Tips for Healthy Cooking

1. At the Store
   • Choose lean cuts of meat such as beef round, loin, sirloin, pork loin chops, and roasts. All cuts with the name "loin," or "round," are lean. "Select" grade meat is leaner than "prime" or "choice."
   • Choose fish, shellfish, and poultry (take off the skin) often. They are lower in saturated fat.
   • Buy lowfat and nonfat versions of dairy products.
   • Read food labels and choose those foods that are lower in fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol.
2. At the Table
   • Use less of all fats and oils, especially butter, cream, sour cream, and cream cheese, which have a lot of saturated fat.
   • Try nonfat salad dressings.
   • Gradually replace whole milk with 2% fat milk, then 1% fat or skim (nonfat) milk for adults and children age 2 and older. They may not even notice!
3. In the Kitchen
   • When cooking, replace fats that contain saturated fat, such as butter and lard, with small amounts of unsaturated fat such as vegetable oil, corn oil, soybean oil, olive oil, peanut oil, or canola oil.
   • Broil, roast, bake, steam, or grill foods instead of frying them, or stirfry with just a little added oil or broth.
   • Trim all fat from meat before cooking. Remove the skin from chicken or turkey.
   • Spoon off fat from meat dishes once they have been chilled in the refrigerator and the fat has hardened on the top.
   • Use skim milk or lowfat milk or evaporated skim milk when making "cream" sauces, soups, or puddings.
   • Substitute lowfat yogurt, sour cream, or cottage cheese for sour cream and mayonnaise in dips and dressings.
   • Substitute two egg whites for each whole egg in recipes. (The cholesterol and fat are in the yolk not in the white.)
   • Try lemon juice, herbs, or spices to season food instead of salt, butter, or margarine.

Taken from"Tickle Your Appetite," Team Nutrition's Education Kit for Child Care. A program of the Food and Nutrition Services of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. FNS-307; July 1998.