foods that are high in unsaturated fats e.g oily fish or try to buy foods that contain rapeseed oil, sunflower oil, corn oil or olive oil.

What is hydrogenated vegetable oil? This is formed when liquid oil is turned into a solid trans fat. These can raise your blood cholesterol level so they should be avoided. Look at the food label to see if the food contains hydrogenated oils, you will find it in cakes, pastries, pies, margarine and some ready made foods.

What is a lot or a little fat? Look on the label. A lot of fat is 20g in a 100g of food. Or 5g of saturated fat in 100g of food. A little is 3g of fat in 100g of food, or 1g saturated fat in 100g of food.

What about children, do they need to cut down on fat? If the child is under two years old it is more important to make sure they are eating enough to stay healthy than to worry too much about how much fat they are eating. So make sure you give them full fat milk and diary foods until they are two years old. Then you can switch to semi-skimmed products.

Tips on cutting down on hydrogenated and saturated fats

1. Buy the leanest meat you can afford and cut off any excess fat before cooking;
2. Buy lower fat cheese, milk and yoghurts;
3. Eat less processed foods such as cakes, biscuits and crisps;
4. Try grilling, steaming, dry roasting or poaching instead of frying food;
5. Eat more energy foods such as pasta, bread, potatoes and rice, these contain half the calories of fat;
6. Skimmed milk has 0.6g of fat per pint, semi-skimmed has 9g of fat and full fat milk has 22g of fat per pint. Choosing skimmed or semi-skimmed milk will help you to cut down on the amount of fat you have each day.

Salt

Too much salt can cause high blood pressure

Do you know how much salt you should eat each day? Do you know how much salt is a lot or a little?

Adults should have less than 6g in total each day...i.e. half a level teaspoon of salt a day.

Look at your foods labels. 1.25g (or more) in any product is a lot of salt…so avoid these. 0.25g is a little salt in any product.

Salt is added to most pre-cooked pre-packed foods and can take up to 65-85% of your daily salt intake. Manufacturers also call salt sodium and 2.5g of sodium is the same as 6g of salt. 0.5g (or more) of sodium is a lot in any product and 0.1g of sodium is a little.

Tips on cutting down on salt

1. Don’t add salt to your cooking;
2. Don’t add salt at the table;
3. Cut down on salted crisps, nuts, bacon, soya sauce and take-a- ways.

Sugar

There are two main types of sugar:-

1. Natural sugar for example in honey or fruit, and;
2. Sugar added to food such as processed foods and drinks.

How do I know how much sugar is in processed foods? Starches and sugar make up carbohydrates. Look on the food label, look for the carbohydrates (of which sugars) figure. This tells you how much carbohydrate in the form of sugar is in your food.

What do carbohydrates do? Carbohydrates give you energy, the best energy foods are pasta, bread, potatoes, rice and cereals. These have half the calories of fat, so they are good for you.

What is a lot or a little sugar? 10g of sugar in 100g is a lot. 2g of sugar in 100g is a little

Are sweeteners the same as sugar? No, sweeteners are low in calories, so they are less likely to cause tooth decay. Sweeteners are often used in drinks instead of sugar. Different sweeteners include:- sorbitol, aspartame and saccharin.

External links

Food Standards Agency: healthy diet
Information and advice on a healthy diet, covering your use of fats, salt & sugar, from the Food Standards Agency.

salt.gov.uk
The Government's dedicated salt website, with advice on checking food labels for salt content and how much salt should be in your diet and the diets of your children.

British Heart Foundation: healthy heart
Healthy heart section of the British Heart Foundation website, which includes information on salt.

About links to other websites.