How to Remove Trans Fats From a Breakfast

Trans fats, also called trans fatty acids, increase "bad" cholesterol (LDL) in humans. As a result, eating trans fats can increase your risk for heart disease. If you're trying to eliminate or decrease the amount of trans fats in your diet, here are some tips to start with the most important meal of the day, breakfast.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Start reading food labels when grocery shopping. Food manufacturers state in the ingredients label whether partially hydrogenated vegetable oil or shortening is in a product.

2. Look at the nutrition information on the box. The FDA now requires food manufacturers to indicate how many grams of trans fat a serving of the food contains. If a food contains trans fat, you should stop eating it (or eat less of it).

3. Look at the foods in your refrigerator, freezer or pantry that you usually eat for breakfast.

4. Start to eliminate or at least decrease the foods in your house that contain trans fat. By reading food labels when you grocery shop, you'll soon get a feel for the types of breakfast foods that contain them. Some cereals may contain trans fat, but convenience foods like frozen breakfast foods, toaster pastries and breakfast bars are the big ones that tend to contain trans fats.

5. Keep healthy breakfast foods in the house that are trans fat free. Some of these might include fresh fruit, cereal, eggs, trail mix or homemade muffins.

6. Decrease your consumption of trans fats. It requires diligence even to reduce trans fat consumption since so many foods contain them. But you can even eliminate trans fat from your diet if you work hard at strictly avoiding foods that use partially hydrogenated oil. It does take a few extra minutes in the supermarket and a bit more home cooking, but in the end it's worth it for the health benefits to you and your family.

Tips & Warnings

• The FDA allows food manufacturers to state that there are 0 grams of trans fat in foods with .5 grams or less per serving. As a result, you always want to read the ingredients to see if the food contains partially hydrogenated oils or shortening.
• Since the government responded to consumer advocates and has required manufacturers to list trans fat on nutrition labels, at least some food manufacturers have moved to decrease or eliminate trans fats from their products. Still, however, the only way to monitor your consumption of trans fats is to read food labels.
• Remember, too, that grabbing that donut on the way to work from the local coffee shop can sabotage all your efforts to avoid trans fats. If you're really serious about avoiding trans fats, seek nutritional information online from any fast food restaurants you may frequent.

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