Today’s interesting fact has to do with transfats.

The medical profession have all agreed throughout the world that transfats are bad for us.

The US FDA recommends a limit of 2 grams of transfat a day.

The EU is considering what limit to suggest.

Denmark recently banned transfats in foods in that country, but the EU stated that the ban was illegal and they had to rescind it.

Transfats have often been called empty calories, except that your body does use them, although not in the way you might wish it to.

Transfats increase the bad cholesterol in your blood, and has been linked to the plaque that forms in arteries.

In the US, if a product has more a half a gram of transfat per serving, they have to put the information on the packet.

So many companies have reduced their suggested serving sizes, so that each serving size only has 0.49 grams of transfat in it, and therefore they do not need to declare it is in the product.

It also means they can put 0% transfat on their packet, even though the product has transfats in them.

Because the serving size is reduced, and people tend to still eat what they think is the correct serving, many end up going over the recommended limit very quickly.

In the EU, transfat amounts are not yet required on the packet, and companies include it within the saturated fat figure.

Granola bars, breakfast cereals, cakes and breads often contain transfat.

Until the EU requires transfat amounts on packages and the US requires exact amounts of it in food products, no one will really know how much they are eating.

Did I mention that transfats are bad for us?