Johns Hopkins Health Alerts | Nutrition and Weight Control | The Truth About Trans-Fat Free

How can you keep your intake of trans fat to the recommended 2g or less a day? Try these trans fat-free products.

By now you’ve probably heard that trans fat is one of the unhealthiest fats in the American diet. That's because trans fat not only raises low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or "bad") cholesterol but trans fat also lowers the "good" high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. In fact, trans fat is so harmful to your health that the Institute of Medicine says there is no safe level of intake and recommends consuming as little trans fat as possible.

The American Heart Association has put a number on "as little as possible," advising Americans to keep their trans fat intake below 1% of total calories. On a 1,800-calorie-a-day diet, that's less than 2 g of trans fat a day. To make it easier for you to reduce trans fat intake (it’s virtually impossible to consume no trans fat at all), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration now requires food manufacturers to list the amount of trans fat on the Nutrition Facts panel. (The amount is listed beneath the entry for saturated fat.) What's more, food manufacturers have developed trans-fat–free versions of many of our favorite foods.

The Frito-Lay Company, for instance, is cooking Cheetos, Doritos, Sun, and Lays chips in corn and sunflower oils instead of hydrogenated oil to get out the trans fat. Likewise, Kraft has refashioned their reduced-fat Oreo cookies to lose the trans fat and eliminated most of the trans fat from Triscuits, Wheat Thins, Chips Ahoy, Mallomars, Boca products, and Honey Maid low-fat Cinnamon Grahams. The same is true for some Girl Scout cookies, including the ever-popular and delectable Thin Mints.

Kellogg has reduced trans fat in their Pop Tarts and Cheez-It crackers by using soybean oil, which lessens the need for hydrogenated oil, while Gorton's is frying its fish sticks and fillets in healthier oils. Even Crisco shortening now comes in a trans-fat–free formulation.

Unlike food manufacturers, most restaurants and food chains in the United States continue to use hydrogenated fats to fry French fries and other fast foods. If you're looking for chains that are breaking away from trans fat, try Au Bon Pain, Jason's Deli, Panera Bread, California Pizza Kitchen, and Wendy's, to name a few. On the grocery side, you can find trans fat –free foods at Whole Foods stores. In fact, the chain has never sold products with partially hydrogenated oils. Other chains, such as Wegman's, Raley's, and Giant stores, are making gradual changes to healthier fare.

For more Alerts and Special Reports, please visit the Nutrition and Weight Control Topic page.

Johns Hopkins Health Alerts | Nutrition and Weight Control | The Truth About Trans-Fat Free