How can I know how much fat is in the food I eat?

Sometimes it can be difficult to know how much fat is in the food you eat, especially when you are eating out. For foods you buy and prepare yourself, check the food labels. The Nutrition Facts label tells you how much fat, saturated fat, and calories from fat are in one serving. If you are cooking a meal or dish with lots of ingredients, try to add up the fat and calories from each ingredient and divide by the number of servings. If you are eating out, many restaurants, particularly chain and fast food restaurants, now provide nutritional information on request. If you are uncertain about any foods, ask your dietitian for an estimate. At the end of the day, add up all the calories from fat from the labels on the foods you’ve eaten and any other hidden fats in foods without labels. This will give you the total of daily calories from fat. Divide this by the total calories you’ve eaten for the day and multiply by 100. This will give you the percent of total calories from fat.

There are two ways to look up amount of fat grams contained in a serving of food. In packaged foods the Food and Drug Administration requires that total fat grams, including unhealthy saturated fat be labeled on all foods. First, look at the serving size listed for the food, second determine how many servings are in your portion of food on your plate. Another way of looking up food without a label is by using a good reference guide. The United States Department of Agriculture has the following online nutrient database http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/. You can enter a food and get nutrition information, such as total fat content.