Less Trans Fat for Better Health

Recently, New York City became the first city in the USA to pass a law which will ban the use of trans fat when preparing food in all restaurants in the city. The law will take effect on July 1, 2007. This measure serves to remind us of the harmful effects of trans fat.

Trans fat - bad fat
Some of you may not know much about trans fat. To put it simply, trans fat is one of the four major groups of dietary fats, with the other three groups being saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Trans fat, along with saturated fat, is considered as "bad" fat. A small amount of trans fat exists naturally in some foods, such as beef and some dairy products, but the major source of dietary trans fat comes from processed food.

When liquid vegetable oils go through a hydrogenation process which makes the oils more solid, the trans fat content will increase. Hydrogenated vegetable fats or oils are favoured by food processors because they allow longer shelf-life, easier storage and transportation, and give food desirable taste and texture.

But......do you know that the consumption of trans fat

• raises LDL ("bad") cholesterol levels
• lowers HDL ("good") cholesterol levels
• causes the arteries to become clogged
• increases the risk of developing heart disease and stroke

Lowering dietary intake of trans fat - useful tips

• when cooking, avoid high-temperature deep frying as this would produce trans fat
• reduce the intake of processed food which has high trans fat content
  • margarine
  • baked items such as crackers, cookies, bread and pastries
  • fried foods
  • other processed foods made with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils
• Know the food labels
  • read the food labels and learn more about the nutrition contents of the food
  • choose foods which contain less or no trans fat
  • foods with the following ingredients in the food labels all contain trans fat
    • hydrogenated plant/vegetable oil
    • partially hydrogenated plant/vegetable oil
    • hydrogenated fat
    • partially hydrogenated fat
    • vegetable shortenings

So guys, less trans fat for better health.

To see how much you know about dietary fats, go try our quiz "Knowledge Test on Dietary Fat".

(Last Updated on 18-01-2007)