The Skinny On Trans Fats

New York City, Philadelphia, and Seattle have already banned trans fats. Cali is the first to institute a statewide ban.

What makes these fatties so bad?

This week California became the first state to ban trans fats. All restaurants must stop using trans fats by 2010 proclaimed the well-toned Schwarzenegger. But what's the big deal? Why are the little buggers so bad? We did some digging, and found out trans fats are mostly in fast food and junk food (shocking), and at the risk of sounding melodramatic, it's sort of like eating...formaldehyde. Here's what we found:

• Trans fats are created when hydrogen is pumped into hot liquid oil (yummy), resulting in an inexpensive fat that preserves food (for example, an unwrapped Twinkie will be edible for 25 days!) and makes it look pretty (stays a lovely orange or yellow dye color for your pleasure). Gag.

• Trans fat is like a slow release of poison into your body. Trans fats lower good cholesterol while upping bad cholesterol. Your bod has to process this chemical, which means harder work for your liver and skin.

• Eating two percent more trans fats (eating McDonald's weekly, for example), increases the likelihood of developing heart disease by 25 percent, not to mention increases thighs, muffin tops, and rear ends.

• Seem harmless? In the '70s M&Ms faced a "ban" for using red dye #2. Turns out the carcinogenic dye was on other candies, but M&Ms pulled the red candies anyway.