You probably all noticed a little while ago when the Institute of
Medicine proclaimed that the only safe level of trans fats in the human
diet is zero, and gave their support to the new labelling guidelines the
FDA is planning. It seems to me they botched it, though, by saying they
couldn't propose an outright ban on trans fats since they are in a lot
of meats and dairy products, and that it would be hard to eat an
adequate diet without consuming some trans fats. When they say there are
trans fats in meat and dairy I guess they must be talking about CLA.
Natural CLA in grassfed meat, dairy, and game (the great anti-cancer,
antioxidant stuff that also helps you burn fat and build muscle) is
actually a trans fat created by bacteria in the rumen working on the LNA
in grass.
  I guess there are a lot of different trans fats. Are the
factory-formed ones created by hydrogenation bad for you and the
naturally occurring ones in our paleo foods good for you? I suspect it
may not be that simple, and am wondering whether anyone has access to
specific information about the different trans fats. I remember reading
somewhere recently that the CLAs in meat have the antioxidant anticancer
properties, but not the mucle-building and fat-burning properties, and
the CLA in Tonalin supplements have just the opposite.