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Submitted by PatientsEngage on 27 April 2015

Which is the greater evil? How much fat is necessary in your diet? How to read food labels? Registered dietitian and diabetes educator Ujjwala Baxi has all the information. 

The human diet is always evolving. And with each evolution comes strong and focused criticism of certain foods. Some decades ago, it was the fat in our diet that was demonised and 0% fat diets and recipes flourished on bookshelves and the dinner table. But very soon, it was realised that going nil on dietary fat can disturb the absorption of essential vitamins and minerals. This poses a huge negative impact on the intellect as well as on the normal functioning of our body’s physiological functions such as blood clotting, gut health, vision etc. 

Plus, diet foods like low-fat chips, crackers, low-fat mayonaise - are invariably high on salt and sugar to keep them as tasty as their higher fat counterparts. 

With this awareness, the dial was turned… and people started reincorporating both saturated fats like butter, ghee, coconut oil, and unsaturated fats from monounsaturated fatty acids, like olive oil, in their daily cooking, trying to match their recommended fat intake. 

How much fat should you eat?

But people are still confused about which type of fat and how much to consume. And so, they fall prey to health claims made by food companies. A decade ago, Saffola claimed that Sunflower oil contains 0% cholesterol. But the fact is, no oil contains cholesterol. It is their variable fatty acid composition that can cause the good and bad cholesterol to surge or go down. 

So the verdict is that we need to derive different essential fatty acids from various fat sources, maintaining the safe limit of 15g per day of visible fat for a healthy individual. (Visible fat refers to fats like oil or butter that you add to cooking, not fats that are part of different foods, like meat or fish). 

Note: The fat requirement differs for different health conditions and needs professional guidance.

Here’s the daily fat intake recommendation for a healthy individual:

Limit total day’s fat intake to 15gms = 1 tablespoonful a day. 

This 1 tablespoon can comprise of the following:

 1 tsp of ghee / coconut oil / unsalted natural butter, which can be used on breads, rotis, in khichdis etc.

 1 tsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil - used on salads, in soups or in sandwiches as dressing 

 1 tsp of cold pressed or double filtered oils like mustard oil, groundnut oil, soyabean oil, avocado oil for cooking vegetables, gravy items etc.

Strictly avoid trans fats in all forms. They are present in most processed foods like biscuits, breads, cookies, sauces, salad dressings etc. and are labelled as hydrogenated fats on the products.

Do remember that you are also eating invisible fat from dairy products, meat and nuts. 

If the consumption is around 2-3 servings per day, then it is advisable to reduce the visible fat from the oils.  

Loading up on organic oils… it’s all good stuff, right?

Not really. For example, people are going berserk using extra virgin coconut oil in their diet. They are adding it to smoothies, energy bars, snacks, daily cooking - not knowing that overdoing coconut oil (even if it is virgin, organic) can still cause bad cholesterol to skyrocket. 

This is the Health Halo effect. People go gaga about certain foods and overlook the fact that it still has calories and too much of it may harm the body. This is very common with organic foods. Organic extra virgin coconut oil has the same fatty acid composition as its non-organic version.

Hence, the advice is to keep the total fat intake to 15g/day, inclusive of all saturated fats (butter, ghee, coconut oil) and unsaturated fats (vegetable oils).

Sugar – the bitter truth

Now, the other devil.

Skimming the fat from foods makes them less tasty, so manufacturers add sugar, among other ingredients, to readymade foods. And it’s taking a huge toll on our health. 

There is sugar in the unlikeliest readymade foods - like cereals, salad dressings, sauces, whole grain breads, savoury items like pretzels, dehydrated soup mixes, kid’s formula milk powder, health drinks, fruit juices, flavoured yoghurt and drinks. 

What is the impact of sugar on our health? In children, one sweetened beverage a day fuels a 60 percent increase in the risk of obesity. Obesity is a leading cause of so many lifestyle diseases. In 2004, the Nurses’ Health Study found that women who had one or more servings a day of sugar-sweetened soft drink or fruit punch were nearly twice as likely to develop Type 2 diabetes as those who rarely drank these. 

Because of sugar associated health hazards, many health organisations recommend that people cut back on added sugars. But added sugars can be hard to identify.

On a list of ingredients, they may be listed as sucrose (table sugar), corn sweetener, HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup – the most commonly used sugar derivative), fruit-juice concentrates, nectars, raw sugar, malt syrup, maple syrup, fructose sweeteners, liquid fructose, cornstarch, potato starch, honey, molasses, anhydrous dextrose, or other words ending in “-ose,” the chemical suffix for sugars. If any of these words are among the first few ingredients on a food label, the food is likely high in sugar. The total amount of sugar in a food is listed under “Total Carbohydrate” on the Nutrition Facts label.

Some of the healthier, natural sugar alternatives are jaggery, unadulterated natural honey, maple syrup and molasses as they come along with some traces of micronutrients. 

Stevia is the safest of all sweeteners as it is derived from a herb in the sunflower family. This new and common sweetener is frequently used in soft drinks and juices. It has been give the GRAS (generally recognised as safe) rating by the FDA. 

But if you are pregnant, it’s best to avoid stevia as it aggravates symptoms like bloating, dizziness and nausea. 

Top tips to keep in mind when food shopping

 Whenever possible, avoid processed foods like bakery products, store-bought sauces, fruit concentrates, dressings, juices, energy bars

 Read food labels - Take note of the first 3 ingredients especially as they form the core of the product. 

 Watch out for the suffix ‘ose’ in food labels. Products with more than 22.5g of total sugars per 100g are HIGH on sugars. It is LOW in sugar if they contain 5g of total sugars or less per 100g

 Be wary of fat-free health claims and evaluate the product efficiently by reading the label. A product is HIGH in fat if it has more than 17.5g of fat per 100g and LOW in fat if it has 3g or less per 100g.

And:

 Try to prepare meals at home as then you know exactly what is in your food.

 Avoid the health halo attitude and overdo any particular food item. Instead, play safe by consuming everything in moderation.

Fat or sugar – what’s the greater evil

In a toss-up between fat and sugar, I believe sugar is the greater evil. The staples in our diet, like wheat, rice, oats, barley and fruits eventually get digested to simple sugars. 

Hence, there is no additional need for sugar in our diets. Sugar in hidden forms should be strictly avoided as it has proved to be the leading cause of metabolic diseases like diabetes, heart problems, PCOS etc.

Having said that, we all love sweets and fried foods and feel the urge to indulge once in a while. My advice is to cut down on store bought, ready to consume processed foods, which will give you the option to indulge in treats once in a while. 

When we start avoiding processed foods, we become more conscious of what we are eating. This raises our level of awareness towards our health. And this kind of awareness gives us better control over the quality of our life. 

References

http://foodpsychology.cornell.edu/outreach/health-halos.html

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodfood/Pages/food-labelling.aspx