Fat Saturdays 'ruining Britain's diets'

If you are one of the millions of people in Britain that eats carefully through the week but throws caution to the wind at weekends, then you may be interested in research published this week by Unilever.

A study of 11,000 people in the UK found that those treating themselves at weekends could be vulnerable to a massive increase in their intake of saturated fats, reports Female First.

The consumption of such fats, which could lead to an increased risk of heart attacks, was found to increase to 61g for men and 33g for women in some cases, where the recommended guidelines are 30g and 20g respectively.

This is due to foods such as fry-ups, sausage rolls, pizza and chips, chocolate and crisps being largely consumed at weekends.

Dietician Sian Porter said: "The results suggest a serious lack of awareness among the public about how much saturated fats they consume on a daily basis and a lack of knowledge concerning the need to reduce their overall consumption. The statistics are, at best, conservative, so the real picture of the 'Sat Fataday' binge weekend could be dramatically worse."

She recommended simple measures such as swapping butter for margarine and grilling bacon instead of frying it as ways in which saturated fat intake could be reduced.

In related news, data from the Food Standards Agency published this week found that Britons are eating almost 50 per cent more than the recommended intake of salt.