Banish trans fat for good health

Trans fat is a killer: up to 500,000 people a year die worldwide from the consequences of eating it. Trans fat increases LDL(or "bad") cholesterol, the compound that clogs arteries and causes heart attacks and deaths from heart disease.

Most trans fat comes from artificial, industrially-produced Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils (PHO), and is used in many baked foods, frying oils, fried foods and hardened fats, like margarine and vegetable ghee. They are cheap and increase the shelf life of processed food.

But they have no known health benefit and can be readily replaced with other ingredients to preserve taste and consistency. They do nothing but harm our hearts; in essence, they are the tobacco of food products.