Trans Fat at-a-Glance

Trans fat is a specific type of fat that is formed when liquid oils are turned into solid fats, such as shortening or stick margarine. During this process — called hydrogenation — hydrogen is added to vegetable oil to increase the shelf life and flavor stability of foods. The result of the process is trans fat.

Trans fat can be found in many of the same foods as saturated fat, such as vegetable shortenings, some margarines, crackers, candies, cookies, snack foods, fried foods, baked goods, and other processed foods made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.

Also known as trans fatty acids, trans fat can be found naturally in some foods — such as animal-based foods like milk, milk products, and meat.

As a consumer, the most important thing to know about trans fat is that it behaves like saturated fat in the body by raising low-density lipoprotein (LDL, or "bad") cholesterol — which can increase your risk of coronary heart disease.

Read on to learn more about trans fat — and how you can make wise nutritional choices in order to limit the trans fat, as well as saturated fat and cholesterol, in your diet.