Better Eat Food Fat Guide and Counter – helping you get the balance right
To optimise daily fat intake, two steps are vital:
1. Control overall daily fat intake and be sure to include healthy fats. Additional to the recommended amount of
fat required daily (see below), one should have another 4-6 servings of any one of the following foods:
Avocado
½ Small
Raw Nuts
6 – 10 nuts
Olive Oil
1 teaspoon
2. Include a source of omega 3 fats in your diet daily. Do this by either including 10 walnuts or a serving of fatty
fish (sardines in olive oil or water, mackerel (not in sunflower oil), salmon or pilchards (in tomato) every day.
Try to have the fish at least twice a week – just a piece on a slice of toast will increase omega 3 fat intake).
Woolworths Omega 3 Eggs and Omega 3 Bread (freeze and then eat this toasted) are also valuable sources
of omega 3 fat.
Avoid foods that contain hydrogenated fat i.e. some biscuits and cakes and processed foods. Food labels will
indicate when hydrogenated fat is an ingredient.
How to control overall fat intake
The Better Eat Centre’s Food Fat Guide and Counter is a simple method used to help individuals adjust daily fat
intake.
The Better Eat Food Fat Guide (below) will guide your food choices to ensure overall fat intake are within
required parameters - without cutting out the healthy fats as well (as the list suggests). It will allow you to still
enjoy favourite foods as you may decide to allocate your entire budget for a day to one meal (and other meals
may then exclude foods that contain fat or may include foods with a marginal fat content.
Fat requirements
Daily fat requirement would vary for individuals and will depend on gender, age, acitivity levels and weight.
(Request a personalised fat requirement from the Better Eat Food and Nutrition Centre for optimum benefit.)
Only fat content of animal products and commercially manufactured products and plant foods high in fat e.g.
avocado pear and nuts need to be taken into account.
The Better Eat Food Fat Guide will allow individuals to know exactly how much of which foods they should or
should not consume to stay within the allocated fat “budget”.
The Better Eat Food Fat Guide
Where food labels (for example Woolworths foods) indicate total fat content, one may use these to determine
the serving size that will contain 5 g of fat.
Fat content of often used foods
The following food portions contain ± 5 grams of fat except if otherwise indicated:
FISH
Serving size that contains ± 5 grams of fat
* Fatty fish (mackerel) 1 small fish (size of a cigarette
1 small fish / 40 g
box) (50 g)
* Salmon 80g
40g / 3 tablespoons, flaked
^ Fried calamari ½ cup
½ cup / 22.5g
^ Haddock, steamed 500g
385g / 2 large fillets
* “Snoek” steamed/grilled 135g
100g / medium fillet / 3 x matchbox size
^ Mussels steamed 80 Mussels
80 Mussels / 240g
* Pilchards 1 Big
1 Big / 90g
* Prawns, grilled 2 Big
2 Big / 40g
* Sole (Baby) 5 Soles
330g / 4 ½ soles
^ Tuna (Tinned, in brine) 5 cups
620g / 3 cups
* White fish steamed/grilled 600g
600g / 3 fillets
fried in butter/oil 50g
50g / ¼ fillets
PORK
Serving size that contains ± 5 grams of fat
+ Bacon 1 rasher
1 rasher / 10g
^ Ham , lean 6 thin slices
6 thin slices / 90g
Normal 3 thin slices
3 thin slices / 45g
+ Spare ribs 3 ribs = 8 x 5g fat
3 ribs / 130g (8 x 5g fat)
+ Vienna (cocktail) 1 Small
1 Small / 20g
+ Pork chop (125x70x15) 1 Big = 3 x 5g fat
1 Big / 80g (3 x 5g fat)
BEEF
Serving size that contains ± 5 grams of fat
+ Rump without fat 100g
100g / 140 x 80 x 10mm piece
with fat 60g
60g / ½ 130x70x15mm piece
+ Sirloin without fat 50g
50g / 85x55x8mm piece
+ Sirloin with fat 25g
½ / 85x55x8mm piece 25g
+ Biltong, Beef, fat trimmed 200ml
80g / ⅔ cup sliced
Game 2 cups
75g / ¾ cup sliced
Ostrich
125g / 1 cup sliced
+ Hamburger patty 1 Medium = 3 x 5g fat
1 Medium / 80g (3 x 5g fat)
+ Mince (Topside) 3 Flat tablespoons
3 level tablespoons / 35g
CHICKEN
Serving size that contains ± 5 grams of fat
^ Chicken breast without skin 1 Small
1 Medium / 125g
Thigh without fat 1 Big
125g / 2 small
Drumstick without fat 2 Big
125g / 2 big
+ Chicken Pie 1 Small
1 small / 35g
^ Chicken patty 90g = 3 x 5g fat
90g (3 x 5g fat)
MUTTON
Serving size that contains ± 5 grams of fat
+ Mutton rib (without fat) 2 small
2 small / 55g
+ Mutton / lamb, sliced (without fat) Portion the size of
Portion the size of a matchbox / 30g
a cigarette box
+ Mutton chop without fat 1 (size of a cigarette box)
+
with fat 1 = 3 x 5g fat
50g / 100x50x15mm loin chop
50g (2 x 5g fat) / 100x50x15mm loin chop
MILK AND MILK PRODUCTS
Serving size that contains ± 5 grams of fat
+ Feta cheese 1/3 wheel
⅓ wheel
+ Gouda, Cheddar etc. ¼ cup grated
¼ cup grated / 30g
+ Butter 1 Teaspoon
1 Teaspoon / 5ml
+ Low fat cottage cheese 45g / 2 tablespoons
45g / 2 tablespoons
+ Cream 2 Teaspoons
2 Teaspoons / 10ml
+ 2% Milk 250ml/1 cup
250ml / 1 cup
+ Low fat yoghurt 175ml
175ml / ⅔ cup
+ Ice cream 1 Tablespoon
1 Tablespoon / 15ml
+ Ice cream (sorbet) 125ml
125ml / ½ cup
SIMONSBERG CHEESE
Serving size that contains ± 5 grams of fat
Brie
2 cubes (2cm x 2cm x 2cm) / 18 grams = 18 grams
Simonzola
2 cubes (2cm x 2cm x 2cm) / 13,5 grams= 13,5 grams
Mozzarella
1 slice (5mm thick) / 4 tablespoons grated / 30g
Creamy Blue
3 cubes (1cm x 1cm x 2cm) / 16,6 g
Feta 3-4 tablespoons grated
3-4 tablespoons grated / 30g
Low-fat cream cheese 2 tablespoons
2 tablespoons / 22 grams
Melrose Cheeses
2 ½ tablespoons / 25 grams
Full-Cream cheese spread 2 ½ tablespoons
2 ½ tablespoons / 25 grams = 25 grams
Low-fat cheese spread 6 tablespoons
6 tablespoons / 60 grams
EGG PRODUCTS (Preferably Use Woolworths Omega Serving size that contains ± 5 grams of fat
Eggs
+ Boiled egg 1 Med
1 Med / 55g
+ Poached egg 1 Med
1 Med / 55g
+ Baked egg (fried in butter/oil) 1 Med = 8g fat
1 Med / 55g (8g fat)
+ Scrambled egg (fried in butter/oil) 1 Med = 8g fat
+1 Med / 55g (8g fat)
SAUCES
Serving size that contains ± 5 grams of fat
* Mayonnaise 1 Teaspoon
1 Teaspoon / 5ml
* Trim mayonnaise 4 Teaspoons
4 Teaspoons / 20ml
NUTS
Serving size that contains ± 5 grams of fat
* Almonds 6 Nuts
6 Nuts / 12g
* Mixed nuts 4 Halves
4 Halves / 8g
* Peanuts 10 peanuts
10 peanuts / 10g
* Pecan 4 Halves
4 Halves / 8g
OILS & SPREADS
Serving size that contains ± 5 grams of fat
* Avocado
¼ Medium / 40g
* Peanut butter
2 Teaspoons / 10ml
* Olive oil/ Canola
1 Teaspoon / 5ml
* Olives
8 Big / 45g
SWEETS
Serving size that contains ± 5 grams of fat
+ Chocolate
4 blocks / 20g
+ Cake without icing
1 small piece (15 x 75 x 55mm)
+ Cheesecake
1 very small piece (45 x 25 x 15mm)
+ Toffee
4 toffees 4 toffees
+ Pizza (ham & cheese)
1 slice
^ Scone / muffin 1 med
1 medium
Notes: The types of fat we choose to eat are also important.
* Products rich in mono-unsaturated /Poly-unsaturated fatty acids. (HEALTHIER!)
+ Products with a high saturated fatty acid content. Use cautiously.
^ Products with a “neutral fat” status (not necessarily healthy or unhealthy)
GUIDELINE AMOUNTS FOR OTHER FOODS for weight loss (minimum amount) or weight maintenance
(toward maximum amount) indicated.
FOOD GROUP
Serving Size
Grains and Starchy Vegetables 1 Slice of Bread
Male
Female
8 – 10 Servings Daily
6-8 Servings Daily
(Pumpkin, peas, sweet potato 3 Provitas/2 Ryvitas
etc)
⅓ cup rice
½ cup peas / cooked
porridge / sweet potato
1 cup pumpkin
Vegetables
1 cup
As much as you like
As much as you like
Fruit
1 medium sized
3-4 Servings
2-3 Servings
½ cup juice
½ cup fruit salad
equal amounts of dried
fruit i.e. 2 dried peach
halves=1 peach
Need more information? Visit www.bettereat.net