trans fat.

I hateeee artificial trans fat!  In my opinion, artificial trans fat is by far the worst type of fat ever -- way worse than any natural fat, including saturated fat.
So, what do I mean by artificial trans fat? I mean the unnatural, man-made kind.  I'm not talking about the natural kind of trans fat that is found in small amounts in beef and dairy products..... but the gross artificial kind that makes up over 80% of our trans fat intake.
Artificial trans fats are made through a process called hydrogenation, where hydrogen is added to vegetable oil and pressure is added.  This process results in a stiffer fat that is less likely to spoil, making them appeal to food manufacturers. 
Providiving products with a longer shelf-life is the one benefit of trans fat (out of the many, many downfalls).  Consumption of trans fats causes harmful changes in our bodies:  they  increase total cholesterol levels, increase triglycerides, and decrease healthy HDL cholesterol, all contributing to heart disease. 
Luckily, in recent years,  the FDA recognized the dangers of trans fats and changed the nutritional labeling to include trans fat.   Unfortunately, there is a loophole, of course. If a food has less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving, the nutritional label can still read 0 grams trans fat. This becomes a problem because nutritional labels are based on 1 serving, so if you end up eating multiple servings of a food that contains 0.49 grams of trans fat per 1 serving, you are actually consuming 1.47 grams of trans fat.  This may not seem like a lot, but the American Heart Association recommends that no more than 1% of your total daily calories come from trans fat. So, that is about 2 grams or less of trans fat per day ( based on a 2,000 calorie diet).
So, what can you do the decrease your trans fat intake when nutritional labels could potentially be lying to you?  READ THE INGREDIENTS!  If you see partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated, the product contains trans fat.  And since trans fat is likely found in certain products, limit the following:
-Commercial baked goods (crackers, granola bars, cookies, cakes) 
-Fried foods  (chicken tenders, doughnuts, french fries)  -- ask a restaurant the type of oil the fry in. 
-Some shortenings and margarines 


*And, try to get your daily fats from good fats, monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat (especially omega 3s).*  Here are some sources:
-Olive oil
-Canola oil
-Sunflower oil
-Avocados 
-Nuts and nut butters
-Seeds
-Fatty fish
-Flaxseed