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 Most of us know the kinds of fats we really need to stay away from—trans fats. But did you know that you may be consuming these dreaded fats, even if the label says “Zero Trans Fats?”
Trans fats have been vilified in the mainstream media for the last few years—and rightfully so. These horrible, artery-clogging fats are produced by heating liquid vegetable oil in the presence of hydrogen to make them solid at room temperature, a process known as hydrogenation. Food conglomerates routinely utilize hydrogenated oil inside their manufacturing plants, which means that trans fats are found in nearly all of our processed foods. The reason food producers employ so much chemistry in the hydrogenation process is because it allows them to produce a more competitively priced product with a longer shelf life.
The list of foods containing trans fats is endless: vegetable shortening, frozen pizza, ice cream, processed cheese, potato chips, cookie dough, white bread, dinner rolls, snack foods, doughnuts, candy, and salad dressing. The worst offender could be margarine, even those touted in “heart healthy” tubs. Commercially prepared foods like French fries and onion rings fried in polyunsaturated vegetable oils, also contain gobs of trans fat. Anything deep-fried in polyunsaturated oils—chicken, steak, or fries—contains higher-than-average trans fat levels.
My good friend Dr. Bernard Bulwer, author of Your Doctor Can’t Make You Healthy, was asked to explain how it’s possible—since the passage of legislation requiring the amount of trans fats to be listed on food labels—that products with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats (the source of bad trans fats) can still splash their packages with phrases like “Trans Fat Free” or “Zero Trans Fat.”
Here is what he had to say: “It’s because of verbal gymnastics allowed by government loopholes. Even though the packaging says the food is trans fat free or has zero trans fats, manufacturers can still put dangerous trans fats in your food—as long as they ensure there’s less than 500 milligrams of trans fat per serving.
The problem is that when you multiply 500 millligrams by the amount of servings you consume, and then eat many different foods that play the same tricks with their labels, you’re consuming trans fats when you thought you were being “good” and staying away from these menacing compounds.
Now you understand the deception, and it’s all legal. Read your ingredient labels, and if you see the words hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated listed, figure that you’ll be ingesting some amount of trans fat, no matter what the colorful label promises.”
The bottom line is this: Trans fats are horrible for your health and you will want to avoid them at all costs—even if that means taking a closer look at labels, including the ones that read “Zero Trans Fats” or “Trans Fat Free.” Those words may not be telling the whole story.
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