Your daily fat intake should be no more
than 30% of your total daily calories.
For example, if your daily calorie intake is 2000
calories,
then your daily calories from fat should be 600 calories.
Here’s the formula: _______ total calories x 0.3 =
_______ (30% calories from fat)
It is easy to know that foods such as french fries,
buttered rolls, and meat gravies are high in fat.
It is harder to read food labels and really know how much fat is in
the food.
For example, a product advertised as "94% fat free"
may contain much more than 6% fat !
This is because the arithmetic is based on weight
and not on the % of calories from fat.
Food labels can give us good information, but first we need to do a
simple calculation.
For example, a "low fat" product advertised as "94%
fat free" has the following on the label:
"25 calories per serving; 10 calories from fat per
serving"
40% of the calories in this "low fat" product are from
fat
Here’s the formula for calculating the % of calories from
fat
calories from fat per serving [divided by]
total calories per serving
x 100 = % fat calories |
|
or, fat calories
--------------- x 100
total calories |
For the "low
fat" product: 10 / 25 x 100 = 40% |
A similar "light fat" product has the
following label information:
"50 calories per serving; 45 calories from fat per
serving"
What is the % of calories from fat ? _________
answer: 90% (45 / 50 =
.9, then .9 x 100 =
90%
90% of the calories in this "light fat" product are
from fat
It is a good idea to read the labels and to select foods with less
than 30% calories from fat. |
