Trans Fat: Watch out its everywhere!

Trans Fat is oil that is hydrogenated in an industrial process. This stuff is like poison for your heart and cardiovascular system. These fats raise your LDL (low density lipoprotein), or bad cholesterol levels, while lowering your HDL (high density lipoprotein), or good cholesterol levels.

HDL is called good cholesterol because it binds to cholesterol molecules and transports them to the liver for utilization or excretion. LDL is the bad type of cholesterol as it transports and deposits cholesterol to arteries which can lead to the formation of plaque, which in turn causes atherosclerosis (atherosclerosis usually leads to stroke or heart attack).

Watch out when buying your groceries. Just because the label says that there are 0 grams of trans fat in the product, doesn't mean it doesn't contain trans fat.

Examples - while shopping the other day I found that the Old El Paso taco and fajita seasoning packets contain partially hydrogenated soybean oil... i.e. Trans fat. I later found that many seasonings for Chinese food, Mexican food, etc. all contained trans fat even though the package reads 0 grams of trans fat.

Trans fat does occur naturally in very small amounts and that naturally occurring trans fat should be all of the trans fat you consume. Watch out for this next time you shop.

Key words to look for when checking ingredient list: partially hydrogenated.... oil or hydrogenated.....oil.

Here are some links with more information about trans fat. If I had to choose just one thing to keep out of my diet, Industrial produced Trans fat would be it!

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3045792

http://www.thetruthabouttransfat.com/?utm_source=doubleclick&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=TransFat

JRW