Find Out How To Have A Low Fat Diet
Low fat cooking can be a great way to change your lifestyle that can greatly benefit your health. One of the first steps to low fat cooking is to restock your kitchen with low fat foods and products as with anything if it’s not there then you can’t use it. When choosing low fat foods also be aware of the calorie content as many low fat foods may also contain a large amount of sugar.
You need to go through your kitchen and determine which foods are high in fat. There are plenty of low fat alternatives to any food. Some excellent low fat food options include sugar free/fat free pudding, applesauce, popcorn, pretzels, honey, maple syrup, nuts, seeds, dried fruits, whole grain breads, seasonings, spices, herbs, stocks, soup, pasta, grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, canned fish and oils.
Some of the items that should be eliminated from your kitchen include oil based dressings, regular mayonnaise, shortening, oil packed fish and tuna, canned meats, chowders and creamed soups, boxed macaroni and cheese, rice mixes, flavored pasta, gravy mixes, pancake mixes, cheese sauces, sugary cereals, anything that contains partially hydrogenated, corn chips, potato chips, coffee creamer and white bread.
There are many other foods that contain fat of which you may be unaware. While whole milk has plenty of calcium and other important nutrients it also is high in fat. In order to reduce the fat in milk enough you would need to change to drinking at minimum 1% milk though skim milk is the best. Other dairy products should also be low fat if possible as cheese and regular yogurt can have a lot of fat.
Butter and margarine are completely fat and margarine contains trans fat which you want to stay away from. You do not need to complete stop eating butter but you should try to switch to using a liquid spread or spray as these are lower in fat and do not contain any trans fat.
Eggs are also tricky as eggs have a lot of important vitamins and minerals but the yolks have a lot of cholesterol. You should try to bake with egg substitutes and use egg whites when you can. Only use whole eggs when absolutely necessary.
Meat also needs to be lean and there are options you can use instead of eating very fatty meat. Beef hamburgers and hotdogs have a lot of fat and contain high levels of salt. Instead of these items you can have turkey dogs and vegetarian burgers. One of the leanest cuts of meat is pork tenderloin. Chicken instead of beef is also a good option.
