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Health Even if you are an experienced shopper, the grocery store can be a confusing nutritional maze that requires looking beyond slick packaging and impulse buying to find the right healthy food choices for you and your family. Since 1990, the U.S. government required food label has been a practical tool for deciphering what's actually inside those boxes of cereal, tubs of butter and jars of peanut butter stacked along grocery aisles. And for those watching their choles terol, take note that as of Jan. 1, die U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began requiring food manufacturers to add trans fat to the Nutrition Facts that already list, among other things, calories, sodium, dietary fiber and nutrients in a single serving size. All fats are not the same, and know ing which ones are unhealthy is the first step in lowering your risk of heart disease. Fat is a major source of energy for the body, aids in the absorption of certain vitamins and helps us feel full. However, consumption of saturated I "2 > • # H 1 /2H Finding the Fat in Foods by NANCY DUNCAN fat, trans fat and dietary cholesterol raises low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad" cholesterol levels that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. With the revised label, consumers now can compare and chixise foods with lower amounts of saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol. What is trans fat? According to the National Cholesterol Education Program, trans fat forms when vegetable oil is hard ened into solid fats like shortening and hard margarine through a prcxess called hydrogenation. This process helps make frxxls more solid, gives them shape, and prolongs tlieir shelf life. It also hardens your arteries! Trans fat often can be found in processed foods made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, some margarines (especially harder margarines), crackers, candies, cook ies, snack foods, fried foods and baked goods. Saturated fat still is the primary dietary culprit in raising a person's bad cholesterol levels, though. Saturated fat most often is found in animal food products, including fatty cuts of meat, chicken skin and frill-fat dairy prrxJucts such as butter, whole milk, cheese and in tropical vegetable oils such as palm and coconut oils. On average, Ameri cans consume four to five times as much saturated fat as trans fat in their diet. The FDA recommends replacing satu rated and trans fats with mono-unsaturated Know Your Cholesterol While a high blood cholesterol level can lead to cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol itself does not carry symptoms to warn of the potential for a heart attack or heart disease. Therefore, checking and understanding your cholesterol numbers should be part of a lifetime regimen for keeping a healthy heart—and could even save your life. Cholesterol can be both good and bad. The body produces it naturally and needs the waxy, (at-like substance to function normally. However, excessive cholesterol creates plaque and builds up on the walls of your arteries. Over time, this buildup can slow down and even block blood flow to the heart. By monitoring your cholesterol and taking action when it rises beyond the optimal level of 200, you can reduce your risk of a stroke, heart attack or heart disease with lifestyle changes including diet and exercise and, if your physician recommends, by taking cholesterol-lowering medications. This is especially important if you have a family history of heart disease. No matter what your age or gender, it is important to keep your choles terol in check. Dr. David Gordon, a preventive medicine physician with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Md., recommends adults begin at age 20 to have their cholesterol measured at least once every five years. Because risk factors for cardiovascular disease increase with age, men should have their cholesterol checked yearly starting at age 40 and women beginning at 50. The numbers will tell you what to do next: TOTAL BLOOD CHOLESTEROL Desirable: Less than 200 mg/ dL Borderline: 200-239 mg/ dL High: 240 mg/ dL or higher Sonn e: National Heart. Ij/ng. and Blood Institute While age, gender and heredity all can affect cholesterol level and are beyond your control, you can lower your cholesterol naturally through other means, such as diet, exercise, weight control and choosing not to smoke. Choose foods that are low in saturated fat such as lean meats, fish, skinless poultry, whole grain frxxls, fruits and vegetables—and high in fiber such as oats, vegetables, dry peas and beans. "While we are fortunate tcxlay to have safe and powerful drugs to lower high blood cholesterol, a healthy lifestyle remains the cornerstone of heart health,” Gordon says. “These are simple, basic things that any motivated person can take on.” Photo Media Bakery and polyunsaturated fats, which do not raise LDL cholesterol levels and have health benefits wlten eaten in moderation. Tliese tats, found primarily in oils from plants, include canola, olive and peanut oils, avoca dos, sesame and sunflower seeds, com and soybeans. The food label can serve as a helpful road map in navigating which fats are good and Good for you! Keep it up! Be on the alert! You are at risk for a heart attack and should make changes in your lifestyle. Danger zone! You have a higher risk for a heart attack. Consult your physician as soon as possible. Page 9 •American Profile