Good Fats, Bad Fats & the Label Trick
Choose real-food fats, olive oil, avocado, nuts, fish, cook with the stable ones, and never take a ‘0g trans fat’ label at face value.
Fat is not the enemy
Real-food fats, extra-virgin olive oil, avocado, nuts and seeds, fatty fish, carry flavor, keep you full, and help you absorb the fat-soluble vitamins in your vegetables. It's the man-made fats that cause trouble.
The ones to skip
Hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils, and the industrial fats in most processed and deep-fried foods. These are the trans and damaged fats worth leaving on the shelf.
The ‘0g trans fat’ trick
Here's one worth knowing: the FDA lets a label say ‘0 grams trans fat’ as long as there's less than half a gram per serving. So a product can be full of it and still claim zero. The real tell is the ingredient list, if you see ‘hydrogenated’ or ‘partially hydrogenated,’ put it back.
Match the oil to the heat
Save delicate oils (extra-virgin olive, flax, walnut) for raw and low heat, and use more stable fats for higher-heat cooking. More on that in Olive Oil & Heat.
Read the ingredient list, not just the front of the box. ‘0g trans fat’ can hide up to half a gram a serving, but the word ‘hydrogenated’ never lies.