How much fat is OK?
The general recommendation is that children aged one to three should get 30 to 40 per cent of their calories from fat, and children four to 18 should get 25 to 35 per cent of their calories from fat. For adults the recommendation is 20 to 35 per cent of calories from fat. Everyone should limit their intake of saturated fat to less than 10 per cent of total daily calories.
Fat for kids
There's a growing concern that excessive fat intake in childhood may lead to obesity and adult diseases, such as type 2 diabetes. However, it's still important for children to have some fat in their diets.
It's important that young children consume some fat in their diets, and that parents restrict their children's fat intake gradually.
For all children, it's important to look at the kind of fats that they consume. If they're eating lots of snack foods, such as doughnuts, cookies and chips, or processed foods, such as frozen snack foods, it's likely that they're consuming lots of unhealthy trans fats.
Common questions about fat
1. What's the difference between percentage of fat and calories from fat?
The current recommendation is to eat no more than 30 per cent of your calories from fat. Many people think that means that every food they eat must fall into this category. But it's better to look at the total meal. For example, a salad contains very few caloires until you add the dressing. A salad with dressing may contain 100 calories and 10 grams of fat. A gram of fat contains nine calories, so 10 grams of fat would be 90 calories, and this salad would have 90 of its 100 calories coming from fat, or 90 per cent of the calories from fat. Now if you eat that salad with a roll (about 150 calories and two grams of fat) and a piece of fruit (another 110 calories and almost no fat), the total meal would contain 360 calories and 12 grams of fat. So now only 108 of the 360 calories would be fat calories, and the whole meal meal would be 30 per cent fat.
2. How do I know if a food is high in fat?
Multiply the number of grams of fat by nine to get the number of calories coming from fat. Divide that figure by the number of calories in a serving, then multiply that number by 100 to get the percentage of fat. If the result is more than 30 it's not a low-fat food. For example, if a cookie has 100 calories and eight grams of fat, about 70 per cent of its calories comes from fat. An easier method: if a food has less than two or three grams of fat per 100 calories, it's considered low in fat.
Page 3 of 3
