Cooking Methods for Meat and Meatless Alternatives

Dietary sources of fat in regular diet are often difficult to identify. The visible fats in our diet (such as salad oils, butter, and the layer of fat on some cuts of meat) represent only about 40% of the fat we consume. Most of the fat we eat daily is hidden in food.

Paying attention to the amount of fat in our diet is important because too much fat in your diet poses two major problems:

1. WEIGHT GAIN
2. RISK OF CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE (CVD)

Changing for better requires knowledge, so it is very important to learn and know fat content of foods you will use to prepare your meals and becoming familiar with food labels. Changing what you eat and method of food preparation can reduce significantly the fat content of your diet.

Since fat is a very concentrated source of energy, which means that small amounts are packed with a lot of calories (each teaspoon of fat = 4 grams of fat or 36 calories), most nutrition authorities promote a reduction of fat in the regular diet. The current recommendation is that no more than 25 to 30 percent of our calories come from fat.

Tips for Reducing the Fat Content of Meals:

1. Choose lean cuts of meat. Trim all visible fat from meat, both within the cut and along the edges.

2. Remove the skin from poultry before cooking.

3. Use cooking methods such as broiling, poaching, baking, barbecuing, boiling, and roasting on a rack that allows fat to drip away from meat.

4. Select more fish, poultry and meatless alternatives. Try to include at least two fish meals per week. When canned fish is selected, fish packed in water or broth is the best choice.

5. To make low fat gravy, sauces and stews, refrigerate first, them skim fat from surface. Faster method: skim off fat, add ice cubes to liquid and skim fat again.

6. Meatless meals include low fat cheese, egg substitutes, almond butter, legumes, and tofu. To make your protein complete combine a legume with cereal or low fat dairy product to egg substitute or egg white or pasta.

7. Use more vegetables and fruits in place of meat and cheeses.

8. Layer vegetables over baked potatoes to reduce any tendency to add butter, cheese or sour cream.

9. If using lean ground beef, medium hamburger for spaghetti sauces, etc., brown meat first, discard fat and proceed with recipe.

10. Don't prepare food with cream based sauces and dressings, such as fettuccine alfredo or ceasar salad.

NOTE: Meat supplies protein and iron but you only need small amounts for your daily protein requirement. By cutting down on the amount eaten daily, you avoid the major source of saturated fat and cholesterol. One serving of meat equals 1 oz. (cooked weight, no bones or fat) or 25 grams.

Meatless alternatives are good sources of protein, and are low in fat and cholesterol.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
© Maya Gavric, entrepreneur, consultant, freelance writer, web developer, artist, former realtor, and marketing coach has been working, researching and reporting on the Internet for years. Her numerous articles and books offer valuable insight and tips on wide variety of topics. In recent times she has paid particular attention to knowledge management on the Internet, health topics and environmental problems, exploring how our attention to hot issues might best transform current situation into better practice. For more health tips and info visit: Romwell Health Pages.

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