About FATS: Why is it that sometimes, in a NUTRITIONAL INFO...

Why is it that sometimes, in a NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION, the total number of saturated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and trans fats, does not equal the TOTAL NUMBER OF FATS?

Just for an example, when you look up a nutri info of a certain food, it might say that it has 5.5g sat fat, 2.2g monounsat, 2.2g polyunsat, and zero trans fats.

That would yield a total of 9.9g of fats. But the total number of fats would be listed as 10.2g or something! where did the 0.3g come from?

any idea?

thanks!

ken

ken, it probably has to do with the fact that the fda allows up to "less than 0.5 grams" to be listed as zero. Just because it says "zero" doesn't mean it has none. It may actually contain up to 0.499grams and label reads zero.

Hi mistymom!

you are probably correct! :D

but I just hope they be as honest and specific as possible in listing down the nutri facts. ;p

thanks for the help! :D

ken

Another thing you can do is read the list of ingredients.  If there is partially hydrogenated oil, then there is trans fat, even if the percentage is zero.

Amen to that Claireelaine.

Oh that's another name for trans fat? geeze!

ok, i will watch out for that.

Thanks a lot, dahhhlings! :D

ken

I always think of that when I see the KFC commercials for the "Now with 0 trans fat...per serving".  If it was really zero zero zero they would just say "Now with 0 trans fat" but instead its got that "per serving" tagged on there..

that's cheating!!

I noticed that too!

And wow, this post is really an eye opener. Partially hydrogenated oil.. got it.  Ewwie lol.

I also noticed that Taco bell now uses "0 trans fat" oil, but if you read the nutritional guide, there is transfat in their food.  ANNOYING and SO miss leading.

The trans fat scam is incredible.

Small amounts of trans fats won't kill you. What many companies have done is replaced most trans fats with twice as much non-hydrogenated oil, and in many cases have doubled the saturated fat content as well. So now everyone thinks that trans fat-free foods are magically healthier.

Do you really think trans fat free KFC or Taco Bell is healthier? Give me a break. The stuff is terrible for you; it always has been and it always will be.

A few months ago my mom made a cheesecake with a crust that specifically stated it had 2g of trans fat per serving. Did I freak out? No. It was probably the first time this year I've eaten trans fats, and that cheesecake didn't give me a heart attack or cause me to gain back all the weight I lost. I haven't had any artificial trans fats since.

Eating trans fats is ok, as long as you only eat them on very rare occasions. The truth of the matter is for most of these people on this site, trans fats simply shouldn't be an issue. The foods we are supposed to be eating routinely simply never had trans fats in them to begin with.

Another confusing thing is sometimes only the TOTAL FAT and SATURATED FAT are listed.

for example, TOTAL FAT 4.5g and SATURATED FAT 2.5g.

so am i to assume that the other 2g of FAT are monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats?

thanks! :D

Yes. Trans fat would be listed as such, so anything other than saturated fat is mono or poly unsaturated unless it there is trans fat present. The difference between mono and poly unsaturated is pretty much irrelevant in terms of picking out foods.