Fats and Your Child

Like carbohydrates in recent years, fats have been wrongly accused of being "bad." Although some are definitely better than others, certain kinds of fat are actually good for you and your child and are an important part of a healthy diet.

What Is Fat?

Fats, or lipids, are nutrients in food that your body uses to build nerve tissue (like the brain) and hormones. Your body also uses fat as fuel. If fats that you've eaten aren't burned as energy or used as building blocks, they're stored by the body in fat cells. This is your body's way of thinking ahead: By saving fat for future use, your body plans for times when food might be scarce.

Fat gives food flavor and texture, but it's also high in calories, and excess amounts of fatty foods (as with excess amounts of any food) can cause many health risks. For children and adolescents, desserts and snacks (including potato chips, chocolate, cakes, doughnuts, pastries, and cookies) are a significant source of fat. Kids also get fat from whole milk products and high-fat meats, such as bacon, hot dogs, and nonlean red meat.

Of course, fast-food and take-out meals tend to have more fat than home cooking; and in restaurants, fried dishes are the highest in fat content. Fat also often "hides" in foods in the form of creamy, cheesy, or buttery sauces or dressings.

Still, though, fat is an important part of a healthy diet when your child eats the right kinds of fats (especially those from certain kinds of fish) in recommended amounts.

Why Some Fats Are Healthy

Although many of today's children are much less physically fit than previous generations and the percentage of TV, spending time on the computer, and playing video games), and eating larger portions of foods than we need take the lion's share of blame for the obesity epidemic. Of course, lower-fat diets have been recommended to promote good health and help people prevent obesity and maintain a healthy

Unsaturated fats: Found in plant foods and fish, these fats are seen as neutral or even beneficial to cholesterol levels and increase the risk of heart disease.

Trans fats: Found in margarine (especially the sticks), commercial snack foods and baked goods, and some commercially fried foods, trans fats (also called trans fatty acids) are created when vegetable oils are hydrogenated (meaning that hydrogen atoms are added to the fat molecule so they remain solid at room temperature). Like saturated fats, eating too much trans fat can raise cholesterol and increase the risk of heart disease. By 2006, food manufacturers must list trans fats on food labels. For now, keep an eye out for "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated" oils on the ingredient list.

Looking at Labels

When you're out shopping for food, picking up products, and perusing labels, it's important to understand that your child may eat a portion that is larger than the serving size on the label. For example, a bag of corn chips might list 5 chips as a serving size. But your child may typically eat 10 to 15 chips in a typical meal. That's why it's always important to compare serving sizes.

When it comes to fat, labels can say many things. Low-fat, reduced fat, light (or lite), and fat-free are common terms you may see on food packages. The government has strict rules about the use of two of these phrases. By law:

• Fat-free foods can contain no more than 0.5 grams of fat per serving.
• Low-fat foods may contain 3 grams of fat or less per serving.

Reduced-fat and light (lite) foods are a little trickier, though, and you may need to do some supermarket sleuthing. Light (lite) and reduced-fat foods may still be high in fat. The requirement for a food to be labeled light (lite) is that it must contain 50% less fat or one third fewer calories per serving than the regular version of that food.

Foods labeled reduced fat must contain 25% less fat per serving than the regular version. But if the regular version of a particular food was high in fat to begin with, a 25% to 50% reduction may not lower the fat content enough to make it a smart snacking choice. For example, the original version of a brand of peanut butter contains 17 grams of fat and the reduced fat version contains 12 grams. That's still a lot of fat!

And don't expect the label to tell all. The percentage of fat in a food isn't always listed on the label. But it is easy to calculate. Divide the number of calories from fat by the number of total calories and multiply by 100. For example, if a 300-calorie food has 60 calories from fat, you divide 60 by 300 and then multiply by 100. The result shows that that food gets 20% of its calories from fat.

How Much Fat Should My Child Get?

Although the tendency for some parents is to try to cut fat altogether or excessively limit it, it's crucial for fat to stay a part of your child's diet. Despite the bad press, fat is not the enemy. In fact, restrictive diets aren't recommended for kids.

For young children, especially, fat and cholesterol play important roles in brain development. And for kids below 2 years old, fat should not be restricted. Starting at 2 years old, children should eat a varied diet with about 30% to 35% of calories coming from fat. For ages 4 to 18 years, the recommendations are about 25% to 35% of calories.

Fit Fats and Your Family

Although eating adequate amounts of fat is an important part of a healthy diet, it is true that many kids today do eat too much of it. And excess fat in a child's diet may lead to weight gain. Kids who carry excess weight into adulthood have greater risk of heart attacks, depression and

Probably the most effective way to teach your child Barbara P. Homeier, MD
Date reviewed: January 2005