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Expert advice : Healthy eating advice

Nutritionist: Tara Diversi

Your specialist: Tara Diversi
When it comes to improving health and nutrition, as an Accredited Practising Dietitian and Accredited Nutritionist, Tara Diversi knows exactly what’s best for the family.
Tara works as a nutrition writer and professional speaker and regularly engages with medical practitioners, corporate groups and community groups about the role of different types of fats in diets and the impact of fats in lifestyle diseases such as heart disease, as well as weight management, mental health and joint health.

 

Are all fats bad for you?

No not all fats are bad for you and in fact some fats are not only good, they’re essential to have in our diet. Good fats provide us things like our fat soluble Vitamins A, D and E and they also provide us with essential fatty acids, like omega-3’s which our body can’t make itself, and omega-6.
Do I need to eliminate all fats from my diet to be healthy?
No, you don’t need to eliminate all fats from your diet. The thing we need to look at is not eliminating all fats, but replacing bad fats with good fats.
So what are the good fats?

The good fats are your unsaturated fats. These are your polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats, like canola oil and sunflower oil. Other things like fish oil as well are a good type of fat as they’re a source of Omega-3
So what are the bad fats?
Your bad fats are your saturated and your trans fat. Saturated fat is a fat that is hard at room temperature and often comes from animal sources, but can also be found in some plants as well.
What are some simple ways families can reduce their saturated fat consumption?

Reducing saturated fat in your diet is really important. A really simple way is replacing butter with a margarine spread. You can use it in cooking, you can use it on your toast and also use it on top of vegetables like potatoes and things like that. Another way is making sure that you're not eating too many treat foods, things like cakes, pastries and biscuits as those types of foods are usually hidden sources of fat. The other thing is to reduce animal fat, particularly the fat on the end of meat. Cutting fat off, taking the skin off chicken and also making sure that you’re using good types of meat. Using fish is a really great source of omega-3 fats, particularly oily fish. Small changes can make big results.
Why is canola oil so good?
Canola oil is great as it’s an unsaturated fat and in fact it’s one of the lowest in saturated fat. What’s really unique is that it contains omega-3 and omega-3 is something that our bodies can’t make itself.
   What are some tip for mums to enjoy a healthier lifestyle with their kids?
  Reducing your saturated fats, that is reducing saturated fats on meats, reducing saturated fats from things like butter and cream and replacing those with lower in saturated fat options like margarine spreads. Making sure that you are eating plenty of veggies, veggies with lunch as well as dinner or salads and making sure you’re choosing wholegrains.