Weight Loss & Diet Plans

Top 10 Foods With Trans Fats

continued...

Tip: In frozen foods, baked is always heart-healthier than breaded. Even vegetable pizzas aren't flawless; they likely have trans fat in the dough. Pot pies are often loaded with too much saturated fat, even if they have no trans fat, so forget about it.

6. Baked Goods. Even worse news -- more trans fats are used in commercially baked products than any other foods. Doughnuts contain shortening in the dough and are cooked in trans fat.

Cookies and cakes (with shortening-based frostings) from supermarket bakeries have plenty of trans fat. Some higher-quality baked goods use butter instead of margarine, so they contain less trans fat, but more saturated fat.

• Donuts have about 5 grams of trans fat apiece, and nearly 5 grams of saturated fat.
• Cream-filled cookies have 1.9 grams of trans fat, and 1.2 grams of saturated fat.
• Pound cake has 4.3 grams of trans fat per slice, and 3.4 grams of saturated fat.

Tip: Get back to old-fashioned home cooking again. If you bake, use fat-substitute baking products, or just cut back on the bad ingredients, says Moore. Don't use the two sticks of butter or margarine the recipe calls for two. Try using one stick and a fat-free baking product.

7. Chips and Crackers. Shortening provides crispy texture. Even "reduced fat" brands can still have trans fat. Anything fried (like potato chips and corn chips) or buttery crackers have trans fat.

• A small bag of potato chips has 3.2 grams of trans fat.
• Nabisco Original Wheat Thins Baked Crackers have 2 grams in a 16-cracker serving.
• Sunshine Cheez-It Baked Snack Crackers have 1.5 grams per 27 crackers.

Tip: Think pretzels, toast, pita bread. Actually, pita bread with a little tomato sauce and low-fat cheese tastes pretty good after a few minutes in the toaster oven.

8. Breakfast food. Breakfast cereal and energy bars are quick-fix, highly processed products that contain trans fats, even those that claim to be "healthy."

• Kellogg's Cracklin' Oat Bran Cereal has 1.5 grams per 3/4 cup serving.
• Post Selects Great Grains has 1 gram trans fat per 1/2 cup serving.
• General Mills Cinnamon Toast Crunch Cereal has 0.5 grams per 3/4 cup serving.
• Quaker Chewy Low Fat Granola Bars Chocolate Chunk has 0.5 grams trans fat.

Tip: Whole-wheat toast, bagels, and many cereals don't have much fat. Cereals with nuts do contain fat, but it's healthy fat.

9. Cookies and Candy. Look at the labels; some have higher fat content than others. A chocolate bar with nuts -- or a cookie -- is likely to have more trans fat than gummy bears.

• Nabisco Chips Ahoy! Real Chocolate Chip Cookies have 1.5 grams per 3 cookies. If you plow through a few handfuls of those, you've put away a good amount of trans fat.