The Rules » #3 - No trans fats

I’m a fan of the Girl Scouts, and have tremendous respect for their organization. But I won’t buy their cookies.

Mary Barbour contacted me about January Rules, wanting to get involved (“Even registered dietitians get off track”). She happily agreed to give us a quick primer on trans fats… and why they’re so bad for us.

The FDA allows any food with less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per severing to be rounded-down to zero.

The Dietary Guidelines on fat are not at all user-friendly, since they require you to know how many total calories you should be eating, and to know how much fat you’re eating, and to know how many calories are in that fat, and to calculate those calories as a percentage of your overall calories.

Know which types of fats are “good” and which types are “bad,” and then start paying attention to which ones you’re putting in your body.