Buying low fat cooking sauces
Fat – The Basics
“Cooking sauces are a great time-saver that give colour, flavour and texture to the foods that we eat. They can also add a lot of calories to your meal, so try to choose carefully from the many varieties available to help maintain progress on your eating plan”, dietitan Tony explains.
“A Rogan Josh cooking sauce, depending on the brand, may contain 16% fat and 194 calories for a 100g (3½oz) serving – this is about 3 tablespoons. A low fat version can be as low as 0.4% fat with a calorie level of 60kcal for a 100g serving”, he adds.
Common Fat Myths and Misconceptions
- “‘Reduced fat’ on packaging is the same as ‘low fat’ ” – ‘Reduced fat’ means the product must contain at least 25% less fat than the standard product. For example, standard mayonnaise is 80% fat and reduced fat mayonnaise is 30-40% fat i.e. it is lower in fat than the standard but it is still a high fat product.
Fat -Tips and Tricks
- Use a spoon to help with portion control – try to limit the amount of cooking sauce to 3 tablespoons per meal. Also remember that 1 Nutrition card portion of cooked rice is 2-heaped tablespoons and 1 Nutrition card portion of cooked pasta is 3 tablespoons.
- Eating a good helping of vegetables (4-6 tablespoons) or salad (1 small bowl) with your main meal is a good way to bulk up the dish without adding too many calories.
- Why not purchase a recipe book to give you a starting point for making your own cooking sauces. Once you have the basics, it’s easy to experiment with different ingredients to create your own sauce, which will be a lot lower in fat than some of those in the shops. Paul Newman did it, so why can’t you?
- If you prepare a large batch of your own sauce, freeze it for another day or share your own creation with friends or neighbours