Whether I’m speaking to a group or consulting one-on-one the issue of trans-fats and label laws frequently comes up.  Today I am reprinting a blog post that I wrote on this subject last summer.

June 2008 – This weekend my Southern California friends took me to the San Diego County Fair at the Del Mar Race Track. It was fun! We experienced all the fixn’s of the typical American summer fair: pie eating contests, demolition derby races, carnival rides, pig races, sunburns, and a lot of food. I saw (but didn’t eat) the deep fat fried concoctions that make their way to the summer-time fairs.

Walk me past enough signs for fried Snickers, fried Twinkies, fried Coca-Cola, fried chicken breasts sandwiched between two Krispy Kreme doughnuts and Voila! I am ready to write my next blog post. One of the single most important things you can do for good nutrition and good health is: avoid eating trans fats! You will find trans fats, also known as partially hydrogenated oils, in fried foods such as; fried fish, fried chicken, fried appetizers, and yes, fried Twinkies The other place you’ll frequently find trans fats is in boxed, packaged or frozen food. Trans fats are added to packaged food to help preserve shelf life, but they don’t help preserve your life! Trans fats are a huge public health problem. In 2006 it was legislated that all labels must report the trans fat content. But beware! Under FDA regulations, “if the serving contains less than 0.5 gram [of trans fat] the content, when declared, shall be expressed as zero.” In others words there might be partially hydrogenated oils in your granola bar, crackers, frozen dinner, coffee creamer, etc. but the food manufacturer can tell you their product is free of all trans fats. How can they legally do this? It’s easy, they just decrease the serving size. Very sneaky! This is what you can do to protect yourself? Read the actual INGREDIENT PARAGRAPH. If you see the words PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED, you are eating a TRANS FAT. Even if the Nutrition Facts say this do not assume it is true. The only way you’ll know if the product really has 0 grams of trans fat is to read the ingredient paragraph and look for the words, partially hydrogenated. Take a look through your cupboards and read the ingredient paragraphs next time you are grocery shopping! For more information on trans fats and their ill effects on our health, check out this site Ban Trans Fats.