from Obesity.com again, I think!

like I said, this is more in-depth than the title gives away. Here are the subject titles, in order. I did have links on the pages, but none of 'em worked, so I just got the titles now!

Low-Fat Eating: For Weight Loss, Health, and Longevity

Biochemist Ron Goor, Ph.D., of Bethesda, Maryland, had a family history of serious heart disease. His father had the first of three heart attacks in 1943 at age 31 when young Ron was only three. Goor grew up with parents who preached the gospel of weight control, but their young son didn't listen. "I thought: Why should I?," Goor, now 56 recalls. "My father was the one with heart disease, not me."

But when Goor turned 31, he realized that he was heavier than he wanted to be. When he looked in the mirror, he saw his own face, but his father's shape. The memory of his father's first heart attack spurred him to have his cholesterol measured for the first time. It was 311 milligrams per deciliter of blood (mg/dl), considerably higher than the average level of people who have heart attacks (235 mg/dl), much higher than the 200 mg/dl, the American Heart Association (AHA) recommends as the safe maximum, and way above the 150 mg/dl heart disease experts suggest as the ideal level for health. Like his father, Goor was at high risk for a heart attack, the nation's leading cause of death. "My cholesterol scared the hell out of me," he says. "I was a heart attack waiting to happen."

Goor's heart attack risk spurred a change of heart about his career. He quit his job at the National Institutes of Health, and returned to school, earning a Masters in public health. In 1973, he went to work for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute as the coordinator of the Coronary Primary Prevention Trial (CPPT), an experiment to determine if heart attack risk could be reduced by lowering cholesterol. The results of the seven-year study were impressive: Cutting cholesterol definitely reduced heart attack risk. For every 1 percent decrease in cholesterol level, heart attack risk dropped 2 percent. Many other studies have subsequently confirmed this finding.

Participants in the CPPT cut their cholesterol with drugs, or by reducing the cholesterol and saturated fat in their diets, or both. (Saturated fat is the type found in red meat, butter, and whole-milk dairy foods). During the study, Goor went the exclusively dietary route. He cut his cholesterol from 311 to 200--and also lost some weight--thanks to his wife, Nancy, an artist and children's book author, who loved to eat and refused to believe that dishes low in cholesterol and saturated fat had to be unappetizing. For more than 10 years, she tinkered with recipes and substituted ingredients, learning how to cook tasty, cholesterol-lowering cuisine. The result was Eater's Choice: A Food Lover's Guide to Lower Cholesterol, coauthored by the Goors. It became a best-seller, and since then, the Goors have revised and expanded it several times.

But as the 1980's turned into the '90's, nutrition scientists learned that cholesterol and saturated fat were not the only villains in the American diet. All fats contribute to obesity, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, and chronic high blood pressure (hypertension). The Goors realized that it was not enough to limit dietary cholesterol and saturated fat. For optimal health, consumption of all fats should be reduced. Nancy Goor returned to her kitchen and discovered that low-fat cooking was not only possible and delicious, but that it also had an immediate payoff--major weight loss. The Goor's latest book is The Choose to Lose Diet: A Food Lover's Guide to Permanent Weight Loss.

Like the Goors, Dean Ornish, M.D., president of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Saualito, California, was originally more interested in prevention of heart disease than in weight control. Ornish made medical history in 1994 as the first researcher to show that atherosclerosis, the narrowing of the coronary arteries that causes heart disease, could be reversed. Even more remarkable, his program involved neither drugs nor surgery, but rather an ultra-low-fat diet, yoga, a walking program, and a weekly support group. In addition to reversing his participants' heart disease, the Ornish program had another major benefit, weight loss. The average participant lost 22 pounds during the first year--with no restrictions on the total number of calories they consumed. Most ate more and still lost weight because they their fat consumption plummeted. Dr. Ornish's book on weight loss is Eat More, Weigh Less.

Dr. Goor and Dr. Ornish are not "diet doctors." They're health educators who learned through their own research and personal experience that one key to permanent weight loss--and prevention of the diseases that cause more than half of U.S. deaths--is a low-fat diet.

After smoking, a high-fat diet is the second most lethal habit. According to a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, smoking causes 400,000 deaths a year. High-fat diet causes 300,000. Several more highly publicized social evils are comparatively small problems: alcohol (100,000 deaths), guns (35,000), auto accidents (25,000), and drug abuse (20,000). These statistics in no way minimize the tragedies of alcoholism, murder, or drug addiction. But they provide perspective on what's really killing us. Few people cringe when Aunt Mary serves up large slices of banana cream pie a la mode, but from a public health perspective, she might as well be offering heroin. If this sounds a bit extreme, consider the dangers of dietary fat, and judge for yourself:

Obesity. As weight increases above a body mass index of about 28, so does risk of premature death. Obesity is a risk factor for heart disease, several cancers, hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. It is a problem only in countries with high-fat diets. In addition to being hazardous to health, obesity is also an economic handicap. Obese people earn less money than those who are slimmer.

Heart Disease. The nation's leading cause of death, heart disease kills 720,000 Americans a year, most as a result of heart attacks. About one American in four suffers some form of heart disease. Heart disease results from a process called atherosclerosis, which is directly linked to dietary fat. Fatty foods are high in cholesterol and free radicals. Free radicals are oxygen molecules that have lost an electron, and become highly reactive. As they circulate in the blood, they snatch electrons away from other molecules, sometimes grabbing them from the cells that line artery walls. The microscopic injuries that free radicals inflict begin a decades-long process that eventually narrows the arteries with cholesterol-rich deposits called plaques. Sometimes plaques rupture, spilling their contents into the blood. If a plaque ruptures in one of the coronary arteries that nourish the heart, its debris can cause completely blockage. Without food and oxygen to nourish its hard-working cells, part of the heart dies. That's a heart attack. Although heart disease generally strikes after 40 in men and after menopause in women, atherosclerotic arterial damage begins in childhood. A study by Jack Strong, M.D., chair of the pathology department at Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans, analyzed autopsies of 1,532 teenagers who died in accidents. One hundred percent showed atherosclerotic plaques in their aortas, the body's largest artery.

Stroke. Stroke is the nation's third leading cause of death, claiming 144,000 lives a year. There are two major types of stroke, one caused by bleeding in the brain (hemorrhagic), the other by blockage of an artery there (ischemic). About 75 percent of strokes are ischemic, and the vast majority of ischemic strokes are caused by cerebral thrombosis, blockage of a brain artery in a process similar to heart attack, involving fat-related atherosclerosis and plaque rupture.

Cancer. A high-fat diet does not contribute to all cancers, but many studies have linked it to several, notably colon and breast cancer, which together account for 100,000 deaths a year. Other studies suggest that a high-fat diet may play a role in causing cancers of the prostate (42,000 deaths annually), pancreas (28,000), and possibly lung cancer in nonsmokers (30,000), and malignant melanoma (7,300). The American Cancer Society urges everyone to eat less fat. Dietary fat contributes to cancer risk because of free radicals. A high-fat diet increases the number of these molecules in the blood. If they don't snatch electrons from artery walls, causing heart attack or stroke, they may grab them from the chromosomes that contain our genes. Chromosomes can often repair themselves, but if they continue to sustain significant damage for many years, cellular repair mechanisms may become overwhelmed, resulting in cancer.

High Blood Pressure (Hypertension). Hypertension is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. High-fat diet contributes to this condition because it adds extra pounds. As weight increases, the heart must work harder to pump blood through all the extra tissue. As the heart's effort increases, so does blood pressure.

Diabetes. Diabetes contributes to an estimated 250,000 deaths a year. It involves an inability to metabolize blood sugar because of problems with the pancreatic hormone, insulin. In Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas stops producing insulin. In the vastly more common Type 2 diabetes, typically associated with obesity, insulin production may be normal, but obesity prevents the body from using it efficiently.

Osteoarthritis. Dietary fat contributes to the most common form of arthritis, osteoarthritis, because excess weight subjects the major joints to extra wear and tear.

Rheumatoid Arthritis. A high-fat diet also appears to increase risk of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the most serious and potentially crippling form of joint disease. Several studies suggest that a low-fat diet relieves RA symptoms.

Multiple Sclerosis. For the last 50 years, Roy Swank, M.D., a professor emeritus of neurology at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, has amassed evidence that a high-fat diet is a key risk factor for multiple sclerosis (MS), which causes an enormous number of symptoms from blurred vision to paralysis. His studies show that a low-fat diet minimizes MS symptoms.

"Most Americans who have chronic health problems," says William Castelli, M.D., longtime director of the Framingham Heart Study, the nation's oldest ongoing research program into the causes of heart disease, "would not have them if they ate a low-fat diet."

Millions of Americans grew up believing that carbohydrates (starches and sugars) were the major dietary villains. They viewed potatoes and cakes as "fattening," and thought weight loss involved limiting the total number of calories one ate. The centerpiece of restaurant "diet plates" was a ground beef patty.

But in the last 20 years, nutrition scientists have shown that there's really only one villain in the American diet--fat. Carbohydrates, including fruits, vegetables, beans, and grains provide most of the body's energy. They are our friends, the body's main source of energy. Even long-vilified sugar doesn't hurt most people when used in moderation with good dental hygiene. As far as weight control is concerned, if you limit fat calories, you don't have to worry much about your total caloric intake. "It's not the potato that's fattening," says Ron Goor, Ph.D., co-author (with his wife, Nancy, of The Choose to Lose Diet: A Food Lover's Guide to Permanent Weight Loss. "It's the butter, sour cream, and bacon bits people put on it. The same goes for sugar. Cakes, pies, and ice cream are fattening not because they contain sugar, but because they're loaded with fat. It's people's 'fat tooth' not their sweet tooth that gets them into trouble."

How could this be? Simple: All calories are not created equal. One gram of carbohydrate or protein contains only 4 calories, but one gram of fat contains 9. "Fat calories really sneak up on you," Dr. Goor says. "A few handfuls of potato chips has the same number of calories as two medium-sized baked potatoes topped with nonfat yogurt and steamed vegetables."

Carbohydrates have a lot of bulk per calorie. Eating them triggers feelings of fullness. It's difficult to overeat if you base your diet on them. "If you reduce your fat consumption from the typical 35 to 40 percent of calories down to the 10 percent level of my program," says Dean Ornish, M.D., the doctor who pioneered heart disease reversal using a low-fat diet, "you can eat one-third more food without increasing your total number of calories. You feel full and satisfied, but still reduce your risk of heart disease and the other fat-related diseases--and you lose weight. That's why I called my book Eat More, Weigh Less."

In addition to their high calorie content, fats are also metabolized differently from carbohydrates. The body uses most carbohydrates quickly, and can only store about one day's worth as glycogen in the liver and in muscle tissue. "If you eat normal amounts," Dr. Goor says, "carbohydrates are never stored as fat."

Fats, on the other hand, are not metabolized right away. They are stored as fat in adipose tissue, which has an almost unlimited capacity to bulge with fat. Unlike carbohydrates, fat calories don't cause feelings of fullness, so you keep eating and eating, gaining weight, and increasing your risk of all the fat-related diseases.

Everyone must consume some fats because they are necessary for the synthesis of essential fatty acids. But you only need about 5 percent of calories as fat to produce all the essential fatty acids your body needs to function optimally.

If a high-fat diet contributes to obesity, does a low-fat diet spur weight loss? In Dr. Ornish's program, the average participant lost 22 pounds in one year.

If a high fat diet contributes to a host of diseases, does a low-fat diets help prevent them? Here is the conclusion of a report cosponsored by the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based consumer nutrition organization: If Americans cut their fat consumption by about one-third (down to approximately 20 percent of calories from fat), heart disease and cancer would decline significantly, and the nation's health care bill would plummet $17 billion a year.

Lately, nutrition experts have been saying that we should eat like people used to. They don't mean before microwave ovens, but rather like our ancestors did 10,000 of years ago. In those days, the main problem with food was not over-consumption as it is today, but rather finding enough to prevent starvation. Our evolutionary ancestors solved this problem by storing fat quickly and easily to see them through periods of famine. "Back then," quips weight-loss expert Dean Ornish, M.D., president of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California, "it was survival of the fattest."

Today, we have essentially the same genetic makeup as our starvation-threatened ancestors, but the very fat-storage mechanism that saved them is killing us. According to anthropologists S. Eaton Boyd, Ph.D., Marjorie Shostak, Ph.D., and Melvin Konner, M.D., Ph.D., authors of The Paleolithic Prescription, we've become caught in a dietary time warp. Like Rip Van Winkle, we've awakened in a world of high-fat McFoods that our bodies are genetically incapable of thriving on. The results? All the fat-related chronic illnesses that have become our leading causes of death.

How should we eat? Like our Stone Age genetic ancestors. Dr. Boyd is an expert on ancient diets, and Drs. Shostak and Konner lived for several years with the Kung tribe of the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa, one of the few remaining hunter-gatherer peoples on earth. Together they pieced together what early humans ate, primarily plants--nuts, fruits, beans, grains, and roots--with some game meats. But those meats were much different from ours. They contained only about 5 percent fat by weight, much less than our domesticated meat animals (30 percent fat). Overall, these experts contend, the human body evolved to consume no more than about 20 percent of calories from fat, only about half of what most Americans eat today.

Throughout the vast majority of human history, even after the arrival of civilization, agriculture, and industry, people continued to eat more or less as they were genetically programmed to do. In 1910, Americans ate a diet based on carbohydrates, with only about 20 percent of calories from fat. "They consumed more total calories than we do today," says Neil Barnard, M.D., author of Food for Life and president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, D.C., a professional organization that promotes preventive medicine through nutrition, "but far fewer from fat, and heart disease, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and obesity were all rare." Today, according to a recent report by the National Center for Health Statistics, American fat consumption averages 34 percent of total calories. That average is down slightly from 1978, when the figure was 36 percent, but averages can be misleading. Some Americans have cut way back on fats, but millions still consume at least twice as much fat as their great-grandparents did.

Evolving one's diet away from fats begins with reading food labels. The nutritional label recently introduced by the Food and Drug Administration states the percentage of calories from fat in one serving of the item. As a general rule, select foods that contain no more than 20 percent of calories from fat per serving. But beware: Sometimes the serving size represents less than what you're likely to eat, meaning that its actual fat content is higher. And don't be fooled by the Daily Value (DV) listing. The DV tells you how much of day's worth of fat, cholesterol, sodium, etc., the food provides, based on a hypothetical 2,000-calorie-a-day diet. DV ratings are in bold on the new nutrition labels, but they often understate the amount of fat an item contains. A snack food might have a fat DV of 25 percent, which might seem acceptable to the unsuspecting consumer, but still contain 75 percent of calories (or more) from fat.

As far as unlabeled foods are concerned, here are some guidelines:

Fruits, Vegetables, and Beans. They're low in fat and high in carbohydrates, just the ticket for a healthy diet. Just don't destroy them by smothering them in high-fat butter, margarine, or cream.

Pastas and Grains. Here's another food group that's low in fat and high in carbohydrates. Eat more of them, as long as you're careful about what you add to them.

Breads: Eat as much as you want, but beware of crackers, muffins, biscuits, croissants, and other bread treats, which are high in fat. In addition, be careful about spreads. Low-fat choices include: jellies, jams, preserves, mashed bananas, bean dip, and nonfat yogurt, cream cheese, or cottage cheese. Butter, margarine, peanut butter, and cheeses are high in fat.

Nuts and Seeds. Nuts and seeds are high in fat. If you eat them by the handful, you can consume a great deal of fat. Use nuts and seeds sparingly to top fruits, vegetables, beans, pastas or grains. Or substitute Grape Nuts cereal (completely fat-free), or toasted bread crumbs, oats, or cornmeal.

Eggs. Use commercial egg substitutes in cooking and baking. For scrambled eggs or omelets, mix one real egg into a bowl containing mashed tofu or two or three egg's worth of substitute.

Meats: Of all the red meats, only venison contains fewer than 20 percent of calories from fat. Beef, veal, pork, lamb, duck, sausages, and luncheon meats are all high in fat. But you don't have to eliminate them from your diet. Simply change how you use them. Instead of building your meals around them, choose recipes that use small amounts of meat to flavor dishes based on vegetables, beans, or grains, the way Asian cuisines do. If you love BLTs, you can still have them, but instead of four strips of bacon and one slice each of lettuce and tomato, pile on the L and T, and crumble one strip of bacon over them. And if you love burgers, select leans cuts--the leanest is fat-trimmed top round. Ask your butcher or supermarket to grind it for you. Then thin your burgers by adding oatmeal, and grated carrots. When you pan fry ground beef for spaghetti sauce, brown it first, then place it in a colander and rinse it thoroughly with hot water. This removes a great deal of the fat.

Chicken: Skinless white meat chicken breasts are low in fat, and can be used in a virtually limitless number of low-fat recipes. But watch out: Chicken skin is high in fat. If you eat it, you lose chicken's benefits. Strip the skin before you cook chicken. The meat can absorb a great deal of skin fat during cooking. Dark meat chicken parts (thighs and drumsticks) are also high in fat. You can still eat dark meat. Just use it sparingly in recipes whose main ingredients are vegetables, beans, or grains. Also beware of chicken hot dogs. They're often as high in fat as their pork or beef counterparts. Chicken hot dogs are mostly skin and dark meat. Finally, be careful how you cook your skinless chicken breasts. Fried or batter dipped, they drip with fat. Ditto for butter- or cream-based sauces.

Turkey: It's not just for Thanksgiving anymore. Ounce for ounce, a skinless white meat turkey breast is even lower in fat than a chicken breast. These days, supermarkets sell it whole, sliced, or in cutlets. If you pound turkey cutlets and cook them like veal, and it's hard to tell the difference. But be careful--turkey has the same caveats as chicken: Trim the skin. Cook it skinless. Steer clear of dark meat turkey, turkey franks, ground turkey, frying, and high-fat sauces.

Fish and Seafood: Most fish and seafood are low in fat: cod, flounder, lobster, scallops, shrimp, snapper, and sole. But several fish are fairly high in fat: herring, mackerel, and salmon. To keep your fish low in fat, bake, broil, poach, or grill it, or pan-fry it in wine. Don't fry it in butter or margarine or cover it with butter- or cream-based sauces. If you enjoy high-fat fish, use small portions, and combine them with vegetables, beans, and grains. Canned tuna comes packed in either water or high-fat oil. Choose water.

Butter, Margarine, Oils. They're all 100 percent fat. Butter is the most harmful because it's the highest in saturated fat, which raises cholesterol, and contributes to heart disease. But margarine contains trans-fatty acids, which also increase risk of heart disease. Olive oil, a monounsaturated fat, does not increase risk of heart disease, nor, according to some studies, the risk of breast or colon cancer. But olive oil is still 100 percent fat. Use it sparingly. One good way is to reduce the amount recipes call for. If a recipe suggests 2 tablespoons of olive oil, try one or less. Or substitute vegetable broth or sherry. Or try an oil spray. Most people who cook with sprays, available at supermarkets, use less oil than they would if they simply poured liquid oil into their pans. One easy way to trim the fat is to use fat-free dressings on salads. Pritikin and other brands are available at most supermarkets. Or try vinegar or lemon juice with just a splash of oil.

"Low Fat" Prepared Foods. The dishes sold by some weight-control businesses and other similar programs claim to be low in fat. They are lower than the typical American diet, but most still derive more than 20 percent of their calories from fat. They are not low enough in fat to significantly reduce risk of the fat-related medical conditions. In addition, they use small portion size to reduce the total number of calories, so people who eat them often feel unsatisfied and risk bingeing on high-fat items.

The New Nonfat Foods. If reading this section has left you scratching your head wondering what's left to eat, cheer up! Increasing consumer demand for nonfat items has filled supermarket shelves with all sorts of seemingly sinful, yet fat-free foods. Do you love cream cheese? Now there's fat-free cream cheese made from skim milk. Does the word "dessert" make you salivate for ice cream? Try nonfat frozen yogurt, or sorbet, made entirely from frozen puréed fruit. Pretzels, chips, cookies, breakfast cereals, cheeses, sour cream--they all come in nonfat versions. Supermarkets now carry literally hundreds of nonfat items. The next time you go shopping, open your eyes to the new world of nonfat food alternatives. What you see--and taste--just might surprise you.

Eat Mindfully. While eating, don't do anything else. Don't read, work, do household chores, or watch TV.

Eat Breakfast. For most people it's easier to banish the fat from breakfast than from any other meal. Try: toast with jam, apple butter, or nonfat cream cheese; a nonfat cereal or oatmeal with skim milk or nonfat yogurt and fresh fruit; or a fruit salad with nonfat cottage cheese. "A good breakfast provides energy," Dr. Ornish explains, "and reduces midmorning food cravings that send people scurrying for danishes and donuts."

If you already have heart disease, or hypertension, diabetes, obesity, or a fat-related cancer, or a history of thrombotic stroke or its precursor, mini-strokes called transient ischemic attacks (TIAs), an evolutionary approach may not trim enough fat from your diet to prevent health disaster. You may need the kind of revolutionary diet changes Dean Ornish, M.D., has used to reverse heart disease. The Ornish diet is similar to the one Nathan Pritikin developed in the mid-1970s to combat heart disease. (Pritikin died in 1985, but several Pritikin Longevity Centers continue to promote his program, and most supermarket diet sections stock ultra-low-fat Pritikin items.) Both the Ornish and Pritikin diets derive only 10 percent of calories from fat. Dr. Ornish divides foods into three groups:

Anytime. You may eat these foods whenever you feel hungry and until you feel full: fruits, vegetables (except high-fat avocados and olives), beans, and grains.

Sometimes: You may eat these foods in moderation: nonfat dairy products (skim milk, egg whites, nonfat yogurt, sour cream, and cheeses); nonfat or very low-fat commercially prepared foods (whole grain cereals, nonfat salad dressings, egg substitutes, Pritikin soups, Entenmann's fat-free baked goods, Health Valley nonfat soups and chili, and Life Choice frozen dinners, which use recipes from Dr. Ornish's program).

Beware. These foods should be avoided as much as possible: Meats (including chicken and fish), oils (all kinds, including margarine, and most salad dressings), nuts and seeds, dairy products that are not nonfat, alcohol, sugar (which often comes laced with fat), and any commercially prepared item with more than 2 grams of fat per serving.

The Ornish diet may sound rigorous (even impossible), but just as some smokers quit cold turkey rather than slowly cutting back on cigarettes, many people prefer it to less stringent changes.

Labels that proclaim the item to be lite or reduced-fat, or some enormous percentage fat-free are the biggest abominations in the supermarket. These labels contain a tiny germ of truth. An item that claims to be 96 percent fat-free is--by weight. But weight doesn't matter. What matters is its percent of calories from fat. Whole milk contains only 4 percent fat by weight, so it's 96 percent fat-free. But a whopping 50 percent of its calories come from fat. Low-fat milk (2 percent) derives 38 percent of its calories from fat. And watch out for things like lite mayonnaise. Regular mayo derives about 95 percent of its calories from fat. Lite mayonnaise is lower, but it's still more than 75 percent fat.

The typical diet limits two things--carbohydrates and total calories. The result is short-term weight loss of a few pounds, and then rapid weight gain, often to a level a pound or two above where you started. It's not hard to understand why. It takes about 3 grams of water to store one gram of glycogen, the stored form of carbohydrate. Low-carbohydrate diets eliminate glycogen--and the water it takes to store it. Water is heavy. Losing glycogen reduces weight by eliminating some of the body's water, not its fat. Meanwhile, diets that limit calories to less than about 1200 a day fool the body into thinking it's starving. The body reacts by slowing its basal metabolic rate (BMR), the rate at which calories are burned while resting. The longer you diet, the slower your BMR, and as BMR decreases, the pounds come off more slowly. When the diet ends and calorie consumption returns to normal, renewed glycogen storage quickly adds lost water weight. In addition, BMR remains low for a while, so you burn calories more slowly and regain weight more quickly, especially if you eat fats.

Snacks are the downfall of many an aspiring low-fat enthusiast. Chips, cookies, most candies, commercial popcorn, and most other snack foods are a one-way ticket to high-fat trouble. But today, low-fat eaters can choose dozens of convenient, tasty, creamy, crunchy, satisfying low-fat snacks:

Fresh fruit, stewed fruit, or canned fruit (but steer clear of ultra sugary heavy syrup).

Air-popped popcorn. Instead of butter, add black pepper, or oregano, or a little sprinkle of grated parmesan cheese.

Bagels, bread, nonfat crackers, or rice cakes with jam or preserves.

Chilled vegetable salad. Steam the veggies and then add soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, orange juice or some other low-fat marinade and refrigerate.

Fat-free tortilla chips with salsa.

Fat-free, low-salt pretzels.

A bowl of Corn Flakes with nonfat milk or yogurt.

Frozen bananas. Peel bananas, insert popsicle sticks and freeze.

Nonfat yogurt. Add fresh fruit, or for crunch, try Grape Nuts cereal which is fat free.

Nonfat cottage cheese.

Nonfat frozen yogurt.

Even if you eat a low-fat diet at home, it's often difficult to pass up high-fat items when dining out. A generation ago, this wasn't much of a problem. Eating out was a treat, take-out was a rarity, and only a few pizza places delivered. Today, eating out is routine, many people couldn't survive without take-out, and all sorts of restaurants deliver. If you go out for lunch at every day at work, and eat out or take out a few other times each week, restaurants wind up serving one-third of your meals--or more.

"Low-fat restaurant dining requires a few adjustments," says Hope S. Warshaw, R.D., a registered dietitian in Newton, Massachusetts and author of The Restaurant Companion, a guide to healthful dining out. "But it's actually easier--and tastier--than it might seem. With a little forethought and information, anyone can eat out without bulging out."

Best Restaurant Bets. To fight fat, steer clear of anything fried or sautéed, and anything prepared creamed, breaded, Alfredo, Hollandaise, tempura, batter-dipped, au gratin, en croute, filo-wrapped, in a puff pastry, pot pie, or croissant, or with gravy, béarnaise, béchamel, beurre blanc, or creme fraiche.

But remember, restaurant dining should be pleasurable. Never say never. If you know a restaurant serves the world's most heavenly chocolate cheesecake, enjoy it without feeling guilty. Just make sure the rest of your meal--and your other meals that day--are low in fat.

Feel free to enjoy most items served broiled, grilled, baked, boiled, roasted, poached, or steamed. Savor fish, seafood, skinless poultry, lean red meats, salads, pasta with pesto or tomato sauce, fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain items, and frozen ices, sorbets, sherbets, and nonfat frozen yogurts.

Some ethnic cuisines tend to be low in fat: Chinese, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Middle Eastern, and Japanese, restaurants. These cuisines generally do not deep fry foods--stir-frying is okay, just stay away from deep-fried Japanese tempuras--and many dishes are prepared without meats, sauces, and dairy products. Enjoy the many poultry, fish, seafood, vegetable, and noodle dishes. And in Asian cuisines, the pork and beef dishes include relatively small servings of meat, which helps keep their fat content low.

On the other hand, some cuisines tend to be high in fat: delis, steak houses, pizza places, barbecue and burger joints, and French, German, Mexican, Cajun, and Italian restaurants. But even in these danger zones, it's not difficult to find tasty low-fat dishes:

If you order meat, always trim all visible fat.

At delis, try a turkey sandwich and cole slaw or soup and salad.

At steak houses, stick to the leaner cuts: sirloin, tenderloin, and flank steak. Prime cuts are high in fat. One of the fattiest is prime rib.

At pizza places, the high-fat toppings are the cheeses and meats. Ask for less cheese and more vegetable toppings. Or forgo the cheese altogether and order a pesto pizza. Steer clear of sausage, bacon, hamburger, and pepperoni. If you must have a meat topping, the leanest is Canadian bacon.

Many hamburger joints now serve grilled skinless chicken breast sandwiches. If you can't resist a burger, order one topped with salsa or grilled onions and mushrooms, not bacon, cheese, or sour cream.

At Italian restaurants, it's hard to find low-fat lasagna, cannelloni, manicotti, or saltimbocca. But chicken, fish, and seafood dishes become problems only when they are served parmigiana or covered with other cheeses or cream sauces. Tomato-based marinara pasta sauces are lower in fat than pesto, which, is lower than meat sauces or cream-based white Alfredo or cheese sauces.

At French, German, and continental restaurants, look for dishes grilled, broiled, steamed, roasted, marinated, or en brochette. Broiled veal or rack of lamb may seem sinful, but they're relatively low-fat choices. Duck served with the skin on and a cream sauce is very high in fat. But skinless duck breast slices with a fruit sauce or glaze is a fairly low-fat choice.

The high-fat items at Mexican restaurants include the cheeses, sour cream, guacamole, and the refried beans if they are prepared with lard. Ask for whole beans instead of refried, and skip the toppings, or ask for nonfat yogurt instead.

At Cajun restaurants, casseroles and dishes served breaded or under creamy sauces are high in fat. Blackened and grilled dishes are lower-fat choices.

At fish grottoes, grilled or broiled dishes are quite low in fat--unless they are served with a sauce containing butter, cheese, or sour cream. Stay away from dishes served breaded, fried, or with high-fat sauces. Even fast-food outlets now offer some low-fat choices: salad bars and grilled chicken breast sandwiches.

Oatmeal is a great restaurant breakfast item. Just beware of high fat toppings: nuts, butter, whole milk, half-and-half, or cream. Stick with skim milk, and fruit. Any cold cereal with low-fat or skim milk is a better choice than eggs, bacon, sausage, or sweet rolls.

Baked potatoes are tasty low-fat lunch and dinner items, but skip the cheese, bacon, and sour cream toppings. Instead, go with salsa, broccoli, or nonfat yogurt.

At lunch, look for cup-of-soup and half-sandwich combinations--as long as the soup is not "cream of something." Combinations satisfy the need for variety. Vegetable and bean soups are nutritious, filling, and usually low in fat. Soups with a chicken stock base are higher in fat, but they're still a better choice than a croissant ham-and-cheese sandwich.

Mayonnaise and "special" sandwich sauces are high in fat. Stick to mustard, ketchup, salsa, and barbecue sauce.

Forget french fries. Select rice, pasta, or a baked potato.

Plan Ahead. A little forethought is better than hours of self-recrimination for what you should have done. It's no big deal to plan for low-fat dining out:

If you're happy at home with a simple breakfast of toast and coffee, or a bowl of cereal with skim milk, don't even look at the menu. Just order your usual meal, and don't get tempted by the Belgian waffles or bacon-sour cream omelet. If you're happy with a salad for lunch, or a baked potato and a steamed vegetable for dinner, don't look at the menu. Just order them.

Patronize restaurants that offer a large selection of appetizers, such as marinated vegetables, unusual salads and pasta dishes, and exotic fish and seafood items. But steer clear of patés, puff pastries, and cheese plates (especially fried cheese). Try one or two appetizers instead of an entrée. Consider portion size in advance. Before you and your companion are seated, suggest splitting part or all of your meals.

Beware of buffets, smorgasbords, and all-you-can-eat specials. They're setups for overeating. In addition, the dishes are often high in fat. Never arrive at any restaurant feeling ravenous. You'll choose more wisely and feel better about yourself if you take the edge off your hunger beforehand with a healthy low-fat snack: an apple, banana, pretzel, or cup of nonfat yogurt.

Alcohol is surprisingly high in calories (almost 200 calories per ounce). If you drink beer, wine, or cocktails, drink water or iced tea at the same time to quench your thirst and help you nurse your drink. If you enjoy wine with lunch or dinner, order it by the glass. That way you won't feel obligated to polish off a whole bottle.

Become More Assertive. Restaurants are in the business of service, so speak up. Let the staff know what you want. They don't resent it. That's what they're there for.

Ask for substitutions. Does a breakfast restaurant offer jam and margarine or just butter? Instead of a three-egg omelet, can you substitute a one-egg omelet with some egg substitute? And can you get skim or low-fat milk for coffee instead of cream or half-and-half? Do lunch and dinner restaurants offer entrée salads?

As you're seated, ask that the bread and butter or chips be removed, or served later with your meal. While waiting, sip water, club soda, or herbal tea. If you keep the bread basket, breadsticks, rolls, and french bread are lower in fat than croissants and most muffins.

If a restaurant doesn't serve healthful dressings and condiments, discreetly bring your own. Salsa makes an excellent bread spread, salad dressing, and vegetable topping. Or prepare some herb-lemon juice salad dressing and bring it in a small container.

When ordering chicken, insist on skinless parts, and ask if the skin was removed before cooking. Chicken absorbs skin fat if cooked with it. Even such presumably healthful dishes as broiled or grilled fish or skinless chicken can be smothered in high-fat sauces. Ask how sauces are prepared, and if they are high in fat, ask for no sauce, or sauce on the side. Ask for salad dressing on the side as well. Then dip your fork into the dressing before you spear any salad. That way you get a little dressing--but not too much--with each bite.

If you can't resist a high-fat dessert, split it, or take part of it home. Don't be corrupted by your dining companion(s). Well-meaning friends sometimes sabotage low-fat dining plans by coaxing, "Come on. Live a little." If a friend has previously led you to restaurant ruin, announce your intentions to eat healthfully before you arrive at the restaurant, and insist that your wishes be respected. (You may have to endure some teasing, but that's easier than letting your slacks out an inch.)

Not all salads are low in fat. A good one to avoid is the chef's salad with its cheeses, eggs, and high-fat lunch meats.

Finally, whenever you catch yourself thinking, "Oh, what the heck...," stop a moment, close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, and ask yourself if you really want that item.