Stay away from Trans fats

Trans fats are formed when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil during food processing in order to make it solidify. This process, known as hydrogenation, makes fats less likely to spoil, so foods stay fresh longer, have a longer shelf life and also have a less greasy feel.

Trans fat are known to increase your LDL levels, or "bad" cholesterol, while lowering your levels of HDL, known as "good" cholesterol, which is the complete opposite of what you need in order to maintain good heart health. It can also cause major clogging of arteries, Type 2 diabetes and other serious health problems.

Typically, what’s good for food manufacturers’ profits is not so good for your body, and could quite literally kill you. Among women with underlying coronary heart disease, eating trans fats increased the risk of sudden cardiac arrest three-fold!

Even if you don’t have heart disease, you need to avoid these fats like the plague. Even the Institute of Medicine said your intake should be “as low as possible.” They were given the opportunity to establish a “safe upper limit,” but declined doing so because, quite simply, there isn't one!

The end result of the hydrogenation process is a completely unnatural fat that causes dysfunction and chaos in your body on a cellular level.

Trans fats have been linked to:

• Cancer -They interfere with enzymes your body uses to fight cancer.
• Diabetes - They interfere with the insulin receptors in your cell membranes.
• Decreased immune function - They reduce your immune response.
• Problems with reproduction - They interfere with enzymes needed to produce sex hormones.
• Obesity
• Heart disease - Trans fats can cause major clogging of your arteries.

It's no surprise that trans fats are found in fried foods like French fries, fried chicken, and doughnuts - as well as cookies, pastries and crackers. In the U.S., French fries typically contain about 40 percent trans fatty acids and many popular cookies and crackers range from 30-to-50 percent trans fat. Doughnuts have about 35-to-40 percent trans fatty acids.

With all the bad press trans fats are getting, many food manufacturers have removed them from their products. But there’s an important caveat you should know. The FDA allows food manufacturers to round to zero any ingredient that accounts for less than 0.5 grams per serving.

So while a product may claim that it does not contain trans fats, it may actually contain up to 0.5 grams per serving. If you eat a few servings, you’re quickly ingesting a harmful amount of this deadly fat.

So to truly avoid trans fats, you need to read the label and look for more than just 0 grams of trans fat. Check the ingredients and look for partially hydrogenated oil. If the product lists this ingredient, it contains trans fats.