Fast Food Items Highest In Trans Fat

The absolute worst ingredient your food could contain is trans fat. Maybe you've heard of it?

If not, here's a quick run down of some of the horrible things that studies have shown may be caused by a diet high in trans fat:

 

 

Like I said, it's the worst ingredient your food could contain. And, guess what? Fast food is pretty much the most common place you'll find this evil type of fat. Fast food is also the place you'll find the highest amounts of it.

 

How much trans fat are we supposed to eat per day?

The American Heart Association recommends a maximum of no more than 2 grams of trans fat per day. Not per meal or per food, but per day total. And, get this. They also say that there is enough naturally occurring trans fats in some meat and dairy products that most people already reach this maximum 2 grams without the additional consumption of the industrially manufactured trans fats contained in the foods on the above list. So, to sum up, if you care at all about your health and enjoy being alive, you should be eating 0 grams of trans fat per day.

 

So does this mean we should never eat fast food ever?

In a perfect world, pretty much. I mean, you know it's junk. Besides trans fat, there's the always fun stuff like saturated fat, calories, and sodium to also think about. It really is the type of food that should never be eaten... ever. Sure, there are some better choices you can be making at these types of restaurants. And, if you're going to eat this stuff, you should definitely be making those choices.

 

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Restaurant and Food Service Industry

The Task Force noted that data from federal and provincial surveys suggest that 22% of the average trans fat intake of Canadian adults (and as much as 31% in the case of males aged 19 to 30 years) is provided by foods consumed away from home, often in fast food restaurants and other food service environments.

 

Accordingly, the Task Force felt it was important to address the question of trans fats found in foods in the restaurant and food service sector.

 

 

 

The challenge for the Task Force was to identify mechanisms that could encourage the move away from trans fats in this sector of the food industry. The Task Force considered regulated nutrition labelling and claims, which are useful in the prepackaged sector of the food industry but not as well suited to foods provided by restaurants and other food service operations. Labelling is difficult in this sector because the food is generally not packaged, menus and menu boards offer limited space for nutrition information, food is often customized to order, and preparation is not always standardized. For example, the trans fat content of a large serving of french fries can vary from 0.3 grams to 8 grams, depending on the outlet and the oil used for frying.

 

Nevertheless, voluntary guidelines for providing nutrition information to consumers have been recently developed by the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association. More than 25 major restaurant chains, representing about 38% of all chain establishments, have committed to participating in the Association's Nutrition Information Program and to providing information on the nutrient content of their products through pamphlets, tray liners and websites. When fully implemented, this initiative will enable consumers who obtain the information to reduce their intake of trans fats.

 

The restaurant and food service sector has made some progress in reducing the trans fat content of its products. Certain restaurant chains have succeeded in removing trans fat from foods such as french fries, onion rings, chicken strips, battered fish, gravies and salad dressings.

 

In Quebec, one restaurant chain of 25 outlets appears to have succeeded in eliminating industrially produced trans fat from all 216 of its menu items. With the support of its suppliers, and by developing new products in its central kitchen, this chain took nine months to reformulate or eliminate the 48 items that contained industrially produced trans fat.

 

Despite the progress, however, it is difficult to get a sense of the extent and depth of these changes in the overall restaurant and food service sector.