The University of Maryland offers this explanation of transfats:

Trans fatty acids (transfats) are also called hydrogenated fats. When you add hydrogen to liquid vegetable oil and then add pressure, the result is a stiffer fat, like the fat found in a can of Crisco. Trans fats are also called hydrogenated fats. Public health experts warn that these kinds of fats clog arteries and cause obesity.

The reason they are now labeled in our foods is because of this public health concern of the direct links between high cholesterol, obesity and transfats. These fats were developed to maintain shelf life on foods, and because of this rationale, it is largely prepackaged foods that are the lurking spots for them. If you were looking for another excuse to eat more fresh foods, you just found it.

Here are a few tips for spotting, avoiding or controlling your intake of transfats.

• Watch out for hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils (soybean, canola, cottonseed or other oil)

• Look to see if the hydrogenated oil is in the first 3-4 ingredients. If it is, this generally means there is a lot of it in the product and you will want to avoid it.
  
  
• One current "trick" food manufacturers use is to break up the components of the food (such as coating and the filling). They can take up half of the ingredient listing with a full description of the first component and its ingredients, such as the inside filling of the food item, thus "hiding" the second ingredient, often hydrogenated fat, which appears later into the product listing.
  
  
• Don't be fooled by fast food restaurants. The phrase "we cook in vegetable oil" can mean liquid or hydrogenated oil. Even the phrase "no cholesterol containing all vegetable oil" can be misleading, for vegetable oil can raise your body's cholesterol if it is a hydrogenated or partly hydrogenated vegetable oil.

And, now, a few parting thoughts on body fat percentages. Although it may sound shocking, 21-32% is the recommended healthy range for body fat percentage in women between the ages of 18-39. For comparison, most magazine covers are airbrushed and photoshopped to create the silhouette and muscle definition of 3%.

I would never advocate the adoption of a sedentary or fast food-filled life to boost your body fat percentage. But, I would suggest we start aiming our naturally critical eye away from ourselves and toward the media's representation of what we should look like.

Please be active. Make wise food choices. Plan ahead to make healthy changes in your life. But, don't ever go to unnatural lengths like eating disorders or overexercising to achieve an image that promotes a body fat percentage that can cause liver problems, reproductive problems and heart problems. Nothing is as sexy as healthy.