Chilled dough, dusted with soft flour and rich in tradition is neatly rolled atop the marble counter. My mother dabs her fingers in iced water to piece together a small tear. “I used to sit and watch my mother do this same thing,” she fondly recalls. We share a smile and I quietly sigh, wishing I did not know what was lurking within the flaky crust of her family famed apple pie – trans fat.

Learning the facts is the only way to make informed choices about the foods you eat. Numerous research studies have implicated trans fat as a major player in the development of heart disease. This data should strike a chord with many people, as heart disease is America’s number one killer. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health released a study in March 2007 revealing that study participants with the highest blood levels of trans fats had triple the risk of heart disease as those with the lowest levels. This increased risk is largely due to trans fats’ harmful effects on blood lipids, including both an increase in bad (LDL) cholesterol and a decrease in good (HDL) cholesterol. Rigorous data has shown how trans fats damage cardiovascular health even more than saturated fats.

While small amounts of trans fats are found naturally in foods like butter and beef, the majority of trans fats consumed in the diet are industrially produced. These artificial trans fats occur as a result of partial hydrogenation, turning liquid vegetable oils into more solid fats. Partially hydrogenated fats increase the shelf life and flavor stability of a food product, making them appealing to food manufacturers.

Trans fat is found in any food containing partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. Think potato chips, popcorn, French fries, doughnuts, pie crust, cakes, cookies, cannolis, stick margarines and shortenings. Since January 2006, all packaged foods must list trans fat content on their Nutrition Facts labels. In response to consumer demand, many food companies have reformulated their products in recent years to remove trans fats. Beware of the “trans fat free” label, though. The product may still contain less than 0.5 gram of trans fat. The American Heart Association recommends limiting the amount of trans fats you eat to less than 1% of your daily calories. Just a few servings of “trans fat free” foods can push you past your limit. Look for “partially hydrogenated vegetable oil” on the ingredients list to know for sure if a product contains trans fat.

New York and Philadelphia have passed bans eliminating the use of trans fats in restaurants, with other cities to follow. While restaurants have not seemed to struggle, several small bakeries in Philadelphia, using vegetable shortenings in their traditional or family recipes, have been the squeaky wheel amidst the ban. After testimonies and taste tests from local bakers at an October hearing, a Philadelphia City Council committee voted to allow small, independently owned bakeries to continue using trans fats in their confections. A full council approval is pending. Other bakeries must eliminate trans fats from their products by September 2008, with prepackaged goods like Tastykake and Entenmann’s excluded.

Fourth generation baker, Mark Stock, owner of Stock’s Bakery located in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia, attended the hearing. During a conversation the next day, he shared with me some of his frustrations over altering his family’s time-tested recipes. “When you are in a bakery, you are more or less a chemist. Bakery recipes are not actually recipes, they’re formulas. When you take out one ingredient and substitute with another, you get a different product.” The products he found from using some of the trans fat free options on the market were not up to par with the quality that has kept his customers coming back. Reliable quality is the lifeblood of any food business. Stock says, “Most of the places have been here over time because they are good.”

Although replacing trans fat-filled shortenings is not an easy task, many solutions do exist and are being used by some high-volume bakeries throughout the country and in fact, the world. Denmark (home of the “Danish” pastry and the first country to ban trans fats in 2004) is successfully using trans fat free replacements. The keys to eliminating these unnatural and unhealthy fats in our diets are awareness, education, and support for the small business to make the transition, ban or no ban.

Ma’s apple pie recipe is about to undergo a makeover, tradition and quality maintained.

In an updated analysis of the trans fat-heart disease link, HSPH researchers have found that removing trans fats from the industrial food supply could prevent tens of thousands of heart attacks and cardiac deaths each year in the U.S. The findings are published in the April 13, 2006 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.