TRANS FAT FREE DOESN'T MEAN HEART HEALTHY

In a recent large-scale study at the Harvard School of Public Health, women who consumed the most trans fat were found to be one-third more likely to develop heart disease than those who ate the least. But with all the buzz about trans fats, it seems we have almost forgotten about the saturated kind.

In an effort to label foods trans-fat-free, many manufacturers are replacing partially hydrogenated oils (which is trans fat) with saturated fat-loaded coconut and palm oils, or even butter, which are just as bad for you. After eating a meal that is high in saturated fat, your arteries may have a harder time expanding to increase blood flow (they become more rigid), while your "good" cholesterol may become less effective at removing plaque-causing substances from the arteries. This info was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiologists earlier this year.

So while trans fats lower good cholesterol and raise bad cholesterol, the saturated fats bump up your bad cholesterol. This applies just as much to children as adults.

To maintain healthy cholesterol levels, you should get less than 10% of your daily calories from saturated fat (that’s about 20 grams for 2000 cals). Here are a few steps to help do this:

• Switch from full-fat to low-fat or fat-free dairy products (yogurt, milk, cheese).
• Switch from 2% milk to 1% or skim milk (Skim is fat-free).
• Switch from butter or stick margarine to a liquid or tub margarine and use spray butters when possible.
• Eat fish and poultry for one-half your meals, vegetarian (beans and nuts as protein) for one-third of your meals, and lean cuts of beef and pork for the remainder. So if there is a combined total of 14 lunches and dinners in a week, this means 7 of these should come from fish, chicken and turkey, 5 from vegetarian, and 2 from beef and pork. Try buffalo meat instead of beef. It is as lean as chicken.
• Breakfasts should be high in fiber either from milk/fruit smoothies or grains with at least 5 grams of fiber/serving.
• Limit egg yolks to no more than 3/week. Try egg white omelets with added potato chunks, vegetables, onions, etc for meals other than just breakfast.
• Avoid foods that list coconut oil, palm oil or butter in the top 5 ingredients.
• Check the food label for the saturated fat grams. No one single food should contain more than 5 grams saturated fat/ serving. Is the serving on the box the same as your serving will be? If not, make the adjustment in your head.