Trans fats
 

I'm slow getting to this party, but I'm beginning to care about the amount of trans fats I consume. Are there any plans to try to incorporate this value in My P.L.A.N. so we can track it as well as the overall fat intake?

By the way, I've tried a million different sites and forums, different tools online and off, and I have always used My P.L.A.N. and Lowcarber more consistently than any others. I'm sure I'd be twice as big as I am now if this wasn't all here for me.

Its probably time to make another donation :-)

It is easy to track Trans. fats as the recommended amount to eat is 0gm. :-) Just read labels and don't buy stuff that include hydrogenated fats.

Trans. fats don't occur naturally in food. You have to buy manufactured food that uses them. That's why you won't see them (usually) in food logging software, unless they include manufactured foods (by brand, because they vary).

I don't mean to be a sh*t, but I can't tell if your post was meant to be helpful or sarcastic or humorous.

If it was serious, let me just point out that the recommended amount of sugar is 0g, too, but that doesn't mean tracking our progress toward that goal it isn't helpful.

I took her reply to be helpful. At least it helped me to understand why I haven't seen that in my Fitday either, but I don't track them so no harm, no foul.

I am not all that familiar with the MY P.L.A.N., but is there a place for notes in on the food tracking page? Maybe that could be workable?

How does it help you understand that trans fats aren't counted at Fitday?

All the logging software I've tried, including Fitday if I remember right, either includes or allows people to add processed foods which can contain trans fats. I just assumed isn't tracked on all software because sometimes the software came before the issue got hot.

Just FYI https://cronometer.com/ seems to track it.

Yeah, my copy of Fitday is old---from 2008.

I should have probably worded that differently. It just made sense that since trans fats aren't naturally occurring in food that it wouldn't be amongst things that would be tracked in the program, that's all. :)

MFP keeps track of EVERYTHING.

I'm soooooo glad that I didnt have to mess around with apps when I did my weightloss. It would have put me off bothering.

As for transfat - avoid them at all costs, they're artificial and bad for us. I've never read or seen anything good about them!

Jo xxx

ojoj as you have stated at least a thousand times (to my knowledge) Im soooooo glad you didn't have to bother keeping track of anything either...you are lucky that you didnt have to give anything about losing your weight a conscious effort, so great...but there are a lot of different tools available to us today that were not available 10 years ago. Some choose to use them now. Do you think its helpful to point out your non-usage of any tracking at all from 10 years ago, to those of us that DO use them today because they are available? I whole-heartedly encourage anyone to use today's available technology. If it helps YOU .... DO IT!!!!!

Some trans fats occur naturally in small amounts in some meats and dairy. (You don't need to be concerned about these. Some of the trans fats found in animal sources like CLA have been shown to be good for you.)

In manufactured food, if the ingredients list contains the words "fully hydrogenated ..." then there should no trans fats left (or negligible amounts). Fully hydrogenating a fat just turns it into a saturated fat, similar to a saturated fat that would occur in nature.

If the label says "partially hydrogenated ..." than it would contain potentially harmful levels of trans fats. Check the label for the amount of trans fat content. Unfortunately if it's less than 0.5 g per serving they can list it as 0 g. And if the serving size is small, you could potentially be looking at significant amounts of trans fat.

Unfortunately, if the label doesn't say fully or partially, but just the words "hydrogenated", then there's no way to know if it's full or partial hydrogenation. It could be either. (BTW, in some cases on the internet I've read that people have written to the manufacturers of Kraft Peanut Butter and Armor Lard to find out if their "hydrogenated" ingredients were fully or partially hydrogenated, and both responded that it was fully, and the amount of that fully hydrogenated ingredient was very small. I don't know why they don't just list it as fully hydrogenated then to avoid confusion.)

The good news is that many restaurants and food manufacturers have been eliminating the use of partially hydrogenated trans fats, and so human consumption has been going down steadily. Unfortunately instead of replacing these with fully hydrogenated or naturally occurring saturated fats, they've been using Omega-6 vegetable oils. Sigh. Maybe someday they'll get it.

I've noticed a few foods that still contain high amount of trans fat at the supermarket. They are:

1. Some margarine brands (many brands of margarine have eliminated trans fats, but some still rely on them like Parkay. You should be using real butter anyhow.)

2. No name or store brand shortening or lard (these are the worst offenders. Some ungodly amounts of trans fat in these. However, please note that Crisco brand shortening has changed their recipe and is virtually trans fat free now. Most brand name lards are also fine. Their labels will list a very small amount of trans fat, like 0.1 or 0.2g. I wouldn't worry about this. Butter has more naturally occurring trans fat: 0.5g.)

As for restaurant food, the worst offenders used to be things like donuts and pastries, and fried foods, but like I said, many places have been eliminating the use trans fats. You need to check with them to see whether or not they are still using partially hydrogenated crap.

Not all trans fats are artificial and bad. And some have been (possibly) shown to be good for us (though more study is needed).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conjugated_linoleic_acid

You'll see small amounts of naturally occurring trans fats in some meats and dairy and butter lard. Please don't throw the baby out with the bathwater!

Though I agree that partially hydrogenated trans fats are bathwater that needs to be thrown out.

My take on apps on the whole is that they complicate things too much and for nothing. I doubt there are any statistics, but I dont believe that "way back then" we didnt lose weight because we didnt use them or that today folk do lose weight because they do. IMO its just a gimmick that does nothing useful at all and would certainly put me off. I was lucky, altho lucky isnt really the right word is it! I lost weight following Atkins - I didnt cheat and it worked, which is what it does for most folk who follow it without worrying about using an app. You follow the allowed foods/daily menu list and stay under 20g carbs a day!

So the fact that I've allegedly mentioned my views "at least a thousand times" is simply to encourage those who find the whole app/macros thing daunting - its not necessary.

Jo xxx

...as for transfats, I once read that as a "rule of thumb", we should avoid eating anything (fats in particular) thats "made" in a laboratory!

Jo xxx