Now the World Health Organization (WHO) has released a step-by-step guide to eliminate industrially produced trans fats worldwide. Why? The fats are terrible for your heart. According to the WHO, trans fats lead to 500,000 heart disease deaths every year. RELATED: How to Make-Over Your Diet to Boost Heart Health Many experts support this recommendation. “Trans fats have no place in our diets, so I’m glad to see they are planning to rid them around the world,” says Tracy Lockwood Beckerman, RD, a resident nutrition expert at Betches Media who’s based in New York City. At the time trans fats were developed — around World War II — they were hailed as a miracle for keeping foods fresher longer, explains the registered dietitian nutritionist Christine M. Palumbo, who is in private practice in Naperville, Illinois. Unfortunately, we know a lot more now about their effects on health. In 2013, the FDA stripped partially hydrogenated oils of their “generally recognized as safe” (or GRAS) status, and moved to restrict their use in food. Trans fats raise “bad” LDL cholesterol, lower heart-protective “good” HDL cholesterol, and can lead to weight gain. According to a meta-analysis published in August 2015 in BMJ, people who consumed higher amounts of trans fats had a 28 percent increase in heart disease risk compared with those who ate less of the dangerous fat. And research published in June 2017 in JAMA Cardiology suggests a ban saves lives. In areas where trans fats were restricted in New York, 6.2 percent fewer people were hospitalized for heart attacks and strokes combined. Although the WHO has made this suggestion, trans fats are still in your food. In the grocery store, you may find trans fats in crackers and baked goods (even when they’re made “in house”), microwave popcorn, stick margarine, coffee creamers, refrigerated ready-to-bake biscuits, and packaged frostings, per the FDA. This is where nutrition labels come in handy. Since 2006, the FDA has required that trans fats be listed on them. But there’s a loophole. If a food has 0.49 grams (g) of trans fat or less per serving, it’s allowed to be listed as “0” g on the label, notes Palumbo. If you’re eating two or three servings, you may be getting as much as 1.5 g of trans fats, she says. “Savvy consumers can get around this by reading the ingredients list,” says Palumbo. If you see “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated” oil, then you know the food contains trans fats. RELATED: 10 Best and Worst Oils for Your Health But it’s more difficult to detect trans fats when you’re eating outside the home. Generally, you’ll find them in fried and battered foods in restaurants, festivals, or fairs, says Palumbo. “These should be once-and-a-while [sic] foods anyway,” she adds. Luckily, some chains, like McDonald’s, have already moved to using trans-fat-free cooking oils, as NPR reported. Keep in mind that the WHO is moving to rid industrially produced sources of trans fats. Some foods naturally contain between 1 to 5 percent of trans fats, says Lockwood, citing the USDA. These include cheese, milk, burgers, chicken fat, turkey meat, bologna, and hot dogs, she says. While the National Institutes of Health notes it’s recommended to get less than 2 g of trans fats per day, dietitians think that you should nix it completely from your diet. “We should try to eliminate it entirely because trans fats have absolutely no redeeming health benefits,” says Lockwood. “There shouldn’t be a suggested intake of any amount of a dietary ingredient that is so closely tied to coronary heart disease and death. Therefore, the lower the better.”
