40% of Products on Supermarket Shelves Have Trans Fats

John Abramson, M.D., author of Overdosed America, was a guest on The Debra Ray Show. Dr. Abramson talked about trans fats, also called partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. In a study, doubling the amount of trans fats we eat each day, increases the risk of heart disease by 60 to 90%. Trans fats cause:

• significant & serious increase in LDL (bad) cholesterol
• significant & serious lowering of HDL (good) cholesterol

Find trans fats on the food label by looking for any of the following words:

• shortening
• partially hydrogenated vegetable oil
• hydrogenated vegetable oil
  

Starting in January, 2006, trans fats will be listed (in small print) in the Nutrition Facts square on the food package. Some food manufacturers packaging say "trans fat-free" if the product contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving size. These manufacturers believe that this is ok, since under FDA regulations, if a product contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fats per serving, they must express it as zero grams. If you go to a restaurant or bakery, ask if they use partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.

As they said on the Ban Trans Fats website, "One of the reasons that partially hydrogenated oils are used is to increase the product's shelf life, but they decrease your shelf life".

Ban Trans Fats - The Campaign to Ban Partially Hydrogenated Oils - website

Overdosed America - The Broken Promise of American Medicine - website

See my January 28, 2005, posting - How to Listen to The Debra Ray Show, Healthy Talk Radio. Debra Ray's radio and streaming audio health show has been bringing researched health information to listeners since 1982.

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