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Baked isn’t always healthy:
Here’s how to tell

by Diana

Fact:

80 Percent of Americans Have No Idea Which Foods Contain Trans Fats

Read time: 2 minutes. As reported in NaturalNews, most people in the United States now know that they should avoid trans fats but few actually know which foods contain the dangerous ingredients.  Example: food companies selling things like potato chips and fried snack goods stop frying and slap “baked” on the label — they take frying totally out of the equation.  Bingo — their product becomes health food.  Right? Wrong! Consider the actual ingredients — not just what may be added during the cooking process. Read on and I’ll show you who to easily, quickly decide what a healthy snack looks like in the shopping isle.  Here’s how to read the label AND know what to look for. My Golden Rule:s

1. If the list of ingredients is longer than 4-5 ingredients do NOT buy it.  Don’t spend money to poison your child.
2. Watch for multiple forms of preservatives or what even sounds like a preservative (typically these are the words you’ve never heard of and cannot pronounce).
3. Look at the shelf life.  The longer the shelf life the more likely it has “hidden” trans fats or dangerous preservatives.
4. Most fried foods in restaurants contain trans fats — some are loaded

Hidden trans fat: The facts on frying

While food companies are required to list trans fats on nutritional labels, a product can be listed as trans fat free if it contains less than five grams of the fats per serving.

Any product containing “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated” oils contain trans fats. They are commonly used in baked and fried foods, although some manufacturers have started phasing out their use.

What’s the big deal?  Unlike natural fats trans fats have no nutritional value and drastically increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and death. Like saturated fats, they increase the body’s levels of LDL (”bad”) cholesterol, but unlike those fats they also lower its levels of HDL (”good”) cholesterol.

Trans fats, also known as hydrogenated oils, are artificially produced in the laboratory by adding extra hydrogen atoms to unsaturated vegetable oils. They have long been a favorite of the food industry for their increased shelf life over conventional oils.

Researchers surveyed 1,000 adult residents of the United States in 2007 about their knowledge of trans fats, and found that a full 92 percent had heard of the fats, compared with only 84 percent who had heard of them in 2006. Almost 75 percent of those who had heard of trans fats were aware that consumption of the fats raises the risk of heart disease.

The researchers next asked people to list three foods that contain trans fats, but only 21 percent were able to do so — nevertheless an improvement over 17 percent in 2006.

Laws banning the use of trans fats in restaurants have been passed in a number of cities, including New York, as well as by the state of California.

Source: NaturalNews.com