Healthy Lifestyle

A daily limit for fat intake

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommend that fat make up no more than 35 percent of your daily calories. This means that if you consume 1,800 calories a day, consume no more than 70 grams of fat a day. (To figure: Multiply 1,800 by 0.35 to get 630 calories, and divide that number by 9, the number of calories per gram of fat, to get 70 grams of total fat.) Keep in mind, however, that this is an upper limit and that most of these fat calories should come from monounsaturated and polyunsaturated sources.

In addition, the USDA and HHS recommend these upper limits for saturated fat and dietary cholesterol for healthy adults:

1. Type of fat -> Saturated fat ; Recommendation -> Less than 10 percent of your total daily calories
2. Type of fat -> Dietary cholesterol ; Recommendation -> Less than 300 milligrams a day

Though the USDA and HHS haven't yet established an upper limit for trans fat, they do suggest that you keep your trans fat intake as low as possible.

Be aware that many foods contain different kinds of fat and varying levels of each type. For example, butter contains unsaturated fats, but a large percentage of the total fat is saturated fat. And canola oil has a high percentage of monounsaturated fat, but also contains smaller amounts of polyunsaturated fat and saturated fat.

posted by Unknown @ 8:54 PM