Don't Be Fooled Again by Trans Fat

There are few things in my eating plan that I recommend completely avoiding. One of them is artificial trans fat, which comes largely from partially hydrogenated oils in baked goods, cereals and other processed foods. As "bad for you" things go, these types of trans fats take the cake. They raise bad cholesterol, lower good cholesterol and increase your risk of heart disease, stroke and Type 2 diabetes. It would be impossible to thoroughly rid our diets of trans fats since traces of them occur naturally in so many foods, but naturally occurring trans fats don't seem to pose a health risk. On the other hand, artificial trans fats do.

The American Heart Association recommends having no more than 2g of trans fat per day. The good news is that these days it's not hard to avoid artificial trans fats. For one thing, nutrition labels have improved in that trans fat grams must be listed, so obviously you should avoid foods that have any trans fat listed on the nutrition label. But here's where the tricky part comes in. If a food contains less than 1g of trans fat per serving, it may still be listed as trans fat-free, even though it contains some trans fat. So you may think you're eating no trans fat, when in fact you could be eating a lot more, particularly if you have more than one serving of that food or if you have other foods during the day that contain some trans fat.

To get around this, you'll need to read ingredient lists. If a food contains partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated oil of any kind in its ingredient list, chances are it has more trans fat in it than you might think, and it should be avoided. This includes some commercially processed crackers, cookies, snack foods and cereals. Yes, some breakfast cereals from name-brand manufacturers still contain partially hydrogenated oils! GRRRR!!!!

But there is more good news: Since my eating plan advocates limiting starchy refined foods, you'll be limiting your exposure to these harmful fats if you avoid this category. Also, the more the public has become aware of trans fat's harmful effects, the more is being done to eliminate partially hydrogenated oils from the food supply. So keep reading those labels and don't buy those products if there's any way to avoid it.