Of course, in this sense, we\u2019re talking about \u201cgood\u201d fat. Good fat is what fuels your body, softens your skin, and provides essential fatty acids and vitamins. There\u2019s bad fat, too, and that\u2019s the stuff that clogs your arteries and puts you at risk of heart disease and stroke.<\/p>\n
Trans fat is that bad fat.<\/p>\n
To understand why trans fats are bad fats, you first need a basic understanding of \u201cgood\u201d and \u201cbad\u201d cholesterol. LDL (Low-Density Lipoprotein) is bad cholesterol. It builds up in the walls of your arteries and increases the risk of blockages that lead to heart attacks and strokes. HDL (High-Density Lipoprotein) is good cholesterol. Think of HDL as an LDL mine sweeper. It finds excess cholesterol in your body and brings it back to the liver for processing.<\/p>\n
Trans fats deliver a double whammy to your cardiovascular system by simultaneously increasing LDL and decreasing HDL. Today, most experts agree that you should limit your intake of this fat as much as possible.<\/p>\n
Because it\u2019s cheap and it lasts a long time.<\/p>\n
Trans fat occurs naturally in some meat and dairy, but its ubiquity in our food is due to an industrial process that adds hydrogen to vegetable oil. This hydrogenated oil is inexpensive to make and can be used multiple times by restaurants that utilize deep fryers.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, because many restaurants and manufacturers now recognize the danger of trans fats, there\u2019s a lot less of it in our food than there used to be. Fast food chains have phased out hydrogenated oils. Entire countries have reduced or restricted the use of trans fats in restaurants, as have particular states and cities in the U.S.<\/p>\n
Even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has ruled that hydrogenated oil is no longer \u201cgenerally recognized as safe\u201d to consume, trans fat lingers in many of our favorite snacks. And why not? It makes food taste better and helps it last longer on the shelf (though it also puts consumers at risk for heart attacks, strokes, and Type 2 diabetes in the future).<\/p>\n
If you live in the United States, it is likely that you\u2019re eating more trans fats than you think you are. If a food contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat in a serving, the nutrition information can be labeled as 0 grams of trans fat. This is why it\u2019s important to check the ingredients list for partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. The cost of these hidden trans fats to your body is cumulative and will quickly add up.<\/p>\n
Remember to check your labels!<\/p>\n
Staying away from fried food is the big one. Other than that, eating a healthy diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-fat dairy is recommended. Chucking frozen dinners and waffles for the food pyramid can be a difficult step, but natural supplements can ease the transition. If you must fry, use sunflower or olive oil in lieu of hydrogenated oil. Limit your intake of sugary drinks and red meat, and don\u2019t overindulge on donuts, cookies, crackers, and cake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When every other product on the shelf screams \u201cLOW FAT\u201d or \u201cFAT FREE\u201d on the label, it\u2019s easy to believe that fat is an unwanted guest in your stomach. But fat can be good for you! In fact, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recommends that adults get 20-35 percent of their calories from fats. It\u2019s only when that percentage climbs to 40 percent and above that fat becomes an issue. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":5057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nutrition"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturalwellness.com\/nwupdate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturalwellness.com\/nwupdate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturalwellness.com\/nwupdate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturalwellness.com\/nwupdate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturalwellness.com\/nwupdate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5055"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturalwellness.com\/nwupdate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8391,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturalwellness.com\/nwupdate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5055\/revisions\/8391"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturalwellness.com\/nwupdate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naturalwellness.com\/nwupdate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturalwellness.com\/nwupdate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naturalwellness.com\/nwupdate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}