Trans fats, those nasty food additives that raise your bad cholesterol (LDL) while lowering the good kind (HDL) have been in heath advocates' sights for some time now. Trans fats are a major contributor to increased risk of stroke and heart disease, but the food industry just can't seem to shake them. Why? They're cheap to produce, and last a very, very long time. And they help create the textures and flavors that a lot of consumers say they like.
So, despite recent progress, there's still an awful lot of trans fat lurking in your average grocery store. The Center for Science in the Public Interest examined some of the most popular food products on the market. Click through to find the ten worst trans fat offenders.
Photo: Getty Images
1. Celeste’s Pizza for One
We can’t decide which is sadder: eating pizza "for one," or ingesting 5 grams of trans fat per serving.
Photo: Celeste Pizza
2. Marie Callender’s American Pies
Whether it’s the Lattice Apple Pie (5 grams trans fat per serving), the Chocolate Satin Pie and the Dutch Apple Pie (4 grams a piece), or the Peach Cobbler, Pumpkin Pie and Razzleberry Pie (3.5 grams each), Marie Callender’s is dishing up a whole lot of trans fat in the dessert aisle.
Photo: Marie Callender's
3. Pop Secret
Regardless of whether you get the Butter, Extra Butter, Homestyle, Old Fashioned Kettle Corn or 1 Step Chedder varieties of the popular popcorn, you'll be consuming 5 grams of trans fat in each serving.
Photo: Pop Secret
4. Utz Hulless Puff’n Corn
They may be an East Coast fave, but Utz sure knows how to pack the trans fat into their products. The Cheese flavored Puff’n Corn has 5 grams of trans fat per serving. You'll be cutting your body a slight break by switching to the original variety: it only has 3.5 grams.
Photo: Utz
5. Jolly Time
There’s something about popcorn: Jolly Time joins Utz and Pop Secret in the Trans Fat Hall of Shame. The Blast O Butter and Sassy Salsa varities each have 4 grams of trans fat per serving.
Photo: Jolly Time
6. Pillsbury Grands! Biscuits
That dough boy is adorable! But beware little behatted spokescartoons bearing gifts: they’ll probably contain trans fat. The Grands! Southern Style, Buttermilk, Butter Tastin’, and Reduced Fat Wheat varieties all have 3.5 grams of trans fats per serving.
Photo: General Mills
7. Shore Lunch Creamy Potato Soup Mix
Sure, it may be of “Made From Scratch Quality,” but Shore Lunch’s Creamy Potato Soup Mix is also made with 3.5 grams of trans fat per serving.
Photo: Shore Lunch
8. Aunt Jemima Biscuit Sandwiches
Reach for a Sausage, Egg & Cheese on a Biscuit, and you'll be reaching for 3 grams of trans fat per serving.
Photo: Aunt Jemima
9. Betty Crocker Helper Complete Meals
Looks like Betty will help you to a big serving of trans fat. The Chicken & Buttermilk Biscuits variety has 3 grams of trans fat per serving.
Photo: General Mills
10. Gardetto’s Roasted Garlic Rye Chips
Feel like a snack? Might want to pass on this bag. It's got 3 grams of trans fat per serving.
Processed, processed, processed... People really eat this stuff!?! I don't recognize almost any of those, but I am in Canada, maybe there is less processed food-like substances?
Wendy Parker Schroeder
posted on Feb 2, 2012
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