Trans Fats: The Unhealthy Fat That’s Lurking In Your Food.
Not all oils are equal. When it comes to food trans fats are one of the worst things you can eat. Even worse than consuming lots of sugar and saturated fat. They are awful for your health and contribute to things like heart disease, cancer, and stoke to name a few. Unquestionably unsafe to consume trans fats are regrettably still in our food and you may not realize it until you start looking.
What are Trans Fats?
Trans fats are oils infused with hydrogen during a process called hydrogenation.
When hydrogen is added to vegetable oil it becomes solid at room temperature and will spoil less quickly than other types of fats.
Also called trans unsaturated fatty acids, these chemically engineered fats act like “plastic” clogging arteries, increasing inflammation and causing all kinds of health problems.
Major Health consequences
According to Research Trans Fatty Acids are connected to
- Cardiovascular Disease
- Breast Cancer
- Diabetes
- Obesity
- Allergies
- Pregnancy Complications
- High Cholesterol
Trans Fats are unsafe
The FDA removed trans fats from the GRASS (generally recognized as safe) list in 2015. In other words the they decided trans fats were unsafe for use in food. This was over a decade ago!
It was estimated by the FDA that removing trans fats from processed foods could prevent thousands of heart attacks and deaths each year.
Trans fats are also BANNED in New York. The ban stopped the use of partially hydrogenated oils in fast foods which are a major source of trans fats.
There is No Safe Amount
According to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) there is no safe consumption level of synthetic trans fats.
Most experts agree there is no safe limit for trans fats.
Even if the amount per serving is small it adds up ⬆️.
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Labels are Deceiving
A labeling loophole allows food containing up to half-gram of trans fat per serving to be labeled as 0g trans fat.
Donuts at the Office
One day a coworker brought donuts for the office.
I looked at the label “0 GRAMS TRANS FAT” and I wondered… How many people actually think that these doughnuts are “healthier” because it has absolutely no artery clogging fat?
The Food Industry Loves Trans Fats
So why add these oils to our food if they are so terrible for our health?
The food industry loves trans fats because they are
- Easy to Use
- Cheap to produce
- They make food last a long time
- Trans fats improve taste and texture
What foods contain Trans Fats?
Typically trans fats are found in fried food and packaged foods, especially baked goods.
Trans fats are still found in more foods than you think…
- Potato Chips
- Fried Foods
- Baked Goods (shortening / crisco)
- Margarine
- Frosting
- Coffee Creamer
- Crackers
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How to Get Rid of Trans Fats in Your Diet
Now that you are aware of what trans fats are and the dangers how do you ditch them?
The best option is to reduce your consumption of packaged junk food.
When you do eat processed food, start reading the food labels.
6 Worthwhile Reasons to Avoid Junk Food
Ingredients to look for
Look for the following ingredients to indicate the presence of trans fats:
- Partially Hydrogenated Oils
- Hydrogenated oils (however “Fully hydrogenated oil” is not trans fat)
- Mono and Di-glycerides
- Shortening
- DATEM
The Recap
So what are you waiting for? Ditch the trans fats and improve you health.
- These are synthetic chemicals added to food to make them last longer.
- There are major health consequences the top biggest being heart disease and obesity.
- Trans fats are known to be unsafe even by the FDA.
- A loophole allows small amounts of this dangerous chemical in food products, so be sure to check the food labels.