Fat by Percentage not by Gram
Note: a low-fat diet is consistent of 20% or fewer total daily calories consumed, by a person, coming from fat (and that is all types of fat).
Fact: In nature, Fat does not exist in tidy short, medium, long, and very long chain carbon lengths independently of one another. While the overall percentage of fat carbon lengths in food may fluctuate, they all exist together. ONLY IN A LAB setting can you isolate the various fat carbon lengths. That is why it is IMPOSSIBLE to separate and calculate total individual fat calories by fat type.
INTRODUCTION:
We are all at different stages of our LCHADD experience. Some of you are veterans and some of you are just starting to un-tangle the web of medical terminology and learning food labels for your needs. As well as explaining to those in your lives what LCHADD is.
Trust me, it took me years to learn the balancing act as well as for my parents. However, by doing that work up front and creating a reasonable, healthy and sustainable plan of action for me, my family and friends, I and my family were able to make eating and following a diet an easy part of daily life, not a full time job.
With this in mind, I have developed a philosophy that has served me well and I know will serve you in a whole verity of situations. But first a little background.
BACKGROUND:
Food Labeling has come a long way over the years. When I was born in 1990 all the macro and micronutrients that you see on food labels today were not present on labels back then.
My parents for the first 5 years of my life had to use a food encyclopedia at the grocery store to look up every item they bought for that week’s meals. Ingredients had to be weighed on a scale at home for recipes and portions were measured out each meal to ensure the calculations my parents so carefully made were accurate at the point of consumption for me.
As you can imagine this took up sooooo much time. With both parents working, raising two little kids, and oh – I don’t know – trying to have a normal life too………..something had to be done. So my family started practicing fat consumption by overall percentage of the entire meal in relation to a full day’s worth of meals and total calorie consumption; rather than by the induvial grams of each item on the plate.
HOW TO APPLY MY PRATICE INTO YOUR LIFE:
It is super simple: Go grab a box or can or jar of food in your home
1. look at the grams of “total fat” listed on the food label.
2. Now - take that number and multiply it by 9 (the number of kcals per gram of fat).
3. Then take the answer and divide it into the total number of calories listed per serving (bold letters at the top of the food label).
… if it is equal to or below 20% you're good.
However, if the percentage from a single serving is over 20% PROCEED WITH CAUTION - feel free to still enjoy the food item. Make sure to take a moment to think about the rest of your day; Are you going out that night or staying in? Are you willing and able to make lower fat selections for the rest of the day? If you choose to eat that higher fat food item now, how will you balance it later? This thinking will help you make choices that ultimately benefit you or the individual you are caring for who needs to watch their overall fat intake.
TIME TO PRACTICE - 3 EXAMPLES EXPLAINED:
Example 1: A 4oz pork chop bone in, is 220 calories and the total fat is 11g.
Then 9 x 11 = 99 kcals
99 / 220 = 0.45 x 100% = 45%
This pork chop is way over the 20% standard, but I’m not too concerned as this is not my only food for the day, there are two other meals in the day as well as snacks and beverages if I so choose.
Choosing the pork chop I would pare it with apple sauce ( ensuring I choose a fat free option – as discussed in the previous post “Hidden Fats”). Additionally, with this meal I would add some steamed broccoli (fat free) and boiled potato’s with no fat added. Thus, the meal has no additional fat over the pork chop!
Assuming this is my dinner I know I'm going to have, I may have fat-free yogurt and blueberries' at breakfast, and oven baked chicken for lunch with other low fat sides. If I went to someone's house and this is what was served - I would keep in mind to eat low fat to no-fat meals at home the next day to counter-balance the fat from the pork chop dinner at the friend's house. I also would opt out on dessert for that night regardless the venue. This is BALANCED eating by percentage not gram!
Example 2: Say you want sesame crackers – there are 7 grams of fat per 350 calories for 12 crackers
7 x 9kcal = 63kcals.
63 / 350 calories = 0.18
0.18 x 100 = 18%
18% is lower than 20% this is a GOOD CHOICE. You can pare it with low-fat turkey meat and pickles for a healthy snack.
Example 3: For more challenging items like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese - the box preparation uses 2% milk which you will not be using, nor butter. This will make the total grams of fat lower than the given package total fat. The lower fat preparation is probably closer to 20% when prepared your way and while you do not know the exact percentage - you will be OK - because once again, this is not your only meal of the day or only component of your meal. And if you are concerned,
Conclusion:
Over time it will become an "no brainer" to to figur out or guess the percentage of fat in a serving. You will be able to get pretty close on your guesses of total fat and some foods you will just know is not a good choice - no matter what. Always remember - 1 meal does not make or break a diet - not for anyone, regardless, if they have a Fatty Acid Oxidation Disordered or not.
You can do this!
By thinking this way – you can have a BALANCED DIET and NOT STRESS about how much fat you are eating at all times, even if the percentage is a rough estimate and not an exact calculation!!
