One of the first steps to real / effective weight loss, is managing and watching what you eat. With this in mind, you need to understand the different types of food that you ingest, and how they may impact your weight loss efforts. Today we focus on trans fats.

Trans fats are manufactured fats. How / why? Manufacturers change natural fat to trans fats in order to prolong the shelf life of bread, milk substitutes and desserts. A tiny amount exists in nature, but the problem dosage comes from food that is produced in factories.

The 411:

Source – manufactured food, especially baked goods. Imitation dairy products, hard margarines and some cheeses in particular. Also note, trans fats make shortening harder.

Benefits – none really .. so stay away from them

Caution – read food labels carefully to see which products contain trans fats. The U.S. Government now requires that trans fats used be listed on product labels.

Danger – Trans fats are associated with increased bad cholesterol, and can float around in your system – getting in the way of nutrients. Additionally, the residue can be solid at body temperature, thus it’s like wax floating around in your blood stream.

The bottom line is that you should avoid trans fats – eat as little products as possible that contain trans fats.