LOW FAT DIET GUIDELINE

This guideline emphasizes the continued importance of choosing a diet with less total fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol.

Foods high in fat should be used sparingly

Fats and oils, and some types of desserts and snack foods that contain fat provide calories but few nutrients.

Choose a diet low in fat

Fat, whether from plant or animal sources, contains more than twice the number of calories of an equal amount of carbohydrate or protein. Choose a diet that provides no more than 30 percent of total calories from fat. The upper limit on the grams of fat in your diet will depend on the calories you need. Cutting back on fat can help you consume fewer calories. For example, at 2,000 calories per day, the suggested upper limit of calories from fat is about 600 calories. Sixty-five grams of fat contribute about 600 calories (65 grams of fat x 9 calories per gram = about 600 calories)

Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat. Olive and canola oils are particularly high in monounsaturated fats; most other vegetable oils, nuts, and high-fat fish are good sources of polyunsaturated fats. Both kinds of unsaturated fats reduce blood cholesterol when they replace saturated fats in the diet.

Mono and polyunsaturated fat sources should replace saturated fats within this limit. Choosing foods with less cholesterol and saturated fat will help lower your blood cholesterol levels

Advice for children

Advice in the previous sections does not apply to infants and toddlers below the age of 2 years. After that age, children should gradually adopt a diet that, by about 5 years of age, contains no more than 30 percent of calories from fat. As they begin to consume fewer calories from fat, children should replace these calories by eating more grain products, fruits, vegetables, and lowfat milk products or other calcium-rich foods, and beans, lean meat, poultry, fish, or other protein-rich foods.