DID YOU KNOW THEY CAN HIDE THIS FROM U?

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  • alyssamiller77
    alyssamiller77 Posts: 891 Member
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    OK so that I understand this, we're talking about products that have less than .5g of Trans Fat and freaking out that we may not know about that fraction of a gram? Really? You folks do know that meats (especially red meats) have natural trans fats in them correct?
  • Acg67
    Acg67 Posts: 12,142 Member
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    I was watching a little snippet from Comcast about Trans Fat etc... we all know Trans fat is bad. MFP doesn't even allow us 1 gram.... but did you know even though companies have to label if their product contains trans fat under a certain percentage, about half... they can still list it as 0g Trans Fat... Look in the INGREDIENTS for Partially hydroginated, Hydroginated and Shortening... <-- thats trans fat!!

    Now do you consider naturally occurring trans fat and synthetic trans fat equally as bad?

    Trans fats do not occur in nature. They are 100% a result of food processing and should be avoided as much as possible. You may be confusing trans fat with Saturated fat, which does occur in nature and is not necessarily the "evil' that people think it is.

    CLA and TVA, which are trans fatty acids
  • Jorra
    Jorra Posts: 3,338 Member
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    Acg is never confused about his fats.
  • _GlaDOS_
    _GlaDOS_ Posts: 1,520 Member
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    OK so that I understand this, we're talking about products that have less than .5g of Trans Fat and freaking out that we may not know about that fraction of a gram? Really? You folks do know that meats (especially red meats) have natural trans fats in them correct?

    Correct, but if I'm not mistaken, the trans fatty acids in meat are also considered cis-fatty acids.

    And if you think about the amount of processed foods that contain partially-hydrogenated oils in them, and the amount we consume, it's not just 0.5g of trans fatty acids in the 2 oreo cookies one consumed, it's most of the other processed and pre-packaged foods one may have decided to eat that day. I'm personally not as concerned since I tend to avoid foods with trans fat (for other reasons) anyway, but the regulations and labeling over food in the US is pretty terrible. It's at least our right to know what is in our food, and it's not really known by a lot of people what specific ingredients are made from in most of our processed foods here. I worry more about the regulation, lobbying, and politics.
  • Mindful_Trent
    Mindful_Trent Posts: 3,954 Member
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    I was watching a little snippet from Comcast about Trans Fat etc... we all know Trans fat is bad. MFP doesn't even allow us 1 gram.... but did you know even though companies have to label if their product contains trans fat under a certain percentage, about half... they can still list it as 0g Trans Fat... Look in the INGREDIENTS for Partially hydroginated, Hydroginated and Shortening... <-- thats trans fat!!

    Now do you consider naturally occurring trans fat and synthetic trans fat equally as bad?

    Trans fats do not occur in nature. They are 100% a result of food processing and should be avoided as much as possible. You may be confusing trans fat with Saturated fat, which does occur in nature and is not necessarily the "evil' that people think it is.

    CLA and TVA, which are trans fatty acids

    I deleted my post because I realized the initial source I was looking at was incorrect - my apologizes. You were too quick to respond. :laugh:
  • Trechechus
    Trechechus Posts: 2,819 Member
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    Or look at the fat % in the nutrition facts. They have to break it down into Saturated, Poly and Mono unsaturated. Subtract those from the total fat. Anything left is trans fat.
  • Jorra
    Jorra Posts: 3,338 Member
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    Or look at the fat % in the nutrition facts. They have to break it down into Saturated, Poly and Mono unsaturated. Subtract those from the total fat. Anything left is trans fat.

    Poly and Mono isn't always listed, but if they are, that may work as long as there isn't rounding issues.
  • rml_16
    rml_16 Posts: 16,414 Member
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    OK so that I understand this, we're talking about products that have less than .5g of Trans Fat and freaking out that we may not know about that fraction of a gram? Really? You folks do know that meats (especially red meats) have natural trans fats in them correct?

    Correct, but if I'm not mistaken, the trans fatty acids in meat are also considered cis-fatty acids.

    And if you think about the amount of processed foods that contain partially-hydrogenated oils in them, and the amount we consume, it's not just 0.5g of trans fatty acids in the 2 oreo cookies one consumed, it's most of the other processed and pre-packaged foods one may have decided to eat that day. I'm personally not as concerned since I tend to avoid foods with trans fat (for other reasons) anyway, but the regulations and labeling over food in the US is pretty terrible. It's at least our right to know what is in our food, and it's not really known by a lot of people what specific ingredients are made from in most of our processed foods here. I worry more about the regulation, lobbying, and politics.

    When I'm talking trans fats, I'm talking the man-made fats (and as a vegetarian, what's in meat doesn't really matter to me). Everything I've read has said even less than .5 grams of it is really bad. I just read labels. If I see "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated" oil listed, I don't eat it.

    This is actually great for dieting. Keeps me away from Little Debbies, doughnuts, everything in the Publix bakery (and a few others) and a LOT of other junk food. Also keeps me from being tempted to do something like Slim Fast because it's even in that!
  • ahamm002
    ahamm002 Posts: 1,690 Member
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    OK so that I understand this, we're talking about products that have less than .5g of Trans Fat and freaking out that we may not know about that fraction of a gram? Really? You folks do know that meats (especially red meats) have natural trans fats in them correct?

    Remember that the "serving size" is actually not representative of what you'll be eating. As already pointed out, most people have more than two cookies. So you'll be getting a lot more than 0.5g of trans fat.

    It's better to just altogether avoid food that has any hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils listed in the ingredients. They've been shown in large studies to be terrible for us even in not very large quantities. Furthermore they're also a sign that the food is heavily processed and probably relatively low in nutrients anyway. So just avoid the stuff.
  • ahamm002
    ahamm002 Posts: 1,690 Member
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    CLA and TVA, which are trans fatty acids

    That's misleading for two reasons.

    1. CLA is a combination cis and trans fatty acid. So it's not comparable to other trans fatty acids.
    2. Yes TVA is a naturally occuring trans fatty acid. However, because it's naturally occuring, your body knows who to process it. TVA is efficently converted by your body into rumenic acid, which is thought to be good for you.

    The partially hydrogenated oils that are added to foods are bacially good tasting preservatives, and do not occure in nature. I do not believe that they are not processed the same way naturally occuring TVA is. Regardless, we already have good data showing that replacing only a small amount of your dietary calories with non-naturally occuring partially hydrogenated oils increases the risk of stroke and heart dz (Nurses health study in 2004). So just avoid the stuff.

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