Monday, August 20, 2007

How much trans fat are you eating without realizing it?

Are there hidden trans fats in the snacks and other foods you're munching on?

Maybe, maybe not.

Federal regulations allow food labels to say there's zero grams of trans fat as long as there's less than half a gram per serving. And many packages contain more than what's considered one serving.


"The problem is that often people eat a lot more than one serving," said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian of Harvard School of Public Health. "In fact, many people eat two to three servings at a time."

Those small amounts of trans fat can add up, said Michael Jacobson of the consumer advocacy Center for Science in the Public Interest. To find out if there might be some trans fat, he said shoppers can check the list of ingredients to see if partially hydrogenated oil -- the primary source of trans fat -- is included.


Read more here.

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