Those tasty add-ons - like salad dressing, gravy, butter or margarine, cream cheese, or sour cream - can add a lot of extra calories to the food you prepare, and your body tends to store extra calories as fat. It can be tough to maintain a healthy weight if your meals contain high-fat foods such as cheese, whole milk, nuts, and certain fatty meats, or if you use fats and oils while you cook.

Luckily, there are low-fat choices available at the supermarket.
* Try fat-free salad dressing instead of regular dressing, or use plain vinegar or lemon juice on your greens.
* Try fat-free or "lite" cream cheese.
* Try fat-free sour cream or low-fat plain yogurt in place of regular sour cream.
* Try an egg substitute instead of fresh eggs.
* Try jelly, honey, applesauce, or pureed prunes in your baked goods instead of butter or margarine.

Your choice of cooking method can make a big difference in the amount of fat you consume. Bake, broil, steam, boil, microwave or barbecue instead of frying. If you use non-stick cookware, you won't have to add butter or margarine. Or you can try fat-free cooking sprays. Many come in several varieties to enhance the flavor of foods.

Before you cook, remember to remove the skin from fish and poultry and trim all the visible fat from meat. After you've cooked ground meat, rinse the liquid fats off under running water before you add the meat to the other ingredients in your recipes.

For more information on how to cut fat in your diet, contact a registered dietician.

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