Read any article on health and diet, and all they talk about is to avoid food containing trans fats. So, what are Trans Fats and which are the foods that contain them? This article will answer all your queries! Trans Fats are basically unsaturated fats. Two distinct types of unsaturated fats appear in the human diet; namely cis and trans. "Trans" refers to the configuration of the molecules, and all fats in our bodies are in the "cis" configuration. These fats are detrimental for the heart as they increase LDL (bad) cholesterol and reduce HDL (good) cholesterol. Apart cardiovascular diseases, these fats increase the risk of other chronic problems like Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, liver dysfunction, infertility in women, and depression.

WHO recommendation clearly states that intake of trans fat should not exceed 1% of the total calories consumed by any individual. The list of trans fat rich foods given below would be an eye-opener for anyone, because we never realize the quantity of this unhealthy fat we are consuming everyday

Food Sources of Trans Fats

Tras fats are predominantly found in processed, ready to eat, and convenience foods. Food items like margarine, crackers, biscuits, cookies, cakes, muffins, pizza, hamburger buns, breads, doughnuts, vegetable shortening, fried snacks, chips, French fries,  candies, microwave popcorn, cake mixes, pancake mixes, etc.

Top 10 Food Containing Trans Fats

1. Spreads:There are many a varieties available in the market in different flavors and colors. These are trans fat rich, on stick margarine contains 2.1g of trans fats, vegetable shortening contains 4.8g per tablespoon, and butter contains 0.3g per table spoon.
2. Packaged foods: Convenience foods, microwavable foods, cake mixes; all these foods that make you life easy are laden with trans fats.
3. Soups: Reconstituted/ canned/ packaged soups contain ingredients that increase their trans fat content.
4. Fried Foods: Most of the fried foods you consume like French fries, nuggets, etc.  are deep fried in partially hydrogenated fats, making them trans fat rich.
5. Frozen Foods: Frozen foods available in the market like frozen pies, pot pies, fish chips, etc. contain trans fat.
6. Baked Products: Baked food items available commercially like doughnuts, biscuits, cakes, buns, muffins, bagels, etc are loaded with trans fats.
7. Chips and Crackers: The crispiness of these products is due to the shortening that is used to make it, even the low fat versions contain trans fats.
8. Breakfast Foods: Be aware when you pick up the breakfast foods in the market, read the label carefully as these are good sources of trans fat.
9. Cookies and Candies: These dessert items contain many ingredients that contain high amounts of trans fat.
10. Toppings and Dips: Whipped cream, non dairy creamers, salad dressings, dips, etc. are high in trans fat levels.

Avoiding trans fats is not the only solution, it is necessary we flush out trans fat from our body too, read out article to learn more about that.

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