There's good fat, there's bad fat and there's truly horrible, heinous, reprehensible fat _ the Voldemort of the fat world, a fat so hideous and evil that it's despised by nutritionists and cardiologists the world over.

It once was thought that all fat was bad, which turned out to be wrong. Unsaturated fat, like the kind found in canola, soy, peanut and other vegetable oils, can actually keep you healthier, make your heart happier and might even help you lose some weight.

Saturated fat, on the other hand, increases low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, which is your bad cholesterol, thus increasing your risk of heart disease.

But trans fat _ shudder! _ is beyond bad. It's so bad, in fact, that it earned the label "metabolic poison" from Harvard School of Public Health professor Walter Willett.

Not satisfied with merely increasing your bad cholesterol, trans fat (short for "trans fatty acids") manages to lower your good cholesterol, too. It occurs naturally in low levels in milk and beef, but most of the trans fat in the American diet comes from 45,000 food products, everything from cookies to fries to Twinkies.

This is mass-murdering fat: Willett and his colleagues estimated that replacing partially hydrogenated fat in the U.S. diet with natural vegetable oils would prevent as many as 100,000 deaths annually, which averages out to 274 a day.

"The only safe intake of trans fat," a National Academy of Sciences panel concluded, "is zero."

Trans fat is created when oils are partially hydrogenated, a century-old process that uses hydrogen to turn perfectly lovely vegetable oils into solids, which improves shelf life by allowing them to stay harder longer. Unfortunately, it has the same effect on arteries.

Studies have found a 40 percent increased risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women with higher levels of trans fatty acids in their systems. The risk of breast cancer is 3 1/2 times greater among women with high intakes of trans fatty acids and low intakes of polyunsaturated fats.

The heinous nature of trans fat has been known for years. In 1994, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit consumer watchdog group, asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to require trans fat to be listed on nutrition labels and claims.

Last month, the policy kicked in. The FDA has estimated that three years from now, the food labels alone could prevent 600 to 1,200 cases of heart disease and as many as 500 deaths annually. Food companies have known about the new rule for three years, during which time many of them have reformulated their cookies, crackers, cake mixes, margarine and microwave popcorn, among other things, to eliminate most, if not all, trans fat.

But here's the rub: Even foods labeled trans fat-free may contain the dreaded substance because the FDA mandates that food containing a half-gram of trans fat or less per serving be labeled "zero trans fat."

Look for partially hydrogenated on the ingredient label; that's where the trans fat might lurk, even if the nutrition label says zero. Products made before 2006 might still have the old, non-trans fat labels, so check the ingredients on those, too.

"If the trans fat line on nutrition-facts labels is anything but zero, shop for alternatives," CSPI nutrition director Bonnie Liebman says. "But steer clear of foods with more than a gram or two of saturated fat, which is also bad for your heart."

Recently, CSPI asked the FDA to take action to keep food companies from claiming "0 grams trans fat" on foods high in saturated fat, saying that such labels will mislead consumers by making them think the product is heart-healthy.

And there's more stealth trans fat out there. Restaurants aren't required to reveal the use of trans fat in their food, and there can be a lot of it. Fast-food fries, for example, are the quintessential trans trap: A large serving from McDonald's contains 8 grams.

"People just don't know that restaurants use partially hydrogenated oils much of the time," says Stephen Joseph, a California lawyer who turned a cookie into a campaign.

In 2003, Joseph sued Kraft on behalf of the state's children for selling them Oreos, which were stuffed with creamy trans fat. The reaction: swift, overwhelming and split along gender lines.

"Mothers just got it," Joseph says. "Men just didn't. They thought they wouldn't be allowed to eat cookies."

Now everyone gets it. Kraft caved, the lawsuit was dropped and the food giant began reformulating its vast array of crackers and cookies. Two years later, more than 80 percent of the public knows what trans fat is and what it can do, and Kraft has seen double-digit growth in Triscuit sales since they took the trans out.

Joseph's group (www.bantransfats.com) also sued McDonald's for inadequately notifying the public that it had reneged on its plan to use cooking oil with less trans fat. McDonald's continues to try to come up with a suitable replacement; meanwhile, as part of the settlement, the fast-food chain donated $7 million to the American Heart Association for public education about trans fat.

"I think McDonald's is great, as long as they're making improvement," Joseph says. "I don't want to see a no-McDonald's landscape. I just want to see trans fat out."

Denmark has banned trans fat, and Canada has moved in that direction. And Ruby Tuesday replaced partially hydrogenated oil with healthful canola oil in its 700 restaurants in 2004.

Last August, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene asked city restaurateurs and food suppliers to voluntarily stop using partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

Taking out trans fats can get tricky. Kraft took the trans fat out of its Oreo variations quickly, but it labored several years over the reformulation of its best-selling regular cookie.

"The classic Oreo was unique in the sense that there's only one Oreo," Joseph says. "You can't mess with it. It's not just a matter of creating a product as good. It has to taste identical."

How did they do? An informal taste test concluded that Kraft had indeed retained the inherent Oreosity of its cookie in its trans fat-free version. Now, if McDonald's could just do something about those fries . . .

 

 

(Contact Lisa Ryckman of the Rocky Mountain News at www.rockymountainnews.com.)