What Are Trans Fats?/Sample List

If you are what you eat, you’d better hope you haven’t been chowing down on foods high in  trans fats.

Overindulging in the hundreds of different foods that contain the substance can create clogged arteries and lead to the kind of heart and weight problems that are becoming epidemic in North America.

The problem, as always, is that they’re in all the stuff just about everybody likes.

Trans fats can be found naturally in some dairy products, oils and meat, but mostly at low levels.

But manufacturers often add them to different foods to help extend their shelf life in stores. When liquid oil is turned into a semi-sold form – like in shortening and margarines, common ingredients in many foods – trans fats are produced. The process is usually called hydrogenation, because the food makers add hydrogen to vegetable oil.

That means most of the cookies, crackers and snack foods that are the most fun to munch on give you a dose of the substance, along with the equally dangerous saturated fat,   that makes your taste buds happy but your heart groan.

Trans Fat List
(list is in grams)

What’s in all that junk you’re eating? Here’s a small sample:

French Fries:
Serving size: 147
Sat Fat: 7
Trans Fat: 8

Margarine
(Stick)
Sat Fat: 2
Trans Fat: 2

Margarine
(Tub)
Sat Fat: 1
Trans Fat: 0.5

Potato Chips:
(Small bag)
Sat Fat: 2
Trans Fat: 3

Doughnut:
Sat Fat: 4.5
Trans Fat: 5

Three Cream Filled Cookies
Sat Fat: 1
Trans Fat: 2

Candy Bar
Sat Fat: 4
Trans Fat: 3

Pound Cake:
(per slice)
Sat Fat: 3.5
Trans Fat: 4.5

Sources: Health Canada, U.S. Food & Drug Administration
 

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Here are some tips to lower the trans fat in your diet:

1. Follow Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating which emphasizes grain products, and vegetables and fruit that are naturally low in fat. Choose low fat milk products as well as leaner meats, poultry and fish. Try to choose dried peas, beans and lentils more often. Call your local Public Health office for a copy of the Guide.

2. Eat less fat. Consider all sources of fat in your diet and work on reducing the total amount of fat you eat. By cutting down on your fat intake, you will automatically reduce the amount of trans fat and saturated fat in your diet. The less total fat in your diet, the less trans fat.

3. Limit the amount of processed foods you eat. They are the major sources of hidden trans fat. This includes foods such as cookies, crackers, baked goods, potato chips, french fries and other deep-fried foods.

4. If using margarine, choose a soft tub margarine. Soft tub margarines tend to contain less trans fat than harder margarines. There are some soft tub margarines that are non-hydrogenated and have no trans fat. Some examples are Becel, Olivina , Our Compliments Supreme, 7 Reasons Non-Hydrogenated, Fleischmann’s Non Hydrogenated and Fleischmann’s 10% Olive Oil. Whichever spread you choose, spread it thinly – less fat is better.

5. Learn to read the nutrition label. Nutrition labels often list the amount of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat in a product, but not the amount of trans fat. To estimate the amount of trans fat in a product, subtract the amount of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats from the amount of total fat.

Courtesy: Toronto Public Health