Get Rid of Trans Fats

Trans fats will make you fat! Get rid of them … all of them. Trans fats are diet dangers.

This unnatural type of fat can cause you to gain weight. But that’s not all! Trans fats also redistribute your fat … leading to a fat belly. Abdominal fat is associated with insulin resistance, heart disease, and diabetes.

Monkeys given a calorie-controlled diet still gained more than 7% of their body weight when trans fats were part of their diet, according to a Wake Forest study presented to the American Diabetes Association. Monkeys fed the same number of calories without the trans fat showed minimal weight gain.

What are trans fats?

Trans fats are manufactured fats, designed to improve the shelf-life of processed foods. They are created by adding hydrogen atoms to vegetable oils like soybean and cottonseed oils.

What is a safe level of trans fat in your diet?

Answer: Zero is safe. Anything above that is can be harmful to your health and to your waistline.

The famous Nurses’ Health Study determined that a 2% increase in trans fat in a woman’s diet doubled her risk of coronary heart disease. 1 Yikes!

Why are trans fats so bad?

Recent research has shown that trans fat has the power to:

  • Trigger weight gain
  • Increase abdominal distribution of fat
  • Increase insulin resistance and increase diabetes risk
  • Increase LDL (bad) cholesterol and decrease HDL (good cholesterol)
  • Increase the risk of coronary heart disease 2
  • Increase the risk of Alzheimers dementia
  • Increase inflammation in the body

Where do you find trans fats?

Essentially, in processed foods. Fast food and restaurant dishes are another major source. Harmful trans fats are not found in nature and are not present in whole foods. 3

Many restaurants and fast food establishments use trans fats, especially for frying. Fried chicken, French fries, and other deep-fried fast food favorites contain high levels of these dangerous fats.

Partially hydrogenated oils are found in over 40,000 processed foods sold to the American public. Common culprits are:

  • Baked goods and mixes (crackers, cookies, cakes, pastries, bread)
  • Chips
  • Salad dressings
  • Margarine and shortening
  • Crescent rolls and biscuits
  • Mayonnaise
  • Microwave popcorn
  • Frozen foods

The FDA now requires that food labels specify the amount of trans fats in processed foods. However, there is a “loophole” … if one serving contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat, the label can say “zero trans fat”. So, if you eat enough of these foods, you will still be eating a significant amount of trans fat. Buyer (eater) beware!

It may be difficult to avoid trans fats completely, but we recommend that you do your best. Here are some suggestions:

  • Substitute unprocessed fats for the trans fats in your diet
  • Use salad dressings made out of olive oil or other healthy oils
  • Avoid margarines and spreads containing trans fats
  • Favor restaurants that avoid the use of trans fats in cooking
  • Search for baked products without partially hydrogenated fats
  • Read labels carefully

Scientific References:

1 Hu FB, Stampfer MJ, Manson JE, Rimm E, Colditz GA, Rosner BA, Hennekens CH, Willett WC (1997). “Dietary fat intake and the risk of coronary heart disease in women”. New England Journal of Medicine 337 (21): 1491-1499.

2 Mozaffarian D, Katan MB, Ascherio A, Stampfer MJ, Willett WC (April 2006). “Trans Fatty Acids and Cardiovascular Disease”. New England Journal of Medicine 354 (15): 1601 – 1613.

3 Some saturated fats found in small amounts (<2%) in dairy products, such as conjugated linolenic acid (CLA) and others, are actually trans fats. However, these are naturally occurring and are not thought to be harmful, according to most experts.