How much cooking oil can I consume in a day?

Dietician Neha tells us the daily recommended intake of oil in our diet.

By: Kriti Saraswat | | Updated: March 4, 2015 6:37 pm

I am a housewife and I cook meals for my entire family and often use oil for cooking. I want to make sure they are healthy. How much oil should I add every day? Is it different for different age groups? Please suggest.

Oil is commonly used for cooking and since we eat at least three meals in a day, we are likely to consume more than the recommended dose of oil. This makes it essential to keep a tab on the amount of oil we use for each meal. If you are the one cooking the meals, you can easily make sure your family stays well in limits when it comes to consuming cooking oil. Dietician Neha Chandna recommends the following:

According to her, the daily recommended intake of cooking oil for an adult is about 20g which is about 4 teaspoons. This intake is the same for both males and females. But the quantity differs depending on one’s health and fitness goals. Also read – top 5 cooking oil myths busted.
If you or someone else in your family is on a weight loss diet, they should try and keep the quantity to less than 3 tsp oil per day. Similarly, if a person has any heart condition, then the oil intake further goes down. It should ideally be not more than 2 tsp/day.
The recommended dose for kids is slightly higher. According to Neha, it 5 tsp/day until the age of nine and then it reduces to 4.5 tsp per day.

Now that you know the desired intake per day, here are a few ways you can consume less oil every day. Also read – is cooking spray better than cooking oil?

Tips to cut down on oil

‘The best way to cut down on oil intake is to change the way you prepare food; for example instead of frying, try baking or steaming,’ advises Neha. Here are 5 extremely healthy ways of cooking.
She further adds, ‘Try to get fat from good invisible sources like peanuts, avocados, olives, nuts, seeds like sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, etc.’
Do not exceed oil consumption over 4-5 tsp in a day as that can lead to problems of the heart, etc. Worried which cooking oil you should use? Here are tips.

Image source: Shutterstock

Published: March 4, 2015 1:24 pm | Updated:March 4, 2015 6:37 pm

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