About trans fats, saturated fats & partially hydrogenated fats

Trans fats, saturated fats and hydrogenated fats promote inflammation and raise total blood cholesterol levels and are strongly linked with an increased risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, many types of cancer, and other chronic diseases.

Why then, do manufacturers of food continue to use these disease-promoting fats? MONEY, why else! These fats increase the shelf life of their food products, even though they are decreasing the life of the unsuspecting consumers who continue to eat their extremely unhealthy products.

Trans-fatty acids are especially bad for health. They are found mainly in commercially prepared baked goods, margarines, snack foods, processed foods, and many fried foods. They raise the bad cholesterol levels (LDL) and lower the good (HDL) in our bodies.

Saturated fats are found mainly in animal fats ~ in meat (including poultry), whole-milk dairy products, egg yolks, and to a lesser degree, seafood. Some plant foods such as coconut and palm oil are also high in saturated fats.

Partially hydrogenated fats act like and are as disease-promoting as saturated fats.

The American Heart Association now recommends cutting saturated fats to less than 7% of total calories and trans fats to less than 1%!

Most people eat 4 times as much saturated fat than trans fats and will not calculate these bad fats in their daily diet ~ so the best ways to cut them out are:

• Cut down on fried foods and commercially made cookies, cakes, crackers and snack foods.  If the label lists 'hydrogenated' or 'partially hydrogenated', avoid it!  Stay away from foods that contain more than 3 gms of trans fats or saturated fats per serving ~ the lower the better.
• Cut down on meat and dairy products as well as tropical oils (coconut & palm.)

Scientists at Wake Forest University found that diets rich in trans fats may cause the redistribution of fat tissue to the abdomen (the worst place to store fat for health & appearance) and lead to a higher body weight, even when the calorie intake is the same.

People work SO hard at losing weight via exercise and diet. It is a matter of controlling what you eat, not neccessarily how much!