It seems the message on trans fats is not getting through. If it is, most people seem to be ignoring it anyway. There's just no helping some people. It would seem that the initiatives against trans fats recently recommended by the World Health Organization will be needed since simple consumer education is insufficient.

Trans fat is formed when liquid oils are partially hydrogenated in order to make them into solid fats like shortening and hard margarine. The process increases the shelf life and flavor stability of foods. These qualitues make their use attractive to food maufacturers so they tend to use them in preference to natural fats and oils. This might not seem so bad, except for the fact that trans fats are devastatingly bad for health. No let me say that more correctly, trans fats cause disease.

Remember, trans fats have been found to raise blood levels of 'bad' (LDL) cholesterol which can slowly build up in the inner walls of the arteries that feed the heart and brain resulting in atherosclerosis, thereby increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

But do people even know this? Well, a lot do, but that doesn't means they act wisely, or even rationally, based on simply knowing the dangers. Consumerresearch conducted by the Hartman Group reveals that initiatives such as labeling requirements or banning trans fats in restaurants are likely to have only a minimal impact on consumer behavior.

The survey, was designed to gauge peoples' understanding of the artery clogging trans fatty acids. It divided consumers into three groups according to their level of commitment to a healthy lifestyle: periphery, mid-level and core wellness consumers.

As might be expected, consumers who are more involved in a health and wellness lifestyle (core wellness consumers) are more likely to understand the origins and the effects of trans fats, and make more efforts to read labels and avoid them. Most consumers, however, have only a vague and general definition of what trans fats are, and they are often unable to clearly articulate the difference between this fat and others, such as polyunsaturated fat.

Interestingly, a small number of periphery and mid-level consumers even believe that trans fats are the ‘good' fats, although most understand these are ‘bad' fats, but do not necessarily know why. Clearly there is some more work required in consumer health education.

Where consumers do associate trans fats with a health risk, the concerns most typically cited are heart disease and weight gain, although they weren't very confident about this. According to the Hartman Group's findings, most consumers associate trans fats with snack foods (such as potato chips), fast food (such as French fries) and margarine.

What is cause for concern however, is that the group's findings also reveal that concern about trans fats generally does not determine the types of products people choose to consume. The bottom line is that  those consumers least likely to follow a healthy lifestyle generally are not sufficiently motivated to engage in any consistent avoidance strategy, even if they do believe that trans fat is bad for health.

Where people do make an effort to limit trans fat intake, this normally comes in the form of reducing consumption of fried food. In the survey 42 percent of consumers indicated this behavior. Predictably, this is much more common among core wellness consumers (64 percent) than among periphery consumers (23 percent).

Those people who do make efforts to avoid trans fats generally tend to do so as a result of health triggers, such as a recent relevant diagnosis, or the presence of an existing health condition. This is fine, but it is rather like closing the gate after the horse has bolted. Fortunately, concern about the nutrition of one's children can also act as a motivator.