Lipid-controlled diet: essentials and cooking tips for a low-fat life

Summer is coming, and many people are busy losing weight while also trying to control blood lipids. In fact, for most people, weight loss and fat control are originally the same goal.

The "Dietary Guidelines for Adults with High Blood Lipids" recommends "regulating fat and cooking with less oil". How can we achieve low fat and less oil?

Many people think that as long as they do not eat fatty meat, meat oil, and eat less fried food, they can achieve low fat and less oil. It's actually far from it.

To achieve less oil, the most important thing is these items.

Point 1: Stay away from fatty desserts and crispy snacks

All foods with a very "crispy" taste, the kind that will lose the dregs when bitten, there is no doubt that they are high-fat. For example, those crispy cookies, cookies, waffles, rice noodles, peach crisps, pineapple crisps, all kinds of pastries, and so on.

The fragrant and soft taste also indicates that it is high in fat. For example, sachima, pie, egg tarts, small cakes, shortbread, etc. Any state of "layering" indicates that a lot of grease has been added.

Some foods are known to have a lot of fat, such as cakes coated in cream; Some seem to have little fat, are very confusing, and must be carefully identified.

For example, snow rice crackers, barley rice flowers and other foods, who would have thought that they contain about 20% fat? Even coarse grains and whole grains also incorporate a lot of fat, or even more.

Crispy foods, many of which are made by deep frying. For example, crab yellow broad beans, crispy peas, crispy dates, etc. For example, taro strips, sweet potato fries, banana chips and other "comprehensive dried fruits and vegetables", it looks very healthy, who would have thought that their fat content is higher than fried instant noodles, is not amazing fat household!

Moreover, the fat in it is often palm oil, or vegetable shortening, and the proportion of saturated fat is very large.

This is because if the liquid grease is used a little more, the oil will leak out, and it cannot maintain a crispy state, making the product texture and taste poor. However, highly saturated fats appear semi-solidified at room temperature, which can make the taste of the product softer or crispier, and it does not taste greasy, and the oil will not get on the hands.

However, just wrap these foods in a paper towel, press or squeeze for two minutes, and immediately you will see that the tissue has been penetrated by the oil. This is the effect of highly saturated grease.

When frying, palm oil is usually used to avoid oxidative polymerization of grease and to maintain a crispy taste after cooling. The proportion of saturated fat in palm oil is a little higher than lard.

Don't look at palm oil is a real vegetable oil, but about half of the fatty acids in palm oil are palmitic acid, which is a saturated fatty acid of 16 carbon, which is not friendly to blood lipid health. Several studies have found a positive correlation between high levels of palmitic acid in the red blood cell membrane and plasma in the body and dyslipidemia and the risk of cardiovascular disease.

These foods often contain a considerable amount of refined sugar or refined white starch at the same time, and when combined with saturated fat, it is very easy to bring about triglyceride rise problems, unless you can exercise a lot every day.

Point 2: Try not to add oil to the staple food, try to eat the original taste

To control the amount of fat, daily staple foods are also one of the keys.

Many people like staple foods with oil, such as shortbread, baked biscuits, and mille-feuille. Without more oil, this kind of product cannot be made. Here is a solemn repeat: as long as it is divided into many layers, as long as it is crispy and fragrant, it is all high-fat. Even if it is claimed to be made of whole wheat and coarse grains. Those famous traditional baked cakes are either added with lard or vegetable oil.

At dinner, people eat a lot of delicious dishes, and in the end, they are not satisfied with white rice, but also eat staple foods with fat. Fried rice, dumplings, buns, pies, shortbread, noodles, all of which need to be added with oil and salt or minced meat, are higher in fat than white rice.

Therefore, when controlling blood lipids, you should pay attention to eating original staple foods as much as possible, such as rice with some multigrains, multigrain porridge without sugar, whole wheat steamed buns, steamed buns with mixed grain flour, pancakes, hair cakes, etc.

Point 3: Eat less meatballs and minced meat, and remove chicken skin and duck skin

Many people like to eat balls, especially middle-aged and elderly people with poor teeth, and feel that the balls are soft, fresh and fragrant and chewy. A variety of stuffed foods made with minced meat are also a favorite of many people.

However, meatballs and minced meat tend to be high-fat. Pure lean meatballs do not taste good, at least 30% fat, to taste delicate and soft. Crab flour meatballs have more than half the fat, while Sixi meatballs and braised meatballs are fried in oil.

Many meatballs are filled with starch, and the proportion of lean meat is low, but fatty meat is still essential. The delicate taste of starch and fatty meat, combined with the aroma of meat and meat flavor, is their selling point.

Therefore, we must be highly vigilant about the proportion of fat in meatballs and minced meat. It is best to make low-fat meatballs yourself, replacing most of the fatty meat with ingredients such as mashed potatoes, water chestnuts, and cooked kelp, which can reduce the fat content while maintaining a good taste.

Chickens and ducks have more skin fat, and after removal, the fat content can be greatly reduced. However, when making soup, the fat and collagen in the skin are very important for the taste and aroma of the soup. At this time, you can take the skin to cook soup or stew, take its aroma, and then need to control blood lipids to tear off the skin and then eat, drink the soup to remove the slick oil, you can control the fat content.

Point 4: Reduce the fat of meat through cooking measures

If you have already chosen high-fat ingredients, such as ribs, chicken wings, etc., you can also use cooking measures to reduce the fat in the ingredients.

For example, first put the meat in an electric cooker, simmer the oil, and then remove the oil slick. You can also leave a small amount of oil slick to cook high-fiber vegetables, thus eliminating the oil for cooking vegetables.

Another example, raw materials with high fat can be steamed together with steamed meat and rice flour, and part of the fat will be absorbed by the rice flour, as long as you do not eat the rice flour part, you can eat less meat fat.

Another good way is to cook the medium and high-fat ingredients of the chicken wings before roasting and braising them, remove some of the fat, and then mix them into the seasoning roast or braised to reduce the fat. The boiled soup can be used to cook vegetables.

Point 5: Try to choose steaming, oven roasting and other cooking methods for fish

Fish is beneficial for controlling blood lipids and preventing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, mainly because of the advantages of omega-3 fatty acids. If you add too much cooking oil to your fish, you introduce too many omega-6 fatty acids and lose its health benefits. Moreover, omega-3 fatty acids are inherently prone to oxidative loss due to heat.

Therefore, avoid eating fried fish, fried fish, dry grilled fish, etc., and recommend cooking methods such as steaming, stewing, and oven roasting. When braised lightly with a small amount of oil, it is fine.

Point 6: Try to add as little cooking oil as possible when cooking eggs

The fat content of eggs themselves is not very high, but the ability to absorb oil is particularly strong, so you should try to choose less oil cooking methods, such as whole boiled, poached eggs, steamed custard, etc.

When frying eggs, try to use a non-stick pan, fry tender, it is best to try to maintain the integrity of the yolk, avoid direct contact of the yolk with hot oil.

When scrambling eggs, you can put less oil, reduce the fire, do not turn it, first let the egg liquid coagulate into a tender egg cake, do not let the inside absorb oil.

Before the omelette gets old, scoop it out and crush it as soon as possible and mix it with other vegetables that are sautéed.

In this way, you can make a plate of egg scrambled vegetables with only a small amount of oil.

The worst way to cook is baked egg yolks. Scrambling egg yolks with oil will inhale a lot of oil, and egg yolks exposed to hot oil are prone to cholesterol oxidation, and oxidized cholesterol is very harmful to blood vessels.

Point 7: Pay attention to oil control when cooking vegetables

Vegetable oil reduction cooking is not as simple as putting less oil, because many stir-fry oil is really not delicious. Changing the cooking method is the solution. It is recommended to commonly use the following cooking methods to reduce oil:

First, it is directly steamed, or steamed with a small amount of flour and dipped in juice to eat;

the second is white searing (less pouring of oil after blanching);

the third is water and oil stewing; The fourth is cold mix or blanching (when mixing, you should also add less oil instead of soaking in oil);

The fifth is to eat with dipping sauce or dipping seasoning (but also add less sauce to avoid too salty).

In the popular science reports of Nutrition Week 2022 and 2023, I explained the method of water and oil stewing. Here's again.

The key to water and oil stewing is three:

First, release less water to avoid the loss of water-soluble nutrients. Definitely not boiled in water. For example, to make a 400-gram dish, only half a small bowl of water is enough.

The second is to control the amount of oil, but more is not too little. Put 1 tablespoon of oil in a 300-gram dish, which is about 6 grams.

Vegetables with a lot of oxalic acid, such as spinach, can be blanched for half a minute before being braised in water and oil.

The third is to add oil first, and then put vegetables. In this way, it can soften the cellulose, improve the taste, and also help the absorption and utilization of fat-soluble nutrients such as vitamin K and lutein in the dish. If you stew directly without adding oil, the dish will be very tendony and stuffed teeth.

If the above suggestions can be achieved, the amount of fat in the diet can be greatly reduced, which is not only conducive to controlling blood lipids, long-term implementation, but also weight loss.

Some friends may say: It is also a pity that so many high-fat meals cannot be eaten!

It's okay to eat a little once in a while, as long as there is enough exercise to match.

It is said in the food guidelines and dietary guidelines that eating should be balanced. People with dyslipidemia should exercise more. Actually increasing physical exercise can allow us to maintain better metabolic capacity under the premise of enjoying three meals normally.

Health is not a one-day task, we need to change our living habits and work hard for a long time. Join us!

Further reading:

Lipid control diet - how to supplement protein?

Lipid control diet - how to eat staple food?