How much FAT is in the food you eat?
Answer the following 17 questions about your diet to find out.

Adapted from: Dobson, A., Blijlevens, R., Alexander, H., Croce, N., Heller, R., Higginbotham, N., Pike, G., Plotnikoff, R., Russell, A., & Walker, R. (1993). Short fat questionnaire; A self-administered measure of fat intake. Australian Journal of Public Health, 17, 144-149.

Question 1. How often do you eat fried food with a batter or breadcrumb coating? six or more times per week. three to five times per week. once or twice a week. less than once per week. never, or hardly ever.		Question 2. How often do you eat gravy, cream sauces or cheese sauces? six or more times per week. three to five times per week. once or twice a week. less than once per week. never, or hardly ever.
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Question 3. How often do you add butter, margarine, oil or sour cream to vegetables, cooked rice or spaghetti six or more times per week. three to five times per week. once or twice a week. less than once per week. never, or hardly ever.		Question 4. How often do you eat vegetables that are fried or roasted with fat or oil. This will include stir fry's. six or more times per week. three to five times per week. once or twice a week. less than once per week. never, or hardly ever.
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Question 5. How is your meat usually cooked? fried. stewed or goulash. grilled or roasted with added fat or oil. grilled or roasted without added oil or fat eat meat occasionally or never.		Question 6. How many times per week do you eat sausages, Devon, salamis, meat pies, hamburgers or bacon? six or more times per week. three to five times per week. once or twice a week. less than once per week. never, or hardly ever.
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Question 7. How do you spread butter/margarine on your bread? left intentionally blank thickly medium. thinly. don't use butter or margarine.		Question 8. How many times per week do you eat chips or French fries? six or more times per week. three to five times per week. once or twice a week. less than once per week. never, or hardly ever.
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Question 9. How often do you eat pastries, cakes, sweet biscuits or croissants? six or more times per week. three to five times per week. once or twice a week. less than once per week. never, or hardly ever.		Question 10. How many times per week do you eat chocolate, chocolate biscuits or sweet snack bars? six or more times per week. three to five times per week. once or twice a week. less than once per week. never, or hardly ever.
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Question 11. How many times a week do you eat potato crisps, corn chips or nuts? six or more times per week. three to five times per week. once or twice a week. less than once per week. never, or hardly ever.		Question 12. How often do you eat cream? six or more times per week. three to five times per week. once or twice a week. less than once per week. never, or hardly ever.
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Question 13. How often do you eat icecream? six or more times per week. three to five times per week. once or twice a week. less than once per week. never, or hardly ever.		Question 14. How many times per week do you eat cheddar, edam or other hard cheese, cream cheese, or cheese like camembert? six or more times per week. three to five times per week. once or twice a week. less than once per week. never, or hardly ever.
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Question 15. What type of milk do you drink or use in cooking or tea and coffee? condensed milk. full-cream full-cream and reduced fat reduced fat. skim or none.		Question 16. How much of the skin on your chicken do you eat? left intentionally blank most or all of the skin some of the skin none of the skin I am a vegetarian.
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Question 17. How much of the fat on your meat do you eat? left intentionally blank most or all of the fat some of the fat none of the fat I am a vegetarian.		HOW DID YOU SCORE?

Your score explained.
less than 12
A score of 12 or less is a very low score for fat intake.  While a low fat intake is desirable from a heart health point of view a score less than 12 could indicate that you are obsessive about your fat intake and that you may have an eating disorder.  You may benefit from answering the Simple test for eating disorders questionnaire.

12 to 17
Congratulations!! A score of 17 or less indicates that your Total Fat Intake and your Saturated Fat Intake is low. This is a desirable level of fat intake to help prevent obesity which can lead to other health problems such as heart disease. Double check with the hints below to ensure that your fat intake is low. If so, keep up the good work.

18 to 22
A score in this range indicates that, unless you are deliberately aiming to gain weight, your Total Fat Intake and Saturated Fat Intake is higher than desirable levels. This is a fair score but you can do better to keep your fat intake low. Read and adopt the hints below to ensure that your fat intake gets to within desirable limits.

23 to 27
A score in this range indicates that your Total Fat Intake and Saturated Fat Intake is too high and puts you at high risk of obesity and heart disease. Go back over the questions above to get an idea of what you have to do to reduce your fat intake - a choice towards the bottom of each question will give you a lower overall score.  Additionally, read the hints below and begin to adopt them to ensure that your fat intake gets to within desirable limits.

More than 27
A score in this range indicates that your Total Fat Intake and your Saturated Fat Intake is dangerously high and if you are not already obese you should be! Read the hints below and adopt them immediately into your lifestyle to ensure that your fat intake gets to within desirable levels as soon as possible.

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11 steps to reducing your fat intake

1. Trim all the visible fat from meat and remove the skin from chicken, duck or turkey.
2. Use a rack when grilling or roasting meat so that the fat can drip out of the meat.
3. Let homemade soups, stews and casseroles cool and skim off the fat before reheating and serving.
4. For vegetables:
   • Steam vegetables or cook them in a microwave.
   • When roasting, bake vegetables in foil on a rack to avoid contact with the fat
   • Make sure you don't add any oil, butter or margarine to vegetables.
5. Avoid creamy or oily sauces such as gravy, and rich cakes, biscuits and pastries.
6. Avoid fatty, fried and takeaway foods like chips, battered fish, sausage rolls and pies
7. Use low and reduced fat dairy products like skim milk instead of the full cream varieties.
8. Restrict the amount of butter or margarine you eat to 30 grams (6 teaspoons) daily and use polyunsaturated or monounsaturated margarine for all or part of that amount.
9. Substitute ricotta cheese for cream and low fat yoghurt for sour cream in recipes.
10. Use less oil in salad dressings and choose polyunsaturated or monounsaturated oil over other kinds of oils.
11. Choose low fat cheese (around 10 grams fat or less per 100 grams cheese) instead of the normal full-fat (35g per 100g) hard cheese.

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