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Re-activateZero means zero, right? Well, not on nutrition labels. There it doesn't have to mean none, just very little. I've picked up packages in the grocery store that declare on the front "Zero Trans Fat!" only to see in the ingredient list partially hydrogenated oil, a source of trans fat.
How can a label say "0" if there's something in the product that contains trans fat? Because the U.S. Department of Agriculture lets manufacturers say "0" if a product contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving.
Okay, so that's a seriously small amount, right? No big deal. So, why am I stewing over something so trivial?
Trans fats are in many products—naturally occurring ones in meat and dairy foods, and processed ones in such foods as some cakes, cookies, crackers, fast foods, margarine, potato chips, popcorn, and many commercial baked goods and snacks. You know—all those wonderful comfort foods that we crave. And often have multiple servings of.
I grew up thinking that the ultimate meal consisted of a range of fried foods (using vegetable shortening, because it was "healthier"!), served with sides of ranch dressing and pie for dessert, so I'm quite familiar with the seductive succulence of trans-fat-laden treats. Now when I think of those scrumptious fried dinners, I cringe.
Trans fats have been linked to high LDL (bad) cholesterol and low HDL (good) cholesterol, among other health problems. And heart disease runs strong in my family, so trans fats are definitely on my dietary list of "don'ts." The current USDA nutrition guidelines recommend keeping trans fats as low as possible. But to do that, I need to know what I'm really eating—which is hard to do when zero doesn't really mean zero.
—Erin Gudeux, sensory senior project leader
Read more about how to eat a heart healthy diet and check out the facts about good and bad fats.
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