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Tips for Avoiding Trans Fats
By
Tracy Rohland
In July of 2002, the National Academy of Sciences concluded that the only safe intake of trans fat is zero grams. Harvard School of Public Health researchers have found that removing trans fats from the industrial food supply could prevent tens of thousands of heart attacks and cardiac deaths each year in the U.S. Other research confirms that the consumption of trans fats promotes heart disease, cancer, diabetes, immune dysfunction, obesity and reproductive problems.
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If you are striving to achieve a healthy and vibrant lifestyle, it is important to eliminate trans fats from your diet. The mandatory labeling of trans fats in foods is a step in the right direction for food labeling, but you cannot rely on those labels alone for the whole story. If you are to truly eliminate these harmful fats from your diet, it is necessary to carefully read ingredients. A food may have a label advertising it as “trans fat free,” but it is still allowed by government standards to have a small amount of trans fat.
The key ingredient to look for on a label is “hydrogenated oil.” The most common trans fats culprits are margarine (especially stick form), animal products, French fries, cakes and pastries, cookies (especially cream-filled cookies), crackers, chips, and candy. Even supposedly health-conscious snack foods often contain partially hydrogenated oils.
Here are some more tips for avoiding trans fats:
- In your own cooking, be sure to use oils rich in healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. These include olive oil and canola oil (both monounsaturated) and soybean oil, sunflower oil and corn oil (polyunsaturated).
- Use non-hydrogenated vegetable spreads instead of margarine.
- When eating out, don’t be afraid to ask what kinds of fats are being used in food preparation. With trans fats being so prominent in the media lately, more and more restaurants are becoming conscious of their choices of cooking oil.
- It is always safe to eat out at Down to Earth’s deli, where hydrogenated oils are never among the ingredients.
http://www.cspinet.org/new/200207101.html
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/reviews/transfats.html
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/industrial_transfats.html
http://www.fitnessandfreebies.com/fitness/transfats.html
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