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Wynnie Chan

Name: Victoria Lam

Age: 18

Breakfast; Cereal with skimmed milk or bread;  low-fat chocolate milk, lemon tea or soya bean milk.

Lunch: Tuna fish sandwich or hot dog with a fruit,  or occasionally   instant noodles;  at least four glasses of water.

Snack: Sometimes  has cookies, biscuits or crackers;  water.

Dinner: Mostly Chinese-style meals: chicken wings (without  the skin), green vegetables, steamed tofu, half a bowl of rice,  soup,  fruit; water.

Eating out with friends: 'Fast food at food courts because there's  lots of  choice and it's cheap and convenient.'

Eating out with family: Yum Cha (mostly steamed dim sum) with family on Sundays, or  Japanese, Vietnamese or western food.

Dinner at grandparents': boiled chicken   soup, vegetables, tomatoes with eggs and steamed seafood.

Loves: Chicken, bread and lobster.

Hates: Mushrooms because of  their  smell and mouldy taste, and oily, hot and spicy foods.

Exercise: Ballet lessons twice a week, ballroom dancing once a week and a one hour stroll after dinner.

Victoria asks: I heard that margarine is not a good substitute for butter.  Does that mean we shouldn't use margarine?  Which  is healthier and which contains less fat?

Wynnie says: In terms of total fat, both margarine and butter contain the same amount:  11g per tablespoon.

But it's not easy to say which is 'healthier'.

Butter is made from milk and therefore contains dietary cholesterol and saturated fat. Both of  these raise our levels of blood cholesterol.

Some  people are affected more by dietary cholesterol than others.

But health experts recommend that even healthy people shouldn't eat more than 200mg of cholesterol a day; a tablespoon of butter contains over 30mg cholesterol.

When eaten in large amounts, saturated fats  raise the levels of 'bad' cholesterol in our blood. High intakes of saturated fat increase our risk of developing heart disease.

The daily recommendation for saturated fat is between 10g and 15g; a single serving of butter contains more than 7g.

Margarines aren't made from animal fats and so don't contain cholesterol.

They are also higher in  'good' fats, such as monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.

However, not all margarines are created equal: some contain unhealthy trans fats.

When eaten in large amounts, trans fats  increase the levels of 'bad' cholesterol in our blood in a similar way to saturated fats.

Furthermore, trans fats lower the levels of 'good' cholesterol.

Trans fats are formed when hydrogen is added to vegetable oils to  solidify it.

The good news is that  many margarines are now available which are made from palm oil  instead of hydrogenated vegetable oils.   Not only are they softer to spread,  they are  lower in saturated, trans, and total fat.

The American Heart Association now recommends that margarines (without trans fats) are used instead of butter. Look  for margarines with less than 2g saturated fat per tablespoon and no trans fats.

Wynnie Chan is a British-trained nutritionist. If you've got a question for her or would like to be featured in this column, e-mail nutrition@scmp.com



Nutrition 4 you