Avoid Trans Fats to Lose Weight
Here is another of my Top 100 Weight Loss Tips which is now added to the series as article number 41.
In this article, I'll look at some very good reasons to avoid trans fats in your diet from both a health aspect as well as that of helping to reduce the level of fat stored and getting in shape.
Trans fats are present in many processed foods and junk food. So by cutting out these groups, which you should be doing as part of your weight loss strategy anyway, you will remove most of the the problem foods straight away.
What Are Trans Fats?
Trans fats (otherwise known as trans fatty acids) are artificially created in an industrial process to be added to processed foods in order to bulk them out or make them appear more solid at room temperature. By pumping hydrogen gas through liquid vegetable oils, it binds to the oil molecules and make the result more solid.
You may know trans fats by their other names which are "partially hydrogenated oils," or "hydrogenated vegetable oil".
Trans fats are used by companies in their foods mainly because they are easy to use, cheap to produce and they tend to be long lasting. They can give the foods they are added to a desirable texture and taste.
You might be shocked to know that many restaurants as well as fast food outlets also use them to deep-fry their foods. This is because oils containing these unhealthy fats can be reused many times over in commercial fryers before they need to be discarded.
Why You Should Avoid Consuming Trans Fats
Its a well known fact amongst nutritionists and dietitians that by avoiding trans fats, you can significantly improve your chances of successfully losing weight. So this suggestion to avoid them at all costs comes for a few very good reasons.
First of all, they are really not good for you from a health perspective in any case. Trans fats will raise your levels of bad (LDL) cholesterol while simultaneously lowering your levels of good (HDL) cholesterol.
Consuming trans fats significantly increases your risk of developing high blood pressure, strokes and heart disease as well as being associated with having a higher risk of developing type II diabetes.
Second, by cutting out foods that contain trans fats, you will eliminate a large percentage of the "bad foods" from your healthy diet outright. To do this correctly, all you'll have to do is become far more selective about what you eat. By avoiding this unhealthy added ingredient that has found its way into far too many foods you really do increase your ability to lose weight.
The Hidden Killer
Trans fats are hidden in so many more commonly found foods in the supermarket than you would probably care to know about. That generally includes most processed foods that come in packets, cans or other containers and are often disguised as being "healthy" when the truth is they are anything but healthy!
Just read the labels on packaged foods that you normally pick up at the supermarket and you will see for yourself how much is present in the food. If anything that you normally buy contains them, put them back on the shelf and congratulate yourself for making a sweeping improvement to your health in one easily done action.
100 Weight Loss Tips number 40 follows in the next post!
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Posted on Tue, 29 Sep 2009 in Top 100 Weight Loss Tips | 3 Comments
3 thoughts on "Avoid Trans Fats to Lose Weight"
Maki says:
Oh yeas, I am very keen to avoid trans fats in all foods as they are so much bad for health. It is difficult when many products contain these fats and you must be always on your guard!
Maki... as always, great post here.
Terry says:
Supermarkets don't care about people, only about profits. Remember that when they are smiling their best smile at you!
hamed says:
Very good article! You have a really good weight loss post in here. For sure, the ways you mentioned here for losing weight will work because two of them worked for me before. This is really helpful for me, especially how as I often fail at this, so thanks for writing it!