Trans Fat - A Big Cause Of Coronary Heart Disease

Is dieting difficult for you? Due to Trans fats, dieting becomes very difficult for most of you. Trans fats can be the killer of all diets.

Trans fat is another name for unsaturated fat with trans isomer fatty acids. They can be monounsaturated or polyunsaturated.

The consumption of these fats can raise the level of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) which again increases the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD).

More than 12.5 million Americans have CHD and more than 500,000 die each year.

You will find the labels on the food products which contain Trans fat, so that you can avoid those foods. Avoiding trans fats will greatly help you in reducing the high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and heart disease.

These fats can be very dangerous to serious dieters as well as people that are not dieting. When you are following a nutritionally adequate diet then the trans fat intake should be as low as possible.

Basically, trans fat is developed when manufacturers add hydrogen to vegetable oil. This process is called as hydrogenation.

Trans fat sources:

• Trans fat can be found in commercial baked foods such as cookies, crackers, and cakes, many fried foods such as doughnuts and French fries, snack foods, vegetable shortenings, and some other foods made by or fried in partially hydrogenated oils.
• Majority of trans fat is made when food manufacturers turn liquid oils into solid fats like shortening and hard margarine.
• A small amount of these fats can also be found naturally and primarily in some animal based foods.
• These fatty acids are also found naturally in small quantities of foods such as beef, pork, lamb, butter, and milk.
• Some dietary supplements like energy and nutrition bars contain trans fat and dieters should avoid these dietary supplements.

Foods that contain trans fat can lead to fast weight gain and is the main cause of obesity in some people.

Effects of consuming trans fat:

• Consuming trans fat can lead to rise in blood levels of LDL, while lowering the levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL), which is the good cholesterol. High levels of LDL can cause increase in fatty plaque in the arteries.
• These fats can also cause clogging of blood in arteries, type II diabetes, cause some serious health problems and may also increase the risk of heart diseases.
• Fat protein particles called lipoproteins and blood fats called triglycerides may also be increased by these fats.

When you are in this diet plan, it is better to avoid snack foods, French fries, fried chicken, doughnuts, cookies and crackers. The percentage of trans fats in French fries is 40 percent, in cookies and crackers it is 30-50 percent, and in doughnuts it is 35-40 percent.

Limit the consumption of restaurant foods, since most restaurants don’t offer the nutrition information about the food they supply.

During the diet plan you should avoid cereals, granola bars, and salad dressing; because though they seem healthy they are processed in hydrogenated oils that lead to weight gain.

So, in order to achieve successful weight loss you need to follow a diet plan that is free from trans fat.