Remember “0g trans fat per serving” does not equal ZERO trans fat per serving. I know, I know, but it is not me, that is the way it is. “0g trans fat per serving” could be 0.49g of transfat per serving. And if you eat a few servings of “’0g trans fat per serving’-could-be-0.49g-of trans-fat-per-serving’ you would be getting 1.47g of trans fat. FDA guidelines are such that if the item has less than 0.5g of trans fat per serving it can be listed as zero on the label.
If you want to get “0g trans fat per serving” you cannot trust the label that advertises such a thing you have to read the ingredients. You are looking for partially hydrogenated oil—any kind of oil that is partially hydrogenated oil. And if you really want to avoid trans fat you might want to skip hydrogentated oils. Although, hydrogenated oil is NOT transfat, the labeling is not strict so the ingredient could read hydrogenated and actually be partially.
There are quite a few websites that explain the chemical compounds of fat, so I am not going to do that here. I am just going to give a little overview. Fat has a certain chemical compound and a certain way the chains are formed. When a fat it partially hydrogenated the chemical bond is altered, more hydrogen atoms are added straightening the chain. Allowing for the chains to stack together more tightly and therefore remain solid. This altered state allows the fat to last longer which explains why it is in everything, it allows things to sit on the shelf longer, but rumor has it is sits in your body longer too. Not good.
This altered fat not only hangs around longer it has been proven to INCREASE (not just not help lower, but INCREASE) the “bad” cholesterol and decrease (not just leave alone, but DECREASE) our “good” cholesterol. We need to be eating healthy foods. To me, a food that DECREASES my good stuff and INCREASES my bad stuff, is not good.
So if you are interested in getting truly ZERO transfat, read the ingredients not just the hype on the labels.
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