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Cooking to minimise fat in your diet

April 09, 2008, 10:04AM

There are three key elements in keeping fat to a minimum in your diet.

1. Choosing and preparing suitable foods
2. Opting for lower fat cooking methods
3. Using the right tools.

The ideas below are just a few of the ways you can keep fat down in your diet.

Choosing and preparing suitable foods.

• Choose meat which is lean, and trim off any visible fat. If you are buying minced meat, opt for the lowest fat one you can afford, and cook it without adding further fat. (see cooking for further ideas)
• Buy semi-skimmed or skimmed milk or soya equivalents, and choose cheeses wisely. If you are cooking with a cheese, you may be able to cut back by using a smaller amount of a strongly flavoured one, or may need to use a reduced fat version. Look at the fat content of cheese on the label – it varies enormously.
• When using chicken, either buy skinless portions, or remove the skin, and any visible fat.
• Look out for reduced fat versions of high fat foods, but be aware that the food may still not be great in anything other than small portions. You can buy reduced fat mayonnaise for example but one tablespoon of this may still take you over your fat target.
• Choose spreads which are fat reduced. There are lots of different spreads, some having as little as 20% fat compared with 82% in butter and 99.9% in oil.
• Always weigh or measure out to help you control fat. This is really important with high fat foods. A level tablespoon of regular mayonnaise for example contains about 11g of fat, whilst a heaped one nearly three times that amount!

Opting for lower fat cooking methods

This doesn’t mean you have to steam everything, as there are lots of tasty ways of cooking with less fat! Try some of the ideas below.

Instead of frying chicken or fish:

• Wrap it in some foil with herbs and vegetables and oven-bake it, or barbeque it.
• Marinade it in low fat ingredients or ready made marinade and grill it.

Instead of frying steak:

• Grill it, or use a griddle pan with ridges so the fat can drain off

Instead of pan frying fish:

• Poach it in a little white wine with herbs
• Cook it in the microwave with a squeeze of lemon or lime juice

Instead of using oil to cook onions for a mince based dish such as shepherd’s pie or bolognaise:

• Heat the mince gently to allow the fat to dissolve out of the meat, then use this to cook the onions.
• If you have time you can prepare these mince dishes in advance, and cool them so you can scoop off any fat which settles on the surface.

Instead of having roast potatoes cooked in a lot of oil:

• Either use an oil spray to lightly mist them with oil
• Or place them in a plastic bag with 1 tbsp of oil and shake them around to coat them.

Using the right tools

It is sometimes worth investing in a few pieces of equipment to help you in the kitchen.

To help control your fat intake it is definitely worth buying digital scales and some measuring spoons or scoops.

Also buy yourself a good cook’s knife and knife sharpener so you are able to trim fat from meat easily and quickly prepare tasty vegetables and fruit.

Look out for oil misters or sprays to which you can add your own oil.

Invest in a good quality non stick large sauté pan with a lid. You can use this for browning off mince, and cooking meat and poultry, without adding fat as the non stick surface prevents the food sticking.