Trans fat free food does not mean its safe

Dr KK Aggarwal

After the CEC report release in India most urban Indian have heard of trans fats but are still ignorant about which foods to avoid.
As per findings in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, in the US also 92% people are aware what trans fats are and three-quarters know that the fats may raise the risk of heart disease. Yet, when asked to name three food sources of trans fats, only 21 percent could do so. In India the figures are much less.
Health campaigns and media stories have boosted consumers' trans fat knowledge, but there is still more to be done.
Trans fats are notorious because they not only raise "bad" LDL cholesterol -- like the saturated fats in meat and butter do -- but also lower levels of heart-healthy HDL cholesterol.

1. Trans fats are formed during food processing when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil to make it solidify.
2. Foods that list so-called partially hydrogenated vegetable oil on the label contain trans fat.
3. Traditionally, it includes most commercially prepared baked and fried foods -- including cookies, crackers, chips, breads and french fries.
4. Caution: most manufacturers and restaurants have been increasingly removing trans fats from their products. Eve those labeled "trans-fat-free", products may still contain significant amounts of saturated fat. Some manufacturers are using tropical oils -- coconut oil, palm oil and palm kernel oil -- to replace trans fats, and those oils are high in saturated fat.