Here's what I'm wondering. There seem to be alot of folks concerned about bad numbers but just HOW careful were you about transfats in your foods before you saw these bad numbers, AND more importantly...Did they go down after eliminating transfat products from your diet, or did it take more things like flaxseed etc. to do it? How did it affect your HDL, if any? My DH had his levels go up but we've been partaking in all the lc products on the market which have alot of transfats. I'm wondering if it's just a matter of cleaning the transfats out of our diet to bring down his levels. His HDL went up 20 points since LCing so that's a good thing, but the LDL and triglicerides went up. I've been careful to use only butter and olive oil when cooking but I'm wondering if the "frankenfoods" are the problem. Like those mission LC tortillas, carbwise bars, and the dreamfields pasta. I sure hope it's as easy as this and that's why I'm posting this poll. We like this lifestyle and I'd hate to think it was the eggs, bacon, steak,heavy cream or nuts Annie

Transfats occur mainly in hydrogenated oils(particularly soybean oil
used by just about all fast food places).No transfats should be found
in steak,eggs,bacon unless they have been subjected to hydrogenated oil.
A lot of the locarb cheater foods are anything but locarb and may
contain transfats.The late Robert Atkins advised against transfats in
his "Atkins for Life" book.

I don't understand the question. If anything LFers are more acceptable of transfats than LCers are!

OK guys,
Let me clarify what I mean by transfats in a LC diet. I read Atkin's book too but I found myself getting caught in the trap of all the LC "frankenfoods" that are on the market which DO include transfats. The LC nutrition bars, cereals, breads, sweets, etc. There's tons of them and I was really good at following Atkins perfectly through induction. Then as I was able to begin adding carbs little by little, I decided to expand my horizons and try out all the yummy things out there. This was partly because I was bored with the known transfat free products that Atkins offered, but also simply because other products were cheaper and quite frankly, tasted better.
So what I'm trying to accomplish here is to see if other folks found that doing Atkins was good for their cholesterol counts in general if they weren't cheating with transfats and I'd also like to know this... If they were cheating, (like I did with the transfats, and like Atkins said not to) did it end up raising their numbers significantly. You see, I think people cheating with transfats while LCing is probably what's giving the media the "fuel" they need to raise a stink about Atkins and other LC diets that don't limit fat. I have a feeling Atkins is getting a "bad wrap" because so many of us ARE cheating by eating the "partially hydrogonated" stuff. The Media doesn't report that the transfats may be the issue they just say, "SEE, Their levels do go up on Atkins, it must be the meat and eggs!". I also wonder, how many folks in this forum, who are worried about whether or not they should stay LCing or not, or whether or not they should cut down on red meats, eggs etc. could just as easily cut the transfats out and their numbers would go right back down. It seems to me that it might be as simple as that. This is what I'm trying to find out with the poll. I am stunned that so many folks have looked and haven't responded. I'm trying to figure out if it's because I accidentally set the poll to have the "public" thingy, (I've never done a poll before) or if it's cuz nobody really knows what a transfat is, or if it's that people don't know what kind of effect LCing has had on their own levels. The latter of these three reasons would be strange to me since that was supposed to be what this forum is about. Annie

Annie,

What were that low-carb products that you were eating that were high in transfats? I don't normally eat any commercial low-carb foods, so I am clueless as to what products you were using. I have used some low-carb bars in the past, but they had no trans fats, just lots of sugar alcohols.

OK...here I go... I feel like this should be posted in the confession booth I've been so bad. The thing is I've throughly enjoyed every drop of transfats in these products and didn't gain any weight from them. Such a bummer that they have to be so bad for you.
I decided to go on maintenance for a while, and try all the great new things. I've eaten those carbwell bars (the peanutbutter one was good) and the sweetened cereals (I think they're also carbwell) (the cinnamon ones reminded me of apple jacks but they looked like cat food). I had the carbwise bars, which I believe also had the transfats. You see, I never had a problem with stalling on these things. I also had some of the cheaper ice creams, don't remember the brands, I think I've tried them all though and some had transfats as I recall. I've had snackwell low carb cookies and other brands, can't recall which, some in a box and another in a foil pack like a coffee bean container. (some had the fats and other's didn't can't remember now which are which.) I've had cheap "store brand" Low carb breads, rolls, hot dog buns and hamburger buns. I lived on the mission LC tortillas all Summer with hotdogs/ burgers even tuna sandwiches in them. I ate lots and lots of LC chips, Dorito's Edge and others. I've had the LC eggo waffles, lots of 'em (they really taste good, BUMMER). I've had the LC Red Barron Pizzas and other brands of LC pizza's and frozen entree's. I also ate some nuts and seeds processed in them, not even thinking twice about it. I did try just about every LC candy bar at Walmart without looking at the label for transfats and also Whitmans, Russel Stover and See's chocolates, sugar free, by the box. Of course any chocolate/peanut butter combo I could find. Of course, I'd only eat 20 g max/day of SA's cuz I didn't want to be on the toilet for hours. hehe I had Krusteaz LC pancake mix for quite a while because it was the only one I could find that was halfway palatable. I've had the new baking mixes, brownies, corn bread, muffins from betty crocker, I believe it was, or Pillsbury and krusteaz. I'm sure there were other products, I just can't think of them right now. Like I said in a previous post, I read Dr. A's book, and went totally for olive oil and butter. I even avoided Crisco. But I didn't avoid the transfats in other stuff unless it happened to be Atkins brand. I just didn't think it would make THAT much of a difference. Heck, I went from Margarine most of my life, which was the BAD stuff, straight to real Butter when I began Atkins a year ago. I figured that would make all the difference, besides the fact that I wasn't eating anymore microwave popcorn or putting that BAD non dairy creamer in my coffee anymore.
You see now why I got to thinking it gives Atkins a bad name? Cuz, I ate all this bad stuff for me, I maintained my weightloss, and my numbers rose a tiny bit, my DH's rose more than mine. Both of our HDL's rose too, but along with the other numbers. I can't help but wonder if we had been true to Dr. Atkins plan by staying away from those foods, and, I admit, maybe drank more of our water (haven't been too good at that lately) then we would have flushed our systems of the transfats better. I guess it's just me wanting to "have my cake and eat it too!" Annie

ive been eating completely trans-fat free for probably 8 months or so now, and my numbers are perfect. I would definitely think they play a role in high numbers.

As of 10-28-04
Total Cholesterol: 153
LDL: 67
HDL: 71
Triglyceride: 75
CRP: .2

I'm fairly new to this forum, but upon seeing Moonwalker's signature, I clicked on the link to find out more about trans fats.

From there, I went to a few other sites, learning more and more about just how bad trans fats are for people. I started reading these things outloud to my husband.

He was kind of shocked. We had no idea how prevalent these types of fats are, and we certainly didn't realize how bad they are for us.

This being said, I haven't eaten anything with any trans fats since starting a low carb diet, because most of the products containing trans fats aren't appropriate for a low carb diet at all. It's all the prepared, boxed groceries that seem to contain these dangerous fats.

After my husband learned more about trans fats - he jumped up and emptied the cupboard of all foods containing trans fats. He's not on a low carb diet (I am), but he's certainly mindful of these dangerous types of fats because he's trying to lower his "bad" cholesterol and increase his "good" cholesterol.

In fact, if you think of this in terms of grocery shopping - it seems like most of these types of foods are found in the middle aisles. My husband and I don't bother venturing into any of the aisles, except to pick up spices and olive oil. The rest of our shopping is done around the perimetre of the store, where all the fresh, whole foods are.

I feel really good about that

And no, I'm not gonna eat anything with trans fats. And furthermore, I'm Canadian, so I'm hoping they won't be as available in Canada for much longer, since I hear we've banned them.

Moonwalker, thanks for including that website in your signature - without that, I don't think I'd have ever really looked into the whole trans fat issue. You've done us a big favour, simply by including that information in your posts via the link in your signature. From that link, I went on to read more and my husband and I made the decision to ban trans fats in our home.

Oh, and Annie - I must admit that I was confused when I read your poll because I don't think of Atkins or low carb in general when I think of trans fats. In fact, I think of crackers, baked goods, frozen foods with pie crusts and/or breading, cookies, cakes, muffins, microwave popcorn...all the things you're not really supposed to be eating on low carb.

When I get to a point where I want to transition into OWL and Maintenance, the last thing I'm going to introduce are those fake foods. I'm going to want some fruit, and eventually maybe some whole, natural grains. Certainly not some kind of chemical tasting bogus bar or shake.

Ditch the stuff

Good luck with this.

PS: edited to add - if the ingredients list says "hydrogenated", "partially hydrogenated" or "shortening", don't buy it.

thank you for posting that - thats what i live for. Trans Fat awareness is a huge part of my life - tho i get really discouraged a lot of the time, because the majority of people dont take it seriously - and some people even laugh and think its a joke. When i read posts like yours it makes it all worth while. Thank you so much.

I had a little trouble following along, but thought I'd cast my vote with a qualifier. I've cut out the major sources of them in my diet, but feel no need to obsess about it beyond that. The health benefits I get from low-carbing and quitting smoking, along with cutting out the margarine or things with a MAJOR amount of transfat are good enough for me.

My numbers impressed my doctor, and I feel good. That's good enough for me.

Well, thank you for including the information in your signature. As for getting discouraged because people laugh or what have you - I seriously think that's because most of us just don't *know* that much about trans fats and how prevalent they really are. I sure didn't - that is, until I came across the link in your signature.

I wouldn't have looked something like that up, but because it was in your signature, I thought.."hmm..wonder what this is all about" and clicked on it. From there I started doing more research on the whole thing, and my husband and I decided to just get rid of foods containing trans fats.

We threw out:

English muffins (surprisingly, these have trans fats, whereas his bagels didn't)
Ritz crackers
Microwave popcorn
Breton crackers (a wheat cracker)
Kraft "light" peanut butter

Went grocery shopping today, and my husband was picking up all sorts of products, checking to see what contained trans fats - he was curious..and it was surprising to discover that *lots* of foods have it. Oh..he discovered that Lay's Potato chips don't have them (surprised us), and that tortilla chips didn't either (the plain kind that most ppl eat with salsa).

I almost bought this frozen entree thingy today - it was a pot roast with gravy, and I was going to buy it because it had 0 carbs...but then...noticed the trans fat in it, so we put it back.

Like I said earlier, I don't really see the connection between LC'ing and trans fats, because it seems to me that *most* products containing trans fats aren't really things that fit into a low carb lifestyle anyway.

Oh yeah..husband also checked this one particular type of frozen pie shell (because I used to make really good chicken pies for him before starting Atkins) and he was so pleased that this one brand didn't have the trans fats. lol.. I gently reminded him that it might be quite some time before I ever make a chicken pie again..

I can't answer your poll because you don't provide options for people who don't eat transfats.

I haven't knowingly eaten any transfats since I read DANDR 2-1/2 years ago and realized how bad they are for me. My cholesterol profile is very good -- high HDL (over 70), low triglycerides (40-something) and LDL of 130 (which is considered borderline high, but is fine give the other numbers and my ratios). With these numbers and my low blood pressure, my chances of having a heart attack in the next 10 years are less than one percent.

Non-LCers seem to eat a lot more transfats than LCers, since many cookies, crackers, etc. are full of them. I don't see why transfats are a particular issues for LCers at all.

Liz: get your cardiac CRP levels checked, they are just as important as showing heart disease risk as is cholesterol.