On Trans Fats:

One doctor writes that trans fat flies “under the radar” and your body does not regard it as normal fat so does not store it in the normal areas of your body that fat is stored such as the tummy, legs and thighs. Instead it collects around major body organs such as the heart and liver.

To determine a healthy amount of trans fat she said picture this:

Less than 1g of trans fat a day is ok.
2-3g and you are at an elevated risk for heart disease. 4g or more/day and you are at a high risk of developing heart disease. A large order of french fries at Mcdonalds has 5+ grams.

If you read the labels on peanut butter as some of you have stated, it says 0 grams of trans fat so no trans fat right? Wrong! Partially hydrogenated vegetable oil is trans fat.

So, my next step was to research how much trans fat is in the peanut butter I have been eating religiously. Nearly every answer I found is that it is very insignificant.

Perhaps the best answer from a nutritionist went like this:

Trans fat from peanut consumption is not a concern. My concern would be the tran fat intake from fried foods, ice cream and other foods.

My opinion:

Don’t freak out if you have been eating peanut butter. The amount is so insignificant that it will not effect you.

If anyone would care to contradict this I would love to hear from you as I have been eating a couple of tablespoons a day for years.

Ted

You say you wonder how peanut butters can “get away with” saying they have zero grams of fat. I guess the quick answer is that because non can be detected…

And yes, I too wondered how these peanut butters get away with saying they have zero grams of trans fat without being natural. I personally made the switch to natural a couple years back (after finding out how their near permanency). I too was taken aback by having to refridgerate it to stop separation. I was also struck by how awful it tastes without sugar but that was quickly remedied with honey

…of course, with honey you are ingesting cloistridium botulinum spores but compared to trans fat that is downright safe :)

Trans fats are bad. You only hurt yourself because your body has a very hard time metobolizing it. Just because the FDA lets manufacturers use hydrogenated anything, that doesn’t mean that they have your best interest in mind (i.e. YOUR HEALTH!). Basically, do some research. Read ingredient labels and you’ll be surprised what is “allowed” to be in your food. Stay clear from artificial/synthetic products for obvious reasons. Don’t limit yourself to cutting out trans fats alone!

The “skinny” is I used JIF since about 1986 or so. 1 or two sandwiches a day, sometimes a big spoonful or two 1-3 times a week instead of ice cream.

I am now one year post a triple bypass surgery for 99% clogged cardiac arteries. Previous athleticism gave me outstanding collateral cardiac circulation, saving my heart.

The other culprits may be the transfats in the two boxes of crackers, uusally Ritz and Wheat Thins, per week that I also indulged on, plus I had a bowl of ice cream almost every day, a 20 year habit. Be your own lab rat if you want.

Almonds and Hazelnuts are the only nuts with high ratios of mono-unsaturated fats to saturated fats, 11:1 and 12:1. Peanuts are not quite 4 to 1. Cashews have mono fats, but 3:1 ratio mono to saturated, Low.

Avoid the transfats, and keep saturated fats way down. After eliminating all three from my diet for 9 months post-surgery (emergency, by the way), my LDL and HDL dropped from 137/47 to 57/37. Huge drop on the LDL.

Sheesh, is your reading comprehension really as bad as it appears, Paul? The detection limit was 0.01% by weight, not 1%. That’s two orders of magnitude lower. As the authors point out, the most TFA that could be in their samples (per 32g serving) is about 3/1000 of a gram, a physiologically insignificant quantity.

http://www.kraftfoods.com/main.aspx?s=contact_us&m=contact_us/faqview&faq_question_id=1292&cache=N

There are many websites posting news and comments about the controversy over unhealthy fats. Here’s one I refer to:

http://www.bantransfats.com/

Most of the major brands of peanut butter contain partially hydrogenated oils, which we recommend that you avoid (see report #N185.) Partially hydrogenated oils are solid at room temperature, so the peanut butter manufacturers use them to keep the oil from separating and to give their products a very long shelf life. They don’t have to add very much partially hydrogenated oil, but it is there – look at the list of ingredients. They try to fool you because if the amount is less than .5 grams per serving, they can say “0 grams of trans fats” or “no trans fats.” A serving of peanut butter is two tablespoons — so they can put as much as 8 grams of trans fats in a 16-ounce jar and still attach a label that says “No Trans Fats”!.

so there’s your answer!