Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Minimise trans fat intake

A diet devoid of saturated fat and trans fat will benefit your heart

We all know that excess intake of saturated fat and dietary cholesterol raises low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad" cholesterol levels and increases the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). But new research suggests that we should limit our intake of trans fat too for the same reason.

What is trans fat?

Trans fat is basically hydrogenated vegetable oil — Dalda or vanaspati to you and me. It increases the shelf life of biscuits, candy, baked foods, fried snacks and other foods and it is as bad an artery-clogger as saturated fat. At least saturated fat comes with a recommended minimum daily intake value (around five per cent of total calories), but trans fat has no such recommended intake value because it has no legitimate place in a healthful diet.

However, it is very difficult to eliminate it from the diet because small amounts of naturally-occurring trans fats exist even in dairy products and meat. So how can one minimise intake of trans fats?

To begin with, minimise your consumption of fried snacks, biscuits and candy. Even packaged noodles, pasta, soup mixes, certain vermicelli products and ready-to-eat meals have a lot of trans fat.

Watch out for hidden trans fats: if a packaged food lists fat as one of its ingredients, chances are it is rich in trans fats. Eliminate all food items that list "hydrogenated vegetable oil" as an ingredient. However, don't be fooled by labels that mention only saturated fat and polyunsaturated fat. Even in the West, food manufacturers have a year before they are actually required by law to list trans fat quantities in their foods. Replace saturated fat and trans fat with mono and polyunsaturated fats. Canola oil and olive oil are a good source of mono-unsaturated fatty acids. And sunflower, safflower, corn, rice bran and soybean oils are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids.

RAJIV M.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail