Trans fat is double trouble for your heart health
Many health care providers consider trans fat to be the worst type of fat you can eat.
Unlike other dietary fats, trans fat raises your low-density lipoprotein or LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and lowers your high-density lipoprotein or HDL (“good”) cholesterol.
A diet laden with trans fat increases your risk of heart disease, the leading killer of men and women. Here’s some information about trans fat and how to avoid it.
• What is trans fat?
Some meat and dairy products contain small amounts of naturally-occurring trans fat. But most trans fat is formed through an industrial process that adds hydrogen to vegetable oil, which causes the oil to become solid at room temperature.
This partially hydrogenated oil is less likely to spoil. Foods made with it have a longer shelf life.
Some restaurants use partially hydrogenated vegetable oil in their deep fryers because it doesn’t have to be changed as often as other oils.
• Trans fat in your food
The manufactured form of trans fat, known as partially hydrogenated oil, is found in various food products, including: Baked goods
Most cakes, cookies, pie crusts and crackers contain shortening, which is usually made from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Ready-made frosting is another source of trans fat.
Snacks
Potato, corn and tortilla chips often contain trans fat. And, while popcorn can be a healthy snack, many types of packaged or microwave popcorn use trans fat to cook or flavour the popcorn. Fried food
Foods that require deep frying — french fries, doughnuts and fried chicken — can contain trans fat from the oil used in the cooking process.
Refrigerator dough
Products such as canned biscuits and cinnamon rolls often contain trans fat, as do frozen pizza crusts.
Creamer and margarine Nondairy coffee creamer and stick margarines also may contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
• Reading food labels
When you check the food label for trans fat, also check the food’s ingredient list for partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.
This indicates the food contains some trans fat. Eating several portions of foods containing some trans fat may boost your total intake of trans fat to a level that affects your health.
• How low should you go?
Trans fat, particularly the manufactured variety found in partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, appears to have no known health benefit.
Experts recommend keeping your intake of trans fat as low as possible.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has determined that partially hydrogenated vegetable oil is no longer “generally recognized as safe” and should be phased out of the production of food over the next several years. However, naturally occurring trans fats still will be found in some foods.
• How trans fat harms you
Health care providers worry about trans fat because it increases the risk for heart attacks, stroke and Type 2 diabetes.
Trans fat also has an unhealthy effect on your cholesterol levels — increasing your LDL and decreasing your HDL.
If the fatty deposits within your arteries tear or rupture, a blood clot may form and block blood flow to a part of your heart, causing a heart attack, or to a part of your brain, causing a stroke.
• What should you eat?
Foods free of trans fats aren’t automatically good for you. Food manufacturers may have substituted other ingredients that may not be healthy either.
Some of these ingredients — coconut, palm kernel and palm oils — contain saturated fat.
Saturated fat raises your total cholesterol. In a healthy diet, 20 to 35 per cent of your total daily calories can come from fat — but saturated fat should account for less than 10 per cent of your total daily calories.
Monounsaturated fat, which is found in olive, peanut and canola oils, is a healthier option than saturated fat. Nuts, fish and other foods containing unsaturated omega-3 fatty acids are other good choices of foods with healthy fats.