Getting the Trans Fat out of your Kids Healthy Snacks

Are you really buying healthy snacks for kids in the store? Did you know that snack foods are the main source of trans fat in children's and adults' diets. Trans fats are the artery clogging fat that are known to increase the "bad" LDL cholesterol. This can cause an increased risk of heart disease and stroke. Did you know that there are some healthy snacks for kids that have lots of Trans Fat in them?

In a recent announcement, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will require food manufacturers to list the amount of trans fat that is found in each product. This also includes those "healthy snacks for kids" that you find listed in magazines and on television. This ruling went into effect in late 1996, so you can check the food labels for the amount of trans fat in each product.

"Trans fats are industrial fats that keep products shelf stable, so all your crackers, all your cookies, all your snack chips, all your little snack cakes, they're all going to have fat in them, and that fat is usually going to be a trans fat," says Rachel Brandeis, RD, spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association.

"The only way for parents to know that it's trans fat is to look on the ingredients and see the words 'partially hydrogenated oil.'"

Brandeis says the higher the words "partially hydrogenated oil" are on the ingredient list, the more of it is in the food because manufacturers are required to list the ingredients by weight.

This is pretty scary if you look at some of the healthy snacks for kids that you are buying. As experts are saying that there is no safe level or acceptable level of trans fat in food, your kids should eat as little of them as possible. The American Heart Association also recommends limiting the combined amount of trans and saturated fats to less than 10 percent of the total calories consumed in one day.

So, how does this relate to the healthy snacks for kids that you are buying? If your child's snack is 200 calories, then you don't want it to have more than 20 calories from trans fat or saturated fat.

Healthy snacks for kids can be tough to get your child to eat, but if you explain and encourage them to eat healthy snacks, then it will make it easier to establish a life long healthy eating pattern.