Campaign gives tips on reducing fat

Switching to lower fat milk and grating cheese instead of slicing it could cut your risk of dying from heart disease, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has said.

Switching to lower fat milk and grating cheese could cut risk of heart disease Switching to lower fat milk and grating cheese could cut risk of heart disease

A new awareness campaign suggests tips which could save an estimated 3,500 lives by cutting the nation's consumption of saturated fat.

A hard-hitting television advert - shown for the first time last night - shows a sink getting clogged with fat and asks viewers to imagine what the fat they consume is doing to their own pipes.

Posters using food in a heart design will also suggest ways that people can reduce the amount of saturated fat in their diet.

The FSA said UK consumers are eating a fifth (20%) more saturated fat than the Government recommends. A diet high in saturated fat can increase cholesterol levels in the blood which raises the risk of cardiovascular disease, the most common cause of death in the UK.

Tim Smith, chief executive of the FSA, said: "What we really want is small changes in everybody's behaviour. It's important to find ways to cut down, not give up.

"We need to eat leaner meat and a bit less cheese, switch to lower fat milks and eat healthier snacks, cutting down on cakes and biscuits.

"I learned to cut down cheese by grating it or using stronger flavour and I have cut down to 1% milk rather than semi-skimmed."

Mr Smith said semi-skimmed milk - which is around 1.55% fat - has grown in popularity from only 5% of sales 20 years ago to 60% today but said people could trim their fat intake further by swapping to milk which is 1% fat.

The FSA's head of nutrition Rosemary Hignett said people are getting an average of 13.3% of their energy from saturated fat which should be cut to 11% if the UK is to cut deaths from heart disease, and added: "If we get it down to 11%, we would halt 3,500 premature deaths every year."

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