The Secret the Food Industry Doesn't Want You to Know

Trans fats, those inflammation boosting, heart-disease-promoting nutritional nightmares, are rapidly disappearing from store shelves and restaurant menus as health-minded consumers become increasingly savvy about what's in their food. The poster children for bad nutrition, trans fats are banned from use in restaurants from New York City to the state of California, and food manufacturers are reformulating packaged foods and labeling them "trans-fat free" in response to popular demand. Sounds like a win for consumers, right?

Not so fast, says Sonja Connor, M.S., R.D., L.D., because while food manufacturers have been reducing or removing trans fats from their products, they've replaced them with equally harmful but less vilified saturated fats. "The popular media have de-emphasized the roll of saturated fat and cholesterol as being important in coronary artery disease," saysid Conner, a research associate professor in the School of Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland.

The emphasis in the media and popular culture on the dangers of trans fats has directed attention away from the ill effects of saturated fats, which has allowed food manufacturers to quietly introduce them into formerly trans-fat-filled foods. And while saturated fats get little airtime, "100 years of scientific studies … provide the crucial evidence for implicating dietary saturated fat and cholesterol as the major cause of coronary disease," said Connor in a presentation this week to the Washington State Dietetic Association.

While both types of fat are harmful, Americans eat about five times more saturated fat than trans fat. To manage your fat intake and safeguard your health, get in the habit of reading nutrition labels. The American Heart Association recommends that limiting the amount of saturated fats you eat to less than 7 percent of total daily calories. That means, for example, if you need about 2,000 calories a day, no more than 140 of them should come from saturated fats. That's about 16 grams of saturated fats a day.

In addition, the Food and Drug Administration offers these tips you can use every day to keep your consumption of saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol low while consuming a nutritionally adequate diet:.

• Check the Nutrition Facts panel to compare foods because the serving sizes are generally consistent in similar types of foods. Choose foods lower in saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol. For saturated fat and cholesterol, keep in mind that 5 percent of the Daily Value (%DV) or less is low and 20 percent or more is high. (There is no %DV for trans fat.)

• Choose alternative fats. Replace saturated and trans fats in your diet with monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. These fats do not raise LDL cholesterol levels and have health benefits when eaten in moderation. Sources of monounsaturated fats include olive and canola oils. Sources of polyunsaturated fats include soybean oil, corn oil, sunflower oil and foods like nuts.

• Choose vegetable oils (except coconut and palm kernel oils) and soft margarines (liquid, tub, or spray) more often because the combined amount of saturated fat and trans fat is lower than the amount in solid shortenings, hard margarines, and animal fats, including butter.

• Consider fish. Most fish are lower in saturated fat than meat. Some fish, such as mackerel, sardines and salmon, contain omega-3 fatty acids, which are being studied to determine if they offer protection against heart disease.

• Choose lean meats, such as poultry without the skin and not fried and lean beef and pork, not fried, with visible fat trimmed.

• Ask before you order when eating out. A good tip to remember is to ask which fats are being used in the preparation of your food when eating or ordering out.

• Limit foods high in cholesterol such as liver and other organ meats, egg yolks, and full-fat dairy products, like whole milk.

• Choose foods low in saturated fat such as fat- free or 1 percent dairy products, lean meats, fish, skinless poultry, whole grain foods and fruits and vegetables.