Facts About Trans Fat

What does potato chips, a candy bar and donuts have in common? These everyday foods contained trans fats until recently. What is all the hype? The most asked question is what is trans fat?

Trans fat comes from hydrogen being added to the vegetable oil, or hydrogenation. Hydrogenation allows these foods, such as potato chips, to keep their flavor. Until recent years, this type of fat was contained in various margarines, cookies, snack foods, among others. In addition to the trans fat, they were cooked in partially hydrogenated oils.

Although trans fats may keep the flavor in the food, it has a negative impact on the human body. The LDL cholesterol level becomes higher, which increases the chance of having coronary heart disease, or CHD. In the United States, consumers take in approximately four to five times the amount of saturated fats in their diets as trans fat. This is part of the hype.

In the case of McDonalds, on their website, it stated that almost all their baked goods would contain no trans fat. These include McGriddles, biscuits and cookies. With the fried menus, such as French fries, hamburgers, and Filet-O-Fish, the corporation has converted to cooking with canola oil. This is good news for the health-conscious consumers (as long as they do not eat too much of it!).

Many consumers are not aware of this fact and may not believe it. According to the new label requirement of the Food and Drug Administration, if dietary supplements have a significant amount of trans and/or saturated fats, it is required to list the amount on the Supplement Facts panel. An example of this type of dietary supplement is the Power Bar, which is an energy bar.

If individuals insist on monitoring their fat intake, these are a few suggestions:

Instead of eating foods with saturated and/or trans fat, substitute them with monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, which do not allow the LDL cholesterol levels to increase and have beneficial factors, but only in moderation. Good sources of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat are canola oil and nuts.

Use vegetable oils and soft margarines since the saturated and trans fat amounts are reduced compared to solid shortenings and hard margarines.

It is best to eat lean meats, as in chicken minus the skin and not fried, beef and pork that is lean. It should not be fried and there should be trimmed fat.

Choose to eat whole grain foods, fruits and vegetables, which are always good choices. Other good choices include fish, fat-free, or one percent dairy products.

Although most foods in the present time do not contain trans fat, there are still some out there that still has this type of fat. The bottom line is read the Nutrition Facts label carefully.

The next post will focus on reading the Nutritional Facts label carefully and correctly.