7 tips for eating healthy fats for a balanced diet

For good health, keep your total fat intake to 30 per cent of calories or less and your saturated fats to less than 10 per cent. Trans fats? Keep them to zero. Here are some ways to choose the right kinds of fats for your diet.

The good fats are usually found in fish and plant oils, but even they have their limits. All fats provide your body with nine calories per gram, more than twice as much as proteins or carbohydrates.

1. Keep your spreads soft. Choose soft margarines and leave your butter out of the fridge. The softer the spread, the less you'll use on your bread or toast, which means you'll be eating less fat.
2. If you can't go without your butter, mix it with olive oil. Let a thick slice of butter (about 100 grams) soften at room temperature, then beat the butter smooth, before slowly beating in between three and seven tablespoons (50 and 100 millilitres) of olive oil. This cuts the amount of saturated fat significantly while adding plenty of healthy monounsaturated fat.
3. Eat the right meats. Of course, meat is one of the primary forms of saturated fat. But meat – whether red or white – is also an excellent source of protein and trace minerals such as zinc and iron. The key is choosing lean cuts of meat and trimming off visible fat before cooking.
4. Don't be taken in by the "other white meat" slogan. Put simply, lean chicken is much less fatty than lean pork. A 100 grams serving of broiled chicken breast (no skin) provides 140 calories, 27 from fat, and only one-third of that fat is saturated. The same serving of roasted lean pork loin delivers 275 calories, 189 of them from fat, half of which is saturated. To top it off, the chicken has six more grams of protein than the pork.
5. Eat an exotic meat occasionally. How about emu, venison, wild boar or ostrich? All have less than one gram of saturated fat per 100 grams serving, are super-rich in protein and taste extremely good.
6. Substitute tofu for meat once a week. Tofu is high in protein, but has little fat.
7. Be wary of recipes that allow starches and veggies to absorb fat. Many classic winter dishes have potatoes, carrots, turnips and other vegetables roasting slowly with chicken, beef, lamb or pork. Delicious, yes. But all those veggies are soaking up a whole lot of fat that's dripped off the meat. Either find ways to cook the vegetables separately, or wait until you've skimmed the fat from the meat juices before adding in the veg.