Trans fat and You

You know trans fat is really bad for you, so you only buy packages that have 0g of trans fat in it.  You're safe right?  In most of the world, yes, but sadly not in the United States of America.  In the United States, Trans fat can be listed as 0 grams, as long as there is less than half a gram present per serving.  In our cake mix to the right, there are 12 servings.  Therefore, there could be up to 5.99 grams of trans fat in the mix.  The tip off is in the ingredients list.   The last ingredient in the picture shows Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and/or Cottonseed Oil.  Anytime you see partially hydrogenated blank Oil, you are looking at trans fat.

I know some of you are going to jump on the "everything is bad for you, so what does it matter" bandwagon.  Yes there are a lot of unavoidable things in life that are bad for you, and you can't avoid everything, but you might want to make an exception for trans fat.  According to the National Academy of Sciences, trans fat increases bad cholesterol and lowers good cholesterol while providing no known benefits.  What that means is that trans fat increases your risk of coronary heart disease more than anything else you can eat.  Furthermore a study running for 14 years following 120,000 people found that for each additional 2% of your calories that come from trans fat you double your risk of coronary heart disease.  That's not good at all, since if you live in a civilized part of the world, coronary heart disease will most likely kill you.

As if that was not bad enough studies have also linked trans fat to promoting the development of Alzheimer's Disease and infertility in women.  Both of those are pretty bad as well.  There hasn't been enough evidence to prove it conclusively yet, but I wouldn't want to risk either of those conditions.

I don't want anyone to think I'm picking on Betty Crocker, I found trans fat in every cake mix I saw at the store.  Let me know if you encounter one without it.