Hi everyone this is Monica Reinagel the nutrition diva and this week's quick and

dirty tip for eating well and feeling fabulous has to do with fat and how much is too much to have in your diet.

Today's topic was inspired by an email that I got from a listener.

And even though it's a little longer than usual, I want to read it to you in its entirety for reasons that should be clear by

the end of the episode.

Katrina writes, I've always considered myself a healthy eater, but you've helped me focus on some areas

which were lacking in my diet. In particular, I'm now regularly getting your recommended

five servings of vegetables every day. I started tracking my calorie intake a while back and I noticed

that fat makes up an average of 30 to 35 percent of my daily calories and sometimes edges as high as 40%. I know that the recommended daily

allowance is 20 to 35 percent which places me at the high end of the spectrum

even on a good day. My diet is high and healthy fats, including olive oil,

avocado, and nuts, and I don't eat a lot of red meat. It's also a bit higher in protein

and lower in carbohydrates, since I avoid processed foods, white

flour and sugar except on special occasions. However, I am wondering if my fat

intake might be a problem. Now from what Katrina has outlined here I think

her diet is healthier than most. If anything she's a little ahead of the curve.

The field of nutrition has been gradually recovering from the misguided fat phobia that, among other things, influenced the institutes of medicine's recommendation that fat take up no more than 35% of your calories. In fact, in a recent email exchange with me,

Walter Willett from the Harvard University School of Public Health suggested that getting

up to 40% of one's calories from healthy sources of fat would be perfectly

acceptable, especially if those calories were replacing refined carbohydrates.

Now I've talked about the IOM's recommendations before in the context of a similar discussion about how much protein one should eat.

You might remember the guidelines allow for anywhere from 10 to 35 percent of calories as protein, which is a very broad range.

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