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 Balancing Calories And Optimizing Fat: An Evolution In Thinking
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With two out of three of us officially overweight, it's not surprising that calorie reduction has become something of a national pastime. But dietary care must be exercised. For example, without adequate knowledge of the different types of fats and the role they play in ensuring good health, we may cut out potentially healthful foods and increase our risk of heart disease. For decades, the conventional wisdom has been that low-fat diets are necessary for weight reduction and a lower risk of coronary heart disease1. But that's starting to change, as studies have not been able to confirm that low-fat diets alone can accomplish weight loss2 or sustain it for the long term3,4.
According to the 2005 USDA Dietary Guidelines report, we tend to favor foods that are energy-rich, but nutrient-poor5. We need to select foods more wisely to lower calories while still achieving the recommendation for polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats.
Going Beyond Olive Oil
For some time, the Mediterranean diet — known for being rich in olive oil and high in monounsaturated fats — has been regarded as a nutritious and desirable way to eat. But it's not just olive oil that deserves the nutritious oils and fats spotlight. Canola, peanut, sunflower, and soybean oils also contain fats essential to maintaining a nutritious diet. Many of these oils are in products that were once considered less that healthy. Hellmann's®/Best Foods® mayonnaise products are a great example. Made from oils like soybean and canola, Hellmann's®/Best Foods® products can be part of a nutritious, balanced diet. Hellmann's®/Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise, Canola Real Mayonnaise and Light Mayonnaise contain no trans fats per serving, contain Omega 6 fatty acids, and are an excellent source of Omega 3 fatty acids.
Hellmann's®/Best Foods® Mayonnaise (known as Best Foods® West of the Rockies) is made from three real and simple ingredients: eggs, vinegar and vegetable oil (soybean and canola).
The chart below provides the nutritional information for Hellmann's®/Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise, Hellmann's®/Best Foods® Canola Real Mayonnaise, and Hellmann's®/Best Foods® Light Mayonnaise.
| 1 | Connor WE, Connor SL: Should a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet be recommended for everyone? The case for a low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. N Engl J Med 337:562-563; discussion 566-567, 1997. |
| 2 | Sacks F: Dietary fat and coronary heart disease. J Cardiovasc Risk 1:3-8, 1994. |
| 3 | Kasim SE, Martino S, Kim PN, Khilani S, Boomer A, Depper J, Reading BA, Heilbrun LK: Dietary and anthropometric determinants of plasma lipoproteins during a long-term low-fat diet in healthy women. Am J Clin Nutr 57:146-153, 1993. |
| 4 | Foster GD, Wyatt HR, Hill JO, McGuckin BG, Mohammed BS, Szapary PO, Rader DJ, Edman JS, Klein S: A randomized trial of a low-carbohydrate diet for obesity. N engl J Med 348:2082-2090, 2003. |
| 5 | Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee. US Dietary Guidelines for Americans, Published in 2005; USA. |
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