The Trans-fat Conspiracy

Originally Posted by Verdugo

yo Pendejo, how much trans fat is in that cheese? cause I had Domino's today. and how'd you find this out? I'm only 18 but I don't wanna start clogging my arteries before I hit 30.

Originally Posted by aacliment

My breakfast consists of yogurt, fruit juice, bran flakes, a high fibre fruit (pineapple or an orange) and the part that i really look forward to is a slice of whole wheat bread with peanut butter and unsweetened strawberry preserves. Sadly, i know that peanut butter is loaded with partially hydrogenated oil and i will have to give that up! I just have not found anything that i will look forward to eating, as much as the peanut butter. I have tried organic peanut butter with out PHO, but its not even close. Any ideas?

Originally Posted by redmarkerdown

The only foods that have trans fat in them are foods that have trans fat on the nutrition panel. Am I correct in saying this?

Originally Posted by Pendejo

Look at the list of ingredients. This is from sixwise.com:

"If you also read ingredient lists, terms to watch out for include anything that says hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated, along with vegetable shortening or margarine, which may also be hydrogenated."

So you won't see "trans fat" in the ingredient list - you need to look for the above terms. Then you also have the chart showing the percentages of the various components. "Trans fat" does by law now have to be listed there, but if there is less than 1/2 gram per serving they are allowed to put 0%, another way to mislead the public.

Originally Posted by redmarkerdown

What if I find a product that proclaims 0g of trans fat yet when I read the ingredients list I cannot find anything of suspect.

Originally Posted by Archibald

LOL!!
i was thinking the same considering most products show 0g trans fat, and i was thinking that they've done the dodgy to say that because the level is below 0.xg of trans fat.
I then saw Clif bars which show 0g on the nutrition list and also states "no trans fat" elsewhere on the label.
makes you wonder whether they're boasting this because they're below that limit or whether they actually do not contain trans fat...
ingredient list appears clear...

Originally Posted by Pendejo

As far as I've been able to determine, Archy, the following is a complete list of ingredient terms that do or could mean trans fats. If the list of ingredients doesn't include any of these, it almost certainly doesn't contain trans-fats (unless the food companies have found another way to sneak them in):

partially hydrogenated, hydrogenated, starch, food starch, vegetable starch, margarine, vegetable ghee

Does anybody else know terms I've missed?

Originally Posted by RickF

You are still wrong about starch, food starch, and vegitable starch. These are complex carbohydrates and have nothing to do with fat or trans-fat. Vegetable ghee is a refined vegetable oil with coloring and flavoring aded, but it is not necessarily hydrogenated, and therefore, not all vegetable ghee is a trans fat. Hydrogenated oil, partially hydrogenated oil, margarine, and shortening contain trans-fats. Hydrogenated (or modified) starches would still be carbohydrates. Taken to the extreme, they would become sugars, but they would never become trans-fat.

Originally Posted by Pendejo

As far as I've been able to determine, Archy, the following is a complete list of ingredient terms that do or could mean trans fats. If the list of ingredients doesn't include any of these, it almost certainly doesn't contain trans-fats (unless the food companies have found another way to sneak them in):

partially hydrogenated, hydrogenated, starch, food starch, vegetable starch, margarine, vegetable ghee

Does anybody else know terms I've missed?