Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 McDonald's claims that new measurement techniques caused the trans fat figures to leap by 1/3 to 8 grams of artery-destroying trans fat per serving of large fries. It makes you wonder about the other nutritional information McDonald's is about to start printing on its food wrappers, doesn't it?
Then again, it also begs the question: Do people who eat at McDonald's actually read nutrition labels? And if so, can they possibly understand them? Apparently McDonald's doesn't. The restaurant chain is just now figuring out how to measure trans fats -- a technology that has existed for decades. |
Tori Hudson, N.D.
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 When we metabolize trans fat, it behaves similar to saturated fat, leading to a higher risk of heart disease and other chronic diseases. Trans fats have adverse effects on HDL-C and LDL-C. Trans fatty acids also have an adverse effect on cell membranes, making them stiffer, and in general are associated with increased inflammatory and oxidative damage.
Trans fatty acid levels are determined by the amount of hydrogenated oils in a food. Foods such as doughnuts, french fries, margarine, most cookies, and any food that contains "partially hydrogenated oils" contain trans fats. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 REPPED: With new trans fat labeling laws now going into effect, which require food manufacturers to list the trans fat content right on the nutrition facts label, it's time to be brutally honest about the continued use of trans fat and hydrogenated oils in the food manufacturing industry.
For decades, food manufacturers have known about the dangers to the health of consumers caused by hydrogenated oils, and yet, until recently, food manufacturers were able to claim innocence by saying that their ingredient was not really proven to be dangerous, or that it is perfectly legal to use. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| McDonald's claims that new measurement techniques caused the trans fat figures to leap by 1/3 to 8 grams of artery-destroying trans fat per serving of large fries. It makes you wonder about the other nutritional information McDonald's is about to start printing on its food wrappers, doesn't it?
Then again, it also begs the question: Do people who eat at McDonald's actually read nutrition labels? And if so, can they possibly understand them? Apparently McDonald's doesn't. The restaurant chain is just now figuring out how to measure trans fats -- a technology that has existed for decades. |
Bottom Line Health
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| Other studies have linked trans fat consumption to diabetes and obesity.
FOODS HIGH IN TRANS FATS
Approximately 40% of the food in supermarkets contains trans fats. This harmful substance is found in 95% of cookies, 80% of frozen breakfast foods, 75% of snacks and chips, 70% of cake mixes and almost 50% of all cereals. And these foods contain plenty of it.
Examples: Products that have the most trans fats include vegetable shortening, doughnuts, stick margarine, french fries (trans fats account for approximately 40% of the total fat content).. . |
Jack Challem
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 Cubbison's Cheese and Garlic Croutons
Beware of the trans fat Shell Game
In 2006, the FDA began to require food companies to list trans fats (which are linked to prediabetes and cardiovascular disease) in Nutrition Facts boxes; however, amounts of trans fats that are less than 0.5 (one-half) gram per serving do not have to be listed. In other words, products containing 0.49 gram of trans fats (or less) can be labeled as having zero trans fats per serving. The catch? People can easily consume one or more grams by eating a large serving or two servings. |
Bottom Line Health
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| LOOK FOR HYDROGENATED'
To protect yourself from unknowingly consuming too many trans fats, Heller suggests,
"If you see a food with 0 trans fat, check the ingredient list. Look for the words, 'partially hydro-genated.' If you see partially hydrogenated, that means the product contains some trans fats."
The FDA adds that products that have shortening or hydrogenated oils in their ingredient lists also contain some trans fats, and if they appear at the beginning of the ingredient list, the product contains more trans fats than if they are further down on the list. |
Craig Pepin-Donat
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 The FDA now requires the disclosure of levels of trans fat on food labels, but there is still a major loophole that actually requires manufacturers to label any food containing 0.5 grams or less of trans fats with zero trans fats. This system actually forces manufacturers to lie to consumers. Protect yourself by making it a habit to read the label of each product to see if it contains partially hydrogenated oil or shortening. If it does, do not buy it and do not eat it. Do not even think about it. Consuming trans fats is a gamble with your health and your life. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 To avoid listing trans fats, or to claim "trans fat free" on their label, food manufacturers simply adjust the serving size until the trans fat content falls under 0.5 grams per serving. This is how you get modern food labels with serving sizes that essentially equate to a single bite of food. Not exactly a "serving" of food, is it?
Besides being a cancer factor, trans fats promote heart disease, interrupt metabolic processes, and cause belly fat that crowd the organs and strain the heart. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| And as long as they state the trans fat content on the nutrition facts label, the truth is that their use of this ingredient is entirely legal (even if it is unquestionably unethical).
This trans fat labeling requirement by the FDA is really a food warning label. It warns consumers that the food contained inside the box is truly bad for them and may, in fact, accelerate and promote the onset of degenerative disease. It's much like the warning labels on cigarettes, which tell you that smoking cigarettes can cause cancer. |
Bottom Line Health
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| Example: Benecol, a soft-spread substitute for margarine or butter, is advertised as promoting heart health by lowering cholesterol. It does this—but it also contains "less than" 0.5 g of trans fats per tablespoon.
This means that if you used one tablespoon four times a day, which is the amount recommended to lower cholesterol, you could consume nearly 14 g of trans fats in a week, just from Benecol spread alone.
Many companies are replacing trans fats with saturated fats, fust because something has zero trans fats doesn't mean people can eat as much as they want. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| To avoid listing trans fats, or to claim "trans fat free" on their label, food manufacturers simply adjust the serving size until the trans fat content falls under 0.5 grams per serving. This is how you get modern food labels with serving sizes that essentially equate to a single bite of food. Not exactly a "serving" of food, is it?
Besides being a cancer factor, trans fats promote heart disease, interrupt metabolic processes, and cause belly fat that crowd the organs and strain the heart. |
Ann M. Coulston and Carol J. Boushey
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 Understanding the complexity of trans fatty acid reduction in the American diet: American Heart Association trans fat conference 2006: Report of the trans fat conference planning group. Circulation 115, 2231-2246.
65. Mensink, R. P., and Katan, M. B. (1990). Effect of dietary trans fatty acids on high-density and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in healthy subjects. N. Engl. J. Med. 323, 439^145.
66. Kromhout, D., Menotti, A., Bloemberg, B., et al. (1995). |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| This trans fat labeling requirement by the FDA is really a food warning label. It warns consumers that the food contained inside the box is truly bad for them and may, in fact, accelerate and promote the onset of degenerative disease. It's much like the warning labels on cigarettes, which tell you that smoking cigarettes can cause cancer. Except in this case, there's no disease named, but let's be honest: Eating hydrogenated oil promotes cancer, birth defects, cardiovascular disease and many other diseases that ultimately kill people. |
Jack Challem
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 The worst offender is trans fat, found in shortening and often disguised under the term partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. It's equally important to avoid corn, soybean, and peanut oils, which are all high in inflammation-promoting compounds that promote damaging stress responses.
Examples: Nearly all fried foods are cooked in a blend of unhealthy oils, including trans fats. Heating increases the amount of trans fat, sometimes up to 40 percent of the oil. French fries and chicken nuggets are saturated with these awful fats. |
Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S.
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 Regardless of what the label says, if it says "partially hydrogenated oil" in the ingredients, it's got trans fat. Don't eat trans fats. Period. (The one single exception is the trans fat CLA, or conjugated linoleic acid, which is found naturally in grass-fed dairy and meat and is not man-made.)
• Monounsaturated fat—found in nuts and olive oil—is good stuff and heart healthy.
• Polyunsaturated fats come in two "flavors": omega-6s and omega-3s. While there are some health benefits to omega-6s, we get too many omega-6s and not enough omega-3s. |
Connie Bennett, C.H.H.C. with Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D.
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 Next, Joseph targeted McDonald's (in two lawsuits) for defrauding the public about the level of trans fat in its cooking oil. "The cases eventually settled, with McDonald's agreeing to pay $1.5 million to notify its customers that it hadn't switched to a trans fat-reduced oil, as previously promised, and another $7 million to the American Heart Association to fund a trans fat education program," Joseph adds.
Taking legal action against the food industry isn't new. For example, in 1983 the Committee on Children's Television, Inc. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 Trans Fat FREE!" In reality, however, the package might contain 30 cookies, each with 0.5 grams of trans fats, which comes out to 15 grams total in the package (but that assumes people can actually do math, which is of course made all the more difficult by the fact that hydrogenated oils actually harm the brain. But trust me: 30 cookies x 0.5 grams per cookie really does come out to 15 grams total).
This is how you get a package of cookies containing 15 grams of trans fats (which is a huge dose of dietary poison) while claiming to contain ZERO grams. |
Russell L. Blaylock, M.D.
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 When the hydrogen atoms are on opposite sides it is referred to as a trans fat. The cis form is bent while the trans form is straight as an arrow.
Because the trans fats have a straight configuration, they no longer fit into the cell membranes properly, making the cell function abnormally. In addition, the trans form interferes with certain enzymes, leading to things like atherosclerosis, heart attacks, strokes, and degenerative brain disorders. For decades, the USDA and their scientists denied that trans fats were harmful. It was the untiring efforts and scientific work of lipid scientist Dr. |
Michael Pollan
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 It turns out that "a higher intake of trans fat can contribute to increased risk of CHD through multiple mechanisms"; to wit, it raises bad cholesterol and lowers good cholesterol (something not even the evil saturated fats can do); it increases triglycerides, a risk factor for CHD; it promotes inflammation and possibly thrombogenesis (clotting) , and it may promote insulin resistance. trans fat is really bad stuff, apparently, fully twice as bad as saturated fat in its impact on cholesterol ratios. |
Mike Adams
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 Finally, under mounting pressure from health advocates and organizations like CSPI and Public Citizen, the FDA gave in and will start requiring food companies to list trans fat content in January, 2006.
Given the overwhelming evidence of the link between trans fats and diseases like cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes — all of which will be discussed in more detail - you might wonder what sort of bizarre justification the FDA could come up with for protecting the food industry by not requiring the listing of trans fats on these nutrition facts labels years ago. |
Steven V. Joyal
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 All food labels are required to state the item's trans fat content per serving, although a value of zero (0) grams per serving can mean the serving contains up to 0.4 grams (manufacturers are not required to reveal any amount less than 0.5 grams per serving). Trans fats are typically found in commercially processed foods that have been prepared under conditions of high heat, such as snack foods (for example, potato chips and roasted nuts), frozen foods (including entrees, snacks, whole dinners, desserts), commercially made cookies and crackers, packaged dinners, and baked goods
? |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| Not only do they clog your arteries with saturated fat and trans fat, they also contain acrylamides. They should be called "cancer fries," not French fries.
Chips / crackers / cookies: These generally contain white flour and sugar as well as trans fats, but it's not enough to simply look for these ingredients on the label; you have to actually "decode" the ingredients list that food manufacturers use to deceive consumers. |
Jack Challem
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| Nearly every product also lists the amount of saturated fat and trans fat in grams. Some products, such as cooking oils, also list the amount of polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats. Currently, however, there is no legal requirement to list interesterified oils
Nutrition
Fa< cts
Serving Size 1 cup (228g)
Servings Per Container 2
Amount Per Serving
Calories 250 Calories from Fat 110
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 12g
18%
Saturated Fat 3g
15%
Trans Fat 1. |
Bottom Line Health
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| Eating establishments are exempt from the new trans fat labeling laws, but fast-food restaurants are among the worst offenders.
Example: A typical apple Danish from a doughnut shop contains approximately 2.7 g of trans fats.. .two vegetable spring rolls from a Chinese restaurant contain 1.7 g...five chicken nuggets and a large order of french fries from a fast-food restaurant contain nearly 4 g and 7 g, respectively.. .a piece of baked apple pie can contain 4.5 g. |
Jack Challem
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| Heating increases the amount of trans fat, sometimes up to 40 percent of the oil. French fries and chicken nuggets are saturated with these awful fats. So are almost all of the bakery products made in supermarkets, nondairy creamers, nondairy whipped creams, and many other products.
Assume that all cooked foods in fast-food and other chain restaurants use large amounts of these unhealthy oils. Any packaged food that lists "partially hydrogenated" vegetable oils also contains trans fats. |
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