The Hidden Killer
by MensHealth

Twist the top cookie to the right, the bottom to the left, and pull apart. Now, before you scrape that sweet cream filling into your mouth with your top teeth as you've done hundreds of times since you were 5, take a good look at some very bad fat.

It's called trans fat, and chances are you've never heard of it because until a few months ago, companies weren't required to list it on their labels. Trans fat is simply vegetable oil infused with hydrogen. It's used in thousands of common prepared foods, from frozen waffles to Oreo cookies, french fries to bran muffins. Vegetable oil seems innocent enough, until you learn that the hydrogenation process turns it into one evil fat. It's a fat that's difficult to digest, so it increases the amount of bad cholesterol in your blood and can dramatically boost your risk of heart disease. If saturated animal fats are unhealthy, trans fats are far worse. They can weaken your immune system. They can cause diabetes. You're almost better off eating butter and bacon.

Harvard scientists estimate that trans fats may contribute to more than 30,000 premature deaths each year. So why did it take so long for the FDA to change its regulations and force companies to reveal the amount of trans fats in their products? In a word: fear.

The food and edible-oil industries are worried that if we ever find out exactly how many killer fats are actually in some foods, we'll stop buying them?costing their companies millions, and possibly billions, of dollars each year.

TRANS FAT 101

The trans fat story begins in the 1950s, when scientists first made the link between saturated fat, cholesterol, and heart disease. After the discovery, manufacturers scrambled to find a way to cut saturated fats. Their immediate solution: a decades-old process called partial hydrogenation. Vegetable oils are combined with hydrogen and heated to extreme temperatures. As the molecules in the oil warm up, they bond with the hydrogen, creating a new, manmade structure called a trans fatty acid. The result is the transformation of liquid to solid-vegetable oil into Crisco.

Suddenly, hydrogenated oil was an out-of-the-box hit. Restaurants liked it because they could fill their fry vats with the stuff and keep it hot all day without smoking up their kitchens. Hydrogenated fats were also cheaper than butter and had a longer shelf life--so burger shops could not only use the same oil over and over in their fryers, but also buy the stuff in bulk, leaving it on a shelf in the back without worrying about spoilage.

If hydrogenated oils were a home run for the fast-food industry, they were a grand slam for the burgeoning junk-food industry. Trans fats made potato chips and crackers crispier than ever and gave manufacturers a way to add the great taste of fat to places it had never been before--like Oreo cookie filling.

While normal vegetable oils would have slowly leaked out of mass-produced cookies and chips, leaving a greasy mess behind, trans fats were different. Since trans fat molecules turn solid at room temperature, manufacturers were now able to lock fat into their food, giving it an injection of fat--and flavor--that couldn't be dabbed away.

Combine this with the longer shelf life of foods made with hydrogenated oil rather than butter, and it's no wonder trans fats are considered one of the triggers that helped the junk-food market explode. Today, the FDA estimates that most supermarkets carry more than 42,000 products containing partially hydrogenated vegetable oil as one of their primary ingredients.

But all that fat has a price.

ANATOMY OF A KILLER

Since trans fats don't occur widely in nature, your body has a much harder time processing them than it does other types of fat. So, while you may stop thinking about your morning doughnut the second you shake the crumbs off your tie, the trans fats in that doughnut linger on inside your body. Their first target? Your heart.

"Besides increasing the number of LDL [bad] cholesterol and triglyceride particles in the bloodstream, trans fats also lower your HDL [good] cholesterol," says Bruce Holub, Ph.D., a professor of nutrition at the University of Guelph in Canada. "Trans fats also increase blood levels of a compound called lipoprotein a.

The more of this lipoprotein you have in your system, the greater your risk of developing heart disease," he says.

In an 80,000-person study, Harvard researchers found that getting just 3 percent of your daily calories from trans fats increases your risk of heart disease by up to 50 percent. To put that in perspective, 3 percent of your day's calories totals about 7 grams (g) of trans fats--that's roughly the amount in a single order of fries. Don't eat french fries? You're still at risk. Even healthy Americans, researchers estimate, eat between 3 and 10 g of trans fats a day.

The damage doesn't stop with your heart, either. A diet high in trans fatty acids is also a major risk factor for diabetes. And it's no bit player: When Harvard researchers reviewed all the previously published data on trans fats, they found that men and women with the highest daily intakes of trans fats were also the most likely to develop diabetes.

Combine these disturbing studies with reports that trans fats may actually promote muscle loss and could even increase your risk of cancer, and it's no wonder the Institute of Medicine recently took a radical step, recommending that all Americans drastically reduce their intake of foods made with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. A consensus: Trans fats are so unhealthy that there is no safe upper limit of consumption.

Naturally, food manufacturers using trans fats in their products were less than thrilled with the decision.

WHAT THE FOOD INDUSTRY DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW

The Center for Science in the Public Interest--a consumer-advocacy group--first began petitioning the FDA to add trans fats to food labels way back in 1993. After years of back-and-forth discussion between the two groups, they nearly reached agreement in 1999.

But as soon as the FDA announced its prospective change, groups like the Grocery Manufacturers of America--the world's largest food-and-beverage association--kicked into overdrive. Desperate to protect its members, the group began submitting alternate proposals to the FDA, thereby hampering efforts to pass the regulation.

After the Institute of Medicine's condemnation of trans fats earlier this year, the FDA stepped up regulation efforts again. Before the ink was even dry on a new proposal, manufacturers were up in arms again, claiming that new regulations may frighten consumers.

Finally, after months of debate, the FDA gave in, passing a regulation in July of this year that forces companies to list trans fats as a separate entry on food labels. But companies are free to phase in the change, meaning you won't see trans fats listed on all ingredient labels for many years.

THE TRANS FAT YOU NEED

With all the evidence against trans fats, there's now data showing that at least one distant member of the trans fat family may actually be good for you. The compound in question?conjugated linoleic acid (CLA)?is a naturally occurring fat found primarily in beef and dairy products like milk, yogurt, and cheese.

Consider it the white sheep of the black-hearted trans fat family. CLA has no relation to partially hydrogenated oils, but the structure of the molecules in CLA is similar enough to that of trans fats that scientists place them both in the same category.

Although research is in its earliest stages, a number of promising studies suggest that CLA may help people lose weight, as well as help fight off cancer, diabetes, and heart disease--the very diseases brought about by the bad hydrogenated trans fats.

"If we're not careful, it's possible that CLA could get lumped in with all the other trans fats on food labels," says CLA expert Martha Belury, Ph.D., R.D., a professor of nutrition at Ohio State University. "If this happens, people who try to cut all the trans fats out of their diets could end up avoiding some very important and beneficial foods," she says.

WHAT YOU CAN DO . . .

Until all companies start listing trans fats on their labels, here are some things you can do on your own to keep these fats out of the foods you eat.

. . . At the grocery store

Check the ingredient list for the words "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated." The higher these ingredients are on the label, the more trans fats the food likely contains--with some exceptions, of course. Peanut butter, for example, can contain trace amounts of hydrogenated oil. But there's not enough trans fat to have a negative effect.

Decode the food label. Three Oreo cookies contain 7 g of fat. Of that fat, 1.5 g is saturated, 0.5 g is polyunsaturated, and 3 g is monounsaturated. Add these fats together, subtract 5 from 7, and you can estimate that each serving contains 2 g of trans fats.

Buy margarines that are free of trans fats, like Smart Balance Light. (Some cholesterol-lowering spreads still contain trans fats, so be careful.) Or opt for squeeze margarine, which has less trans fat than the stick variety.

Watch out for misleading labels. Products that are cholesterol-free, low-cholesterol, free of saturated fat, or vegetarian can still contain trans fats. But if a label says a food is fat-free, it's also trans fat-free.

Buy natural or organic brands. They're less processed and more likely to be trans fat-free.

. . . At home

Use milk instead of nondairy creamer in your morning coffee. Two cups of coffee could add more than a gram of trans fat to your diet.

Spread jelly instead of margarine on toast.

Pick high-protein breakfasts like eggs or Canadian bacon instead of waffles. If you want carbs, go for fat-free cereal.

Make a wrap with a tortilla or stuff a pita with lunchmeat instead of using bread.

Flavor vegetables with olive or sesame oil, or butter-flavored spray instead of margarine.

Coat pans with nonstick spray instead of using margarine.

Snack on baked chips or chips fried in olive oil instead of vegetable shortening. (Check the ingredient list to be sure.)

Mix it up. Biscuits, cakes, and cookies made from a mix have fewer trans fats than their refrigerated or store-bought counterparts.

. . . At a restaurant

Ask what kind of oil the chef uses. You want to hear olive oil?not shortening.

Order foods that are baked, broiled, or grilled?not fried.

Skip the mayo when ordering a sandwich or burger. Pick mustard or ketchup instead.

Blot oil from fries as quickly as possible. Either spread the fries over a napkin or dump them into the bag your order came in and shake it around to absorb the excess grease.

Avoid breads, which may be filled with trans fats. Pick a baked potato instead of a biscuit, or soup or salad instead of a roll.

For dessert, choose ice cream, frozen yogurt, or sorbet over cakes, cookies, or pie. Or pick angel food or sponge cake. Both are usually made with egg whites, flour, and sugar, and contain very little fat.