Photo by Lisa Lipovac

Prarie Village junior Amanda Altoro makes a salad at Mrs. E's. Altoro, an Ellsworth resident, eats at Mrs. E's about once a week. As an aspiring chef she prefers to eat a lot of vegetables and always eats a salad at Mrs. E's.

Eating heathlier in college should have become easier when food manufacturers added “trans fats” to nutrition labels. But for many KU students, this isn’t the case, because they may not know the level of trans fats they’re eating. The KU Dining Services cannot calculate trans fat for the meals it provides.

Trans fats are super-charged saturated fats, formed when liquid oils are converted to solid fats, such as butter and margarine.

A 2003 Food and Drug Administration regulation began requiring all packaged foods to list trans fats alongside saturated fat and dietary cholesterol on food labels as of January 1 of this year.

Trans fats can be found in a variety of foods, including shortenings, cookies, fried foods, some animal-based foods and other processed foods created with partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.

Hydrogenation, the process that creates most trans fats, requires hydrogen to be injected into vegetable oil. The process lengthens the shelf life of processed foods.

Trans fat statistics won’t be available through KU Dining Services because its computer system does not calculate trans fats, but Sheryl Kidwell, assistant director, said she expected people to start asking for the figures.

“That’s the buzz word and that’s what people are saying,” Kidwell said.

The company falls under the same guidelines as a restaurant, and therefore was not legally affected by the new labeling requirements.

Nutritional components such as saturated fat and calories are calculated annually by KU Dining Services’s computer system. While other schools including Kansas State University and Iowa State University offer full nutritional analyses online, information here is only available on-site in residential dining halls.

“The information is up there,” Kidwell said, but students have to use information such as portion size and fat and calorie content to make smart food choices.

Kidwell said KU Dining Services planned to post nutritional information online by the end of this year.

KU Dining Services also uses pure canola oil, low in trans fats, in their residential dining facilities, and is evaluating a trans fat free oil for its potential in the dining halls.

With new nutritional gimmicks arriving almost daily, the trans fat movement appeared no different than another Atkins diet. But cutting back on these fats could have a lasting effect on heart health.

“I don’t think this is a fad,” said Ann Chapman, registered dietitian at Watkins Memorial Health Center. She said fads equate to weight-loss whims that don’t necessarily work.

Cutting back on trans fats could lower bad cholesterol levels and the risk for heart diseases, which makes eating as few trans fats as possible the only healthy option, Chapman said.

The national attention focused on the issue led to some companies voluntarily revamping products to avoid including trans fats. Several snack foods, including Oreos, are now trans fat free.

Jeff Cronin, Center for Science in the Public Interest spokesman, said University food services should be taking action to cut back on trans fats. Using trans fat free oils for baking and deep-frying, an experiment under way at the University is essential, he said.

Cronin said the combination of bad saturated and trans fats and their negative effect on cholesterol creates a “doubly bad effect,” because each makes the other worse. Because there is no safe level of trans fat, he said, the best thing to do is avoid it completely.

“If you see a number for trans fat, shop around for a competing product,” he said.

Kansas State University already switched to trans fat free cooking oils.

Kansas State began offering nutritional information online in August 2004, including a build-a-meal option that allows students to get a nutritional breakdown for a menu of their choice.

Missy Schrader, registered dietitian with the Kansas State University Department of Housing and Dining Services, said the university provides the information as a service to students.

“With better choices hopefully comes better health,” she said.