Low fat, low cholesterol

For many years people in affluent societies have consumed far too much fat – saturated fat in particular. Excess saturated fat in the diet is implicated in cancer, diabetes, and most of all, heart disease. We are now advised to cut down our intake by one quarter.

Vegetarians start with a plus in this matter, avoiding the high proportion of saturated fats in meat. But, except for vegans, there are still the dairy foods, high in saturates – so watch your intake of these, as well as of eggs which have concentrated levels of saturated fats in their yolks. Change over to skimmed milk, cook in oils high in polyunsaturated fats, and for butter substitute a margarine high in polyunsaturates – though I would still tend to keep butter for its flavour in cooking. I would personally rather cut down on cream and high-fat cheeses. Many processed foods also have an unexpectedly high proportion of saturated fats. Cakes, biscuits, pies, some canned and frozen meals have a lot of added fats in them – read the labels carefully.