The Evil That is Trans Fats

There is much eeeeeevil to be found in our food. It's everywhere, so you must remain vigilant.

The Basics
The food industry discovered trans fats, I think, around the 70s. Maybe earlier. Their popularity and pervasiveness were because the substance is cheap to produce and has a very long shelf life. Food products using trans fats have a longer shelf life than their natural counterparts. This is why you'll see this stuff in almost all cookies, crackers, cereals, cake mixes and other pre-packaged goods. Trans fats are also called "partially hydrogenated oils".

How Bad Can They Be?
Trans fats are created by taking a regular oil, such as soybean oil, and inserting a metal into its molecular structure, effectively changing the way it behaves. Food manufacturers love to tout that it's a "vegetable oil" and has no cholesterol. It's how trans fats gained in popularity after society deemed animal fats as bad for your health. However trans fats are no better than animal fats. In fact, in may be worse. Trans fats (such as margarine) stay solid at room temperature just like butter. They also cling to your arteries just like butter. Trans fats causes an imbalance in your cholesterol levels. While it adds no cholesterol of its own, it causes a decrease in your good cholesterol and an increase in your bad cholesterol. Also, because the hydrogenation process changes it at a molecular level, it is no longer food. Your body isn't sure what to do with it, so it just stores it somewhere. Over the long term these toxic stores start to encourage cancer growth. You're better off with lard than you are with this stuff. At least your body can process it properly.

How Do I Choose My Foods?
The food's packaging is your friend. Ignore the labels in the front, go straight to the list of ingredients. If you see "partially hydrogenated oil" anywhere in the list, put it back on the shelf, you don't want it. The reason I say ignore the labels in the front is because they love to print "0 Trans Fats!" on it. However the FDA allows manufacturers to make this claim so long as the percentage of trans fats in the food is under a certain number. If you look at the proclamation in the front, you'll see "per serving" in tiny letters. This is part of the FDA's stipulation. For example, I looked at a container of Promise (or maybe it was I Can't Believe It's Not Butter) and it had the zero trans fats claim in front. Upon inspecting the ingredients list, I saw partially hydrogenated oil listed. Very sneaky. Here's a quick list of foods to watch out for.

How Come This Information Isn't More Common?
The food processing industry is HUGE. Enormous. They feed billions of people and make billions of dollars. They have strong lobbies in Congress. They have the capital to convince the masses that trans fats will save you. Don't believe their hype. Read your ingredients before buying.