Trans fat, or trans fatty acid, also called partially hydrogenated oil, is most commonly produced by a manufacturing process that adds hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them more solid. Companies and restaurants use trans fat because it is inexpensive to produce, lasts a long time, and makes food tasty.

Trans fat is in many foods, including fried foods, such as french fries and doughnuts, and baked goods, such as pastries, pie crusts, biscuits, pizza dough, cookies, crackers, stick margarines, and shortenings. You can find out how much trans fat is in commercially packaged foods by reading their nutrition facts labels. In ingredient lists, trans fat is often called partially hydrogenated oil. Small quantities of trans fat occur naturally in some meat and dairy products, such as beef, lamb, and butterfat.

Trans fat is unhealthy because it raises your LDL (“bad”) cholesterol level, lowers your HDL (“good”) cholesterol level, and increases your risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. The amount of trans fats you eat should be limited to less than 1 percent of your total daily calories. So if you need 2,000 calories a day, no more than 20 calories a day should come from trans fat. This means that you probably should not eat commercially manufactured goods with trans fat in them at all. It’s best to replace trans fat with monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fat.

ADDITIONAL FACTS

  1. The health effects of trans fat were not known before 1990. Now the United States government requires food manufacturers to list trans fat on nutrition facts labels.
  2. Coronary heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, with 12.5 million Americans suffering from the disease.
  3. Some dietary supplements, energy bars, and nutrition bars contain trans fat from hydrogenated vegetable oil. It’s wise to read the nutrition information and ingredient lists on these products.