Trans fats?

It's all relative because what matters is the *ratio of "good" cholesterol to "bad" cholesterol in your blood. This *ratio is usually the result of all sources of fat in your diet combined with your own genetic make-up.

Trans fats, commonly found in pastries, shop-bought biscuits and cakes, fried foods. etc, increase your bad cholesterol and decrease your good cholesterol whilst other types of fat are now thought to be protective.

The American Heart Association advises you "limit the amount of trans fats to less than 1 percent of your total daily calories. That means if you need about 2,000 calories a day, less than 20 calories (or 2 grams) should come from trans fats." In the UK, Public Health doctors have called on the government to ban trans fats altogether from our British diet.