One day I had a little time so I looked it up on the internet. I discovered hydrogenated oils and partially hydrogenated oils (a.k.a. Trans fats) are fats that are artificially produced not to melt at room temperatures. They help to preserve foods – that’s why they are so popular with food companies. Trans fat increases bad cholesterol and may also increase the risk of coronary heart disease.

Trans fat is treated by the body like every other fat and used to coat the cell wall. This causes your cell walls to harden and become resistant to nutrient intake. A situation that exists for up to seven years after the consumption of the offending trans fat – that’s why you don’t need to eat it. Now remember when your cells can’t absorb nutrients you tend to eat more food to get the nutrients your body needs.

The fact is that absolutely no amount of artery clogging Tran’s fat is good for you – so don’t eat it. And please don’t feed it to your children.

Tran’s fat is the sweet greasy Oreo middle of the regular Oreo cookie. The Oreo cookies in the green packaging and the Golden Oreos don’t have Tran’s fats. However, almost all processed foods including frozen foods, cool whip, cake mixes, cookies and snacks have it as an ingredient. The same is true for most peanut butters (natural peanut butters you have to stir don’t have it).

Why am I bringing this up now, because it is the holidays and everyone will be sharing food. Year before last my daughter and I were avoiding Trans fats so we decided to do our own baking. Several recipes called for shortening so we bought a big can of Crisco. Fortunately, I noticed that the kitchen was hot but that can of shortening was still solid. We know that natural fats get soft at room temperatures so we dropped it in the trash. Last year we spent Thanksgiving at my mother in law’s house. Margarine (pure trans fat) was a main staple at breakfast and I truly enjoyed the banana pudding, made with cool whip and vanilla wafers that all contained trans fat.

I ate all these foods without saying anything then. Later I try to educate one or two sentences at I time. You know margarine contains trans fat and that’s very bad for you. You should try to avoid it, butter is better and it is. So please eat the butter (all natural organic if possible).

Remember, Trans fat may kill you and me but it also increases a product’s shelf life – so it is in a lot of products. To avoid it you will have to read labels and read them closely, because, some companies knowingly state they have zero grams of Trans fat when, what they mean is they have Trans fat, but you have to eat two or more servings to get a gram. So here’s the question how much Trans fat is good for you? None. And that is absolute – no question about it.

So take charge and do what you have to do, read the labels and don’t eat the Trans fat.