Nutrition: Fat

By Marjorie Hagerman

Fat is not quite the villain we sometimes make it out to be! The body needs fat to perform a variety of functions - everything from production of healthy skin and sex hormones to protecting the internal organs and carrying certain vitamins throughout the body. Fat is also a valuable energy source, particularly during low-intensity exercise. When the intensity of the exercise increases, however, the body relies primarily on glycogen stores to fuel the working muscles.

Since the body normally has virtually unlimited stores of fat it is not necessary to eat a high fat diet to have adequate fat available for any low intensity workouts. A well balanced diet will provide all the fat required to resupply adipose tissue deposits in the body, which in the average person store in excess of 11,000 grams of fat, or over 100,000 calories! With all this fat stored in the body, we require only about 2 to 10% of our total daily calories as fat to supply adequate amounts of fatty acid called linoleic acid, which the body cannot make and must obtain from food. Unfortunately, the average person consumes much more than 10% of calories as fat - the figure is currently about 37%.

Not only is it unnecessary to eat a high fat diet to provide fuel for low intensity training, it is undesirable. Total fat, and especially saturated fat from meat, poultry, whole milk dairy products, and several tropical plant oils - coconut, palm and palm kernel - have all been implicated as contributing factors in heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Also, a diet high in fat can lead to excess weight gain since, gramme for gramme, fat will provide more than twice the calories of carbohydrate and protein, and fat from food is very efficiently converted to fat stores in the body.

Is this recommended amount of fat a change from a usual balanced diet? Definitely. And to achieve this level of fat intake, which is appropriate for rowing training as well as for overall good health. Suggestions to reduce fat from the present 37% of total calories to the recommended 20 to 25% include:

• Limit cheese consumption. (This is one of most commonly eaten high fat foods in a rower's diet.) Switch to the lower fat types of cheese, low or half fat cheese such as mozzarella or cheddar and low fat cottage cheese
• Switch from the regular or premium type ice creams to low fat frozen yoghurt or sorbet.
  Choose margarines made from liquid vegetable (non-tropical) oils rather than butter.
  Limit amount of salad dressings used to no more than two to three tablespoons per salad and stick to low fat or vinegarette varieties.
• Limit the amount of mayonnaise-containing salads such as tuna, ham, egg, pasta and chicken; when preparing these yourself, use the lower fat types of mayonnaise and try substituting low fat yoghurt or fromage frais.
• Avoid fried foods, especially those that are deep-fried. Food which is baked, boiled or steamed absorbs far less fat than those which are fried.
• Limit the amount of rich sauces made with cream and/or butter. Instead, eat pasta with tomato sauce and vegetables with a dash of grated cheese.
• Choose leaner cuts of red meats, eat fish that is poached or baked rather than fried, and remove the skin from poultry.
• Limit intake of concentrated sweets like cakes, biscuits and sweets, all of which are frequently high in fat.

In addition to reducing the total amount of fat you eat, the type of fat you select is also important. Olive, peanut, sunflower and sesame seed oils are all relatively high in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids, and low in saturated fatty acids, and are therefore considered more heart-healthy. Avoid foods containing lard, the tropical oils (e.g. palm oil), beef suet, and butter - these are all high in saturated fat. You can tell the kind of fat in a product by reading the ingredients listed on the label, which are required to be in descending order of weight.