I was pleasantly surprised the other day when my wife brought home a brand of margarine whose package proclaimed that the product contained no trans fats. I hope this statement is accurate and not just an advertising ploy.     

Trans fats are the unhealthiest kind of fat because they raise LDL cholesterol and lower protective HDL cholesterol. This is why the Food and Drug Administration mandated that nutrition labels list the trans-fat content of all foods as of January 1, 2006. You can use the label information on products to base your decisions on which products to purchase.

Trans fats are formed when vegetable oils are hydrogenated (treated with hydrogen), a process that turns oils into more solid and stable fats, thus making them easier to use in such products as margarines and snack foods. Even with little or no hydrogenation, some plant oils can still end up containing small amounts of trans fats.

Now, food manufacturers are scrambling to make products that are low in trans fats so consumers will choose those products. These efforts have been greatly stimulated by New York City's recent ban on the use of products containing trans fats in its restaurants, and the threat that similar bans may soon follow in Chicago and Los Angeles.

Kellogg's, for example, announced that it will begin making a number of its convenience foods with a genetically modified soybean, named Vistive, which can form an oil that needs little or no hydrogenation to achieve stability. This outcome once again illustrates that food manufacturers can make more healthy products if they are forced to do so.

Unfortunately, Vistive soybeans are presently in short supply, and it may take some time before enough genetically modified soybeans become available to meet the anticipated demand.

Another way to reduce the trans fat in our diets is indicated in a recently published article which reported that potatoes fried in cottonseed oil produced French fries that were lower in trans fats (but no lower in calories) than those fried in the usual oils.