Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 7, Number 12, 1 December 1990 — ʻAi Pono, E Ola [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ʻAi Pono, E Ola

By Terry Shintani, M.D.

Your secret to weight loss: the fat finder formula

In my last article, I described how you could lose weight easily by limiting the fat in your diet. Here is a simple way to find the hidden fat in your diet. I eall this the Fat Finder Formula. Why do we need a formula? It's because

there is so mueh hidden fat in our food that it's time we as consumers learned how to find it so we ean buy foods with some awareness of how fat it will make us. Part of the problem is in how fat is reported on labels. "2% milk" is a good example. "2% milk" sounds like it's "98% fat free". The truth is that 2% milk is actually 35% fat. Advertisers don't tell you that the 2% is calculated by weight and not by caloric value whieh is how it should be reported.

They also don't tell you that whole milk is 3.3% fat by weight (55% calories). Other examples of hidden fats are 5% fat ham whieh is actually 39% fat by calories and ehieken hot dogs whieh elaim to be less than 20% fat but that are 73% fat by calories al-

though better than beef franks that are 83% fat. How do we find the fat in our foods? The Fat Finder Formula is based on the simple fact that fats (both saturated and polyunsaturated) are 9 calories per gram (weight). The formula is as simple as this: look at a food label and take the grams of fat and multipiy by nine (grams fat x 9). Then divide this number by the total calories and the number you get is the proportion of fat in the diet.

(grams fat x 9/total calories)= %fat Remember that national guidelines recommend a fat intake of less than 30% of calories and that the ancient Hawaiian diet was around 10 to 15% in fat. Let's take some examples: Hot dogs (per wiener): 12.5 grams fat x 9 = 112.5 (calories from fat) divided by 140 total calories = .83 or 83% fat. A slice of bologna (3/4 oz.): 6. 1 grams fat x 9 = 55 (calories from fat) divided by 67 total calories = .82 or 82% fat. Spam, whole ean 85 grams fat x 9 = 765 (calories from fat)

divided by 1000 total calories = .76 or 76% fat. Sweet potato, two ounces .18 grams fat x 9 = 1.62 (calories from fat) divided by 54 total calories = .03 or 3% fat. Nearly all ancient cultures including the Hawaiians ate a diet that was roughly 10-20% in fat eontent. Almost all whole, unprocessed foods have fat contents at this level or even less. Taroand poi for example are about 1% fat.

If you learn to use the Fat Finder Formula in your shopping and food selections, you will find there is mueh fat in foods you thought were "low fat." Then you ean choose different foods. You may also lower your cholesterol level and your risk of cancer. Best of all, if you keep your total fat intake to 10-20% of your total calories you ean eat as mueh as you want and stili lose weight "automaticallv."

Dr. Terry Shintoni, physician and nutritionist is the director of preventive medicine at the Wai'anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center. A majority of the Center's 18,000 clients are native Hawaiian.