You may not be aware of it, but a major change was made to our food nutrition labels in January.

Trans fat has been nicknamed the "phantom" fat because until recently the FDA did not require it to be listed on food labels. Registered dietitian Jeanne Struve explains, "January 1st of this year, it is now required that every food manufacturer list the trans fatty acid on the food nutrition labels, which it really has been a long time coming. As a dietitian I have been eagerly awaiting that for quite a while."

Jeanne says that most trans fats in our diet are formed when vegetable oils are chemically changed to give them a longer shelf life. "If it's a fat and it's solid at room temperature, it will raise your bad cholesterol and it will clog up your arteries."

Jeanne also says to beware when you see trans fat free on the food label, the FDA only regulates the nutrition label, the front part of the food packaging is considered marketing and the free here doesn't really mean zero. "A food manufacturer can list the trans fats as zero if there's less than a half of gram pre serving."

How many of us actually consume just the serving size? Most of us know the answer to that but do you know the importance of nutrition labels? 14 year old Holly Strait says "I don't have a health class, and the classes we do talk about health in, they don't teach us to read our labels."

Bottom line: nutrition labels are important. Heart disease is the number one killer and the more trans fat you consume, the higher your risk for this condition.

Guidelines are still being revised but at this time the American Heart Association recommends that only 7% of your total calories be from trans fats. We should all try and keep our trans fat consumption as low as possible.