If you thought saturated fat was bad you may be surprised to know trans fat is worse - much worse. And what's more you are likely to be eating it every day.

You may feel you already know enough about fat. We've all heard so much about monunsaturated, polyunsaturated and saturated fat in recent years. We probably just about sorted out which was which and what was good and bad for us.

We know monunsaturated and polyunsaturated are the "good" fats and we also know we need to keep our saturated fat as low as possible - especially as we get older.

But you may not know about the "new kid on the block" in the fat world - trans fat (short for trans fatty acids).

It's ironic that the trans fat problem came out of the need to avoid too much saturated fat in our diets. Scientists and food manufacturers - in an attempt to give us the fat we craved and make it better for us - hit on the idea of taking perfectly good oils like soybean oil and partially hydrogenating them to use in food production.

Partial hydrogenation is an industrial process which makes an oil more solid; provides longer shelf life in baked products; longer use by dates for cooking oils, and gives foods an addictive kind of texture or "mouthfeel."

The big problem - which no-one stopped to consider apparently - is that partially hydrogenated oil is laden with lethal trans fat. The result - hundreds of thousands of premature deaths in the US and worldwide.

Top nutritionists at Harvard have recently stated: "By our most conservative estimate, replacement of partially hydrogenated fat in the U.S. diet with natural unhydrogenated vegetable oils would prevent approximately 30,000 premature coronary deaths per year, and epidemiologic evidence suggests this number is closer to 100,000 premature deaths annually."

The good news - if you live in the States - is that food labelling laws mean you can usually identify which food contains trans fat and avoid it. If you want to live longer and healthier avoid anything with" trans fat" or "hydrogenated" fat on the label. In the UK supermarkets are starting to label trans fat in response to consumer anxiety and in some cases to eliminate trans fat from their product ranges completely.

It is actually quite amazing that an artificially created substance like trans fat which is so harmful to the human body is allowed in food at all. The quicker health authorities world-wide wake up to the damage this stuff is doing the better for all of us.

In the meantime - take action to protect yourself and your family and avoid trans fat wherever possible. Chances are you'll look younger, feel better and live longer for it.

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