Heather, I had to learn about food from the beginning. As someone who studied science, I did have a bit of a head start. But although I used to shop for my mother, she had to write a fairly thorough list and I really had no idea what I was buying - it was also back in the days when the shopkeeper got it for you when you asked him. I would feel especially intimidated going into a butcher's shop - I had no idea what was what.
So I've learned the hard way. YOu can always ask the shopkeeper for advice and especially as they get to know you, they will help you. After all, they want your business.
You've had some really good information so far. And you've also told us some important information about you which helps in understanding what you need to know now.
With lean meat etc - we have to be a bit more laid-back in Australia, we have less processing (although it's coming in). And I think in general that is a good thing because it forces us to THINK about what we eat.
How do you know if your meat is lean?
First, look at it. ANY meat can be lean, it doesn't matter what sort of animal it comes from. Look at the slab of meat. Some cuts of meat have a certain amount of fat left on for good reason - it stops the meat from drying out during cooking. As the meat cooks the fat breaks down and continually flows over the meat, basting it. This is perfectly OK, as long as you don't eat the fat. You can have meat cooked this way, just drain off the fat when it's cooked.
If you look at a steak, you can see the fat - it's the white bits. Sometimes it's only on the edge of the meat, sometimes it's distributed through which can give the meat a marbled look. A good lean steak is deep red throughout. Some really expensive steaks are also marbled with fat - it's also very tender and highly sought after. Also not terribly healthy to eat.
Some meats are naturally paler. The deeper the colour of the meat, the higher the iron content. The colour is also related to how hard the muscle worked (because meat is muscle) when the animal was alive. So for example, we keep chickens at our place. If you buy chicken the meat is generally white. But if we have to kill one of our chickens (we don't any more) we find the meat is quite dark and fairy red. This is because our chickens are very active, they run around a lot, they fly into the lower tree branches and generally have a very busy life. To do this they need more oxygen to get into their muscles, and this requires a higher iron level in their muscles (hence - redder).
You can buy cheaper, and fattier, cuts of meat but it requires more preparation time. A good option is to buy the meat in a large piece and then cut off the fat yourself (or ask the butcher to). You can also ask the butcher to cut the meat up for you.
Our butcher loves me - I buy mostly cheapest meat, but I buy a lot of it. By buying in bulk I save a lot of money. I also get some expensive cuts much more cheaply.
For example, yesterday I bought a whole pork scotch fillet. This is a long round piece of meat, like a cylinder, taken from beside the backbone. Its diameter is like the palm of my hand in size. I will cut this into thin slices which can each be quickly pan-fried. It's very lean. I don't know what % lean it is, but looking at it I would say it has to be in the high 90s. And frankly, that's good enough. There's no need to get over-stressed about 97% vs 94% or whatever - you can generally drain off any extra fat where possible. Also, a lot of people add fat of some sort to the cooking process, so the % goes out the window again.
If the meat you're looking at is mince, you have to gauge the % fat by looking at the amount of white flecks in it. It's not easy.
You can also make your own mince (aka ground beef - sorry, forgot you're not an Aussie for a bit) by trimming the fat off some steak and mincing it in a blender or food processor. But a lot of recipes need a little fat in the mix. Again, it comes out during cooking and if you drain it off you're eating a lot less of it.
I tend to cook a lot of casseroles and stews. These can be left to cool in the fridge and reheated a day or two later - it intensifies the flavours. And it gives you another trick - the fat often rises to the top and sets again, so you can actually pick out the solid fat before you reheat it.
Cooking a roast - a number of different types of meat can be roasted in one lump. A whole chicken; a leg or shoulder of pork, beef or lamb; other cuts prepared (by the butcher if you prefer) and rolled into one piece (like my pork scotch fillet) and roasted. Here is where an outer layer of fat can keep the meat moist. But you don't want to eat it.
So I cook roasts on a rack, in a roasting dish, with a small amount of water (about half a glass) underneath the piece of meat. You shove the whole thing in the oven (moderate heat) and leave it until it's done. Any fat drips into the water and the water stops it from burning. You may need to add a little more water during the cooking. At the end of the cooking process you move the meat to a roasting platter and don't touch it for about fifteen minutes at least. WHile you're waiting, you pour off the liquid in the baking dish into a glass jar or jug. The fat will be liquid and will be on the top (it floats on water). You pour off and discard as much of this fat as you can, without losing the watery brown liquid underneath (which makes gravy).
To make low-fat gravy - there will still be a little bit of fat on top of the juices. Pour that amount (plus a little of the juices) into a small saucepan. It should only be about a tablespoon or so. Add a couple of teaspoons of flour to the small saucepan and mix it to a paste. Because I'm so stingy with the pan juices (to keep it low-fat) it will probably be a bit crumbly. Turn on the heat under the saucepan and cook the flour/juices mix until it darkens a little and you can see the flour darkening. Then add the rest of the meat juices, mix it all in thoroughly. I often use a stick blender here, or you could use egg beaters if you're not fast enough with your hands (I'm not). Cook until it thickens - the cooked flour should make the sauce denser and flow more slowly. To serve - pour over the sliced meat. By the time the gravy is made, the roast should be ready to carve and serve.
Roast vegetables - I do these in a second baking dish. I cut the vegetables into pieces about two bites big, put them into a plastic bag with no holes, add some oil to the bag (a couple of tablespoonsful roughly) and shake it around to make sure each veg piece is oiled. I then pour the bagful into the baking tray and bake the vegetables on a different shelf to the roast, for the entire cooking time.
A roast is an easy way to feed a large family so they think they're being spoiled but you haven't really had to do much. Roast vegetables can be drained on paper towel after cooking, but generally the amount of oil used is no big deal, not when spread over a large family.
Oil and fat - you only get cholesterol-containing food when it comes from an animal. labels can be misleading, but NO vegetable-based oil contains cholesterol. So when you see vegetable oils in the supermarket with labels such as "100% cholesterol-free" and the vegetable oil next to it doesn't have a "low-cholesterol" label, don't think one is better than the other - they're not. Cheese is animal in origin, but it has calcium in it too which is good for your bones.
The melting point of grease is directly related to how saturated it is. "Saturated" just means that all the hydrogen bonds are occupied' there are no double bonds. It's a chemistry thing. But health comes into it because "mono-saturated oil" has been found to be good for you to use instead of saturated, or even poly-unsaturated oil.
If you are buying a table spread and it says it's full of good oils, ask yourself - is it solid? If it is, then it has been saturated. Taking a good oil such as olive oil, and then saturating that healthy double-bond, turns it into unhealthy. Sometimes they mix the healthy stuff into the unhealthy stuff to make it not so bad for you.
Best of all is to not eat any at all. It's not medicine, it won't undo damage. It just does LESS damage than eating the full-fat stuff (like butter, or standard margarine). Eating NONE is healthiest. Spread bread with low-fat cream cheese instead, or a small amount of salad cream.
Healthiest of all to eat, and the least hassle - fresh vegetables, eaten raw. Salads, in other words. If you grow your own, so much better. You know how fresh it is, you know where it has come from. Growing your own tomatoes, for example, is wonderful - biting into a really ripe home-grown tomato is sheer bliss. We buy a lot of salad vegetables. The kids, especially difficult child 3 and BF2, eat a lot of raw carrots. Our house can go through a kilo a day (that's over 2 pounds).
Eating fresh fruit - also very tasty, not quite as good for you if you eat all fruit and no vegetables. But you should be eating 1-2 pieces of fresh fruit a day.
Fruit and vegetables have natural fibre, a lot of it soluble (so you don't notice it much when you bite into it).
Meat has no fibre. Neither does oil.
So to get your fibre naturally, eat plant products whole.
You can get a food pyramid which shows what you should have in a healthy diet - getting one of those and sticking it inside your pantry may be helpful. Avoiding processed food (if you can) is also often better for your health. Eating fresh food (raw where possible) is often least hassle and also healthiest.
If this isn't possible (for many reasons) you aim for as close to it as you can get it. Eating wholegrain bread is best for you, but if it makes you gag then clearly, it's not going to work for you. So either eat white bread with hidden soluble fibre, or just limit yourself on bread in general.
You will learn what works for you. But in the meantime to cut weight and also eat healthy, a good beginning is to stop adding any sugar to your food and to not eat anything with added sugar. Next step - ease back on things like white bread, potatoes, white rice, pasta. Have some if you want, but limit it. We eat far more carbohydrate than is really good for us. When we try to cut out fat, we tend to eat more carbs to compensate. Fast food in general is loaded with both carbs and fat - not good. If you must have carbs, try to eat it earlier in the day and less later on.
Cut out as much fat as you can but don't get obsessive about it.
Allow yourself in small quantities anything which makes the food taste better. That does not include sugar. I mean herbs, spices, sauces etc.
If in doubt, talk to a dietician. Another trick - when wandering the supermarket, taste whatever samples are being offered, especially when it's fresh food. Aussie greengrocers often offer free tastes of new fruit in season. I hope the US ones do as well. Mandarins are in season for us - there are often mandarin segments out for us to try, to see if we want to buy some.
You're in midsummer at the moment - salads, raw food - all very available, very suitable for summer. Very healthy, too.
I hope this helps.
Marg
I just need to get over being intimidated by it and try to find a way to enjoy the entire process.
