When assessing the fat content of foods, which should I focus on — fat grams, calories or percentages?
All three are intended to help you understand the fat content of foods. However, looking at fat grams is probably the most useful way to monitor how much fat you’re getting in your daily diet. Health experts at the Institute of Medicine recommend that healthy adults get 20 to 35 percent of their total calories from fat. Each gram of fat has 9 calories. So, if you’re trying to eat 1,800 calories a day, you should have no more than 70 grams of fat a day — 35 percent of 1,800 calories = 630 calories, divided by 9 (calories per gram of fat) = 70 grams. Food labels also list calories and calories from fat per serving. So if a food label says 250 calories and 110 fat calories, it means that almost half the food’s calories come from fat. That’s not necessarily a reason to avoid that food, though. For example, 55 percent of the calories in part-skim mozzarella cheese come from fat, but a 1-ounce serving (28.47 grams) has just 4 grams of fat and 72 total calories. The percentages you see on foo
