Trans Fats and Low Carb Eating

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Low Carbohydrate Eating Can Help You Avoid Trans Fats

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You’ve probably heard bits and pieces about trans fats and realize that they are thought to contribute to heart disease, weight gain, and other health problems. They are present in most packaged and processed foods and many commercially prepared foods. In this day and age when people are too busy to do their own cooking, the consumption of these foods has risen and so has the risk of disease. A low carb lifestyle by definition avoids these types of foods and, therefore reduces the health risks associated with them.

What Are Trans Fatty Acids?

Trans fatty acids (or trans fats) are produced by hydrogenation - the process of heating an oil and passing hydrogen through it. This process turns liquid oils into solid (margarine, crisco) and extends the shelf life of these foods and foods made with them (such as most processed foods). Unfortunately, these high temperatures also destroy the essential fatty acids and transforms them into trans fats (short for transformed fatty acid). These fats compete with essential fatty acids for absorption in the body and are thought to contribute to coronary heart disease by raising LDL cholesterol levels (bad cholesterol), while lowering the HDL levels( good cholesterol). They increase platelet aggregation, which in turn increases the chance of blood clotting, strokes and heart attacks. They also create free radicals that have been linked to cancer.

How Can Eating Low Carb Help?

Trans fatty acids are contained in almost all packaged foods such as chips, donuts, muffins, cakes, candy, soups, breads, margarine, cheese spreads, and cookies. All these foods are no-no’s on a low carb eating plan so cutting them out of your diet has the added health benefit of reducing your intake of these fats. How do you know if a food has them? Well, the food industry doesn’t make it easy, they rarely put their content on the labels so you will need to figure it out by reading the ingredients. When buying packaged foods beware of the word “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated” in the list of ingredients. These foods will contain trans fatty acids. If you are leading a low carb lifestyle you probably won’t be buying these foods anyway so not to worry! Below is a list of common foods that contain trans fats:

Margarine and shortening - Stick margarine - 2.8 grams per tbsp, tub margarine - 0.6 grams per tbsp, shortening - 4.2 grams per tbsp and butter is your best choice with 0.3 grams per tbsp.

Mixes (cake mixes, pancake mixes, bisquick) all have several grams of per serving.

Even Soups contain high levels.

Frozen Food. - even low fat ones still have them - avoid frozen pies, pot pies, waffles, pizzas - most frozen foods have them but read the labels to be sure. For example, Mrs. Smith’s apple pie has 4 grams per slice but Banquet Chicken pot pie has none.

Baked Goods - Bad news here as commercially baked goods have more trans fatty acids than any other, even cookies and cakes from supermarket bakeries (they use shortening in the frosting!). For example, Cream filled cookes have 1.9 grams, pound cake has 4.3 and donuts weigh in at about 5 grams.

Chips and Crackers are loaded with shortening, a small bag of chips contains 3.2 grams.

Cereal and Energy Bars, even thought they claim to be healthy, these are highly processed products that contain trans fat, although not as much as cookies and chips. For example, Quaker Chewy Low Fat Granola Bars Chocolate Chunk has .5 grams and Kellogg's Cracklin' Oat Bran Cereal has 1.5 grams per 3/4 cup serving.

Candy You guessed it - read the labels.

Dressings and Dips. Dips, gravy mixes, and salad dressings contain lots of trans fat, even Nondairy creamers, flavored coffees and whipped toppings.

Fast Food. The worst! Most fast foods are deep-fried in partially hydrogenated oil. Even the non fried foods like pancakes and grilled sandwiches have some, from being cooked in margarine. Fries ( medium) have 14.5 grams! KFC chicken dinner has 7 grams, Burger King Dutch Apple pie has 2 grams.

Tips To Avoid Trans Fats

If you are on a low carb eating plan, chances are that you already avoid a lot of these acids since you probably eat mostly fresh veggies and meat. Here’s some tips on how to avoid them if you stray into the world of packaged foods.

Find foods that are low in or have no trans fats and substitute them.

Do your own baking and avoid using Crisco or other shortening. For a low carb option, try Atkins Bake Mix It’s a soy based bake mix and does not list any hydrogenated ingredients.

In Restaurants order broiled or baked (not breaded) meats, avoid rolls and desserts.

Use Skim milk or non fat dry milk in coffee

Use oil and vinegar instead of salad dressings.