It finally happened, what I had been dreading ever since my daughter started having playdates away from my watchful eye. She came home from a friend’s house and sheepishly announced that she had eaten Chicken McNuggets from McDonald’s.

“Oh really,” I said nonchalantly, trying to hide my shock and disappointment.

Although I raised my daughter on organic produce with little to no processed foods, I knew this day would come. At age 8, she ate the dreaded meal made from highly processed reconstituted chicken that is battered, breaded, and mixed with toxic additives and preservatives, then fried in trans-fat-laden partially hydrogenated oil. “How did she know?” I asked, afraid to hear her answer. “Okay,” she replied. “I only ate two.” I was relieved. Then a few hours later, she had diarrhea. Since that day, she has not touched things.

But chicken nuggets are also made in fine restaurants where chefs fry the chicken pieces in partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, leaving them with up to 20 grams of fat, most of which is saturated, per 3-ounce serving. If you are looking for a healthier version, there are alternatives.

If you can’t remember the last time you made a meal from scratch, try making some unprocessed foods just once a week. Use butter and olive oil (even coconut oil) instead of margarine, which is high in trans fat. They taste better and seem to be better for you.

Chances are you are consuming trans fats without even knowing it. Many, possibly most restaurants, even upscale ones, cook their food in partially hydrogenated oil. Why should you care? Because when manufacturers add hydrogen to vegetable oil (a process called hydrogenation), artery-clogging trans fats are created, and scientists report that trans fats are harmful even in small amounts. They can clog the linings of blood vessels and brain surfaces, and are linked to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, and even sudden cardiac death.

You might be thinking that you or your kids only eat a store-bought cookie or two at a time, and maybe a few pretzels and a candy or two, so how bad could that be? Well, according to an analysis of data collected from the massive Harvard Nurses Study, a Harvard research group found that consuming just 1 gram of trans fat on a regular, daily basis likely increases your risk of heart disease by 20 percent. So let’s do the math: The FDA says that any food containing less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving “will be reported as zero.” That means if you eat a serving of cookies, chips, and pretzels, all with 0.4 grams per serving, you’ve just consumed 1.2 grams of trans fat, even though each of the labels claims the products contain 0 grams of trans fat. Per portion!

Yes, the food manufacturers are cheating us with this fishy math. The fact is, small amounts of trans fat add up, just like calories add up after one, two, and three handfuls of French fries. When it comes to trans fats, the concept of “moderation” doesn’t really apply. And just like MSG, trans fats are easy to cut out of your diet without feeling deprived. It’s also getting easier, as food companies are starting to phase out the use of trans fats.

One person who helped bring the evils of trans fats to light is Stephen Joseph, founder of BanTransFats.com. He is an attorney who sued Kraft/Nabisco in 2003 to ban the marketing and sale of trans fat-laden Oreos to children and to stop Kraft from distributing Oreos to young children in schools. As a result of the lawsuit, Kraft has agreed to reduce or eliminate trans fats in all of its cookies and crackers.

But you don’t have to threaten a lawsuit to get what you want! At restaurants, bakeries, and other places where you buy food without Nutrition Facts labels, ask what kind of oil or fat they use. Do not be shy. When you ask, you’re sending a message to the food vendor that you don’t want to eat trans fats. And try to think outside the box. . . literally. My daughter now enjoys eating Nori, strips of Japanese seaweed that she bought at a market that sells Asian specialties. She thinks they are green chips and I don’t correct her.