How to Avoid a Too High Consume of Fat, Sugar and Salt

Many people consume much more fat, sugar and salt than needed. You also easily consume more than you think, because great amounts of these nutrients are hidden in the food sold in stores.

The high consume of fat sugar and salt causes obesity, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer, even in young people. As the intake of these substances is rising, also the frequency of these serious ailments is going up.

In order to keep yourself generally healthy and reduce the risk for disease, you need to get an absolute control of how much you consume of these nutrients.

HOW MUCH SALT, FAT AND SUGAR DO YOU NEED?

An adult person needs around 4 grams salt (NaCl) each day. You can use this number when you assess the amount of added salt in the food you buy, and the salt you add to the dishes you cook.

Each of your meals should consist of less than 10% fat, around 30% carbohydrates (starch and sugar) and around 25% protein, measured in weight. The rest 35% will be the content of other nutrients and water in your food. Some experts will recommend more fat and less carbohydrates. But if you choose to get most of your energy from fat, you must be sure you reduce significantly your consume of sugar and starch too.

It is not possible to achieve exactly the ideal amount of fat, carbohydrates and salt in your diet. But by following some principles regarding the food you buy, cook and eat, you can control the composition of your diet well enough.

SOME PRACTICAL ADVICES TO GET THE RIGHT RATIO OF THE NUTRIENTS

All your meals should contain protein-rich food like fish, poultry, eggs, mushrooms or meat. Each meal should also contain an equal amount of carbohydrate-rich food like bread, cereals, potatoes, beans or peas. And in each meal you should have some fruit, and vegetables. Some times each week you should eat food rich in healthy fat, like fat fish, sunflower seeds, almonds or nuts. The moderate amount of fat you need will be found naturally in all these food types.

Instead of sugar, use fruit, fresh or dried, like bananas and raisins to sweet your food.

Ideally you should not consume bread bought in the stores, but make dishes from unprocessed cereals, like porridge or muesli, or bake your bread from unprocessed cereals. To these dishes, or self-made bread you can add a minor amount of salt and natural oils.

If you still choose to buy ready made bread, choose whole grain bread, which contains specified natural oils as the only type of fat, without added sugar, and with only small amounts of added salt.

Make all your dishes from natural unprocessed sources. Add only small amount of natural oils and salt when you cook.

Buy meat free from visible fat or cut away the fat you can see.

Fish, meat and vegetables that have been processed or canned, as a rule contain substantially amount of sugar and salt, and usually also fat. If you still chooses to buy canned food, make sure that they do not contain added sugar, fat or salt before you buy it.

Avoid all kind of ready made sweet drinks. Ideally you should press juice from fresh fruit and blend it with water according to your own taste, and use this as your sweet drinks. Do not add sugar. If you still choose to buy ready-made juices, make sure that they do not contain added sugar or salt.

Cookies, candies, ice-cream and cakes consist mostly of fat, sugar and starch. These things should be eaten only at special occasions a couple of times each week, and not be a substantial part of your daily diet.

BE SCEPTICAL ABOUT THE FOOD YOU FIND IN THE STORES

If you choose to buy ready-made food of some type, you must read the declaration to be reasonably sure about the content, and not trust what the label says. If there is no declaration, the declaration looks incomplete, it does not specify amounts, or the declaration contains some fancy words, do not buy it. If the declaration says something like "vegetable fat", this fat is as a rule industrially processed and unhealthy for you.

Also if the food has a consistency and taste that do not seem to fit the declared content, the declaration is most probably false, and you should avoid the product. For example, a full corn bread should have a firm consistency and not feel soft. A bread without added sugar should not taste distinctly sweet.

The small amount of added fat in your food should be unprocessed oils from olives, sunflowers, almonds, canola, nuts, linen seeds, soy, and other natural oils, and you should vary between these oil types so that you get a good mix of fatty acids in your diet.