By now you may have noticed that I’m never impressed by those labels slapped on packaged foods that shout “FAT FREE!”

These labels are designed to confound and misinform you and me. They hide important information, and use all kinds of numerical tricks to make sure you’re never quite fully aware of what you’re eating.

While fat is generally not your enemy (carbs are), the overwhelming scientific evidence for this fact is discussed in detail in my book, The Body Heals, 2nd Edition. You can order it at www.thebodyheals.com. However, there is one kind of fat we should be avoiding: trans fats that come from partially hydrogenated oils.

These largely unnatural fats had been a favorite of the fast food and snack industry for generations, until recent rules required them to be spelled out on package labels – and banned outright in some places.

And that’s given us an even more meaningless label slapped on product packages throughout the supermarket “TRANS FAT FREE!”

Not only is it meaningless because it tricks the consumer into thinking they’re buying something healthy, but it’s meaningless because it may not even be true.

It turns out there’s a loophole on that label regulation, one that means even those “trans fat free” products could have trans fats in them.

Manufacturers are often allowed or even required to round ingredients up or down. In some cases, they’re allowed to round down to zero, even when that ingredient is present in their product.

So, for example, the manufacturer of a product containing 0.49 grams of trans fat per serving can round that down to zero – and put “zero” in the trans fat column on the label and slap that “TRANS FAT FREE!” banner across the front of the package.

Remember, that’s per serving. Think of how small those serving sizes often are, especially when it comes to something like a buttery spread.

Many experts believe the limit on trans fat consumption should be around 2 grams per day. So if you have just four servings of a “trans fat free” product that really has 0.49 grams, you’ve already just about reached that limit – without even realizing it.

It’s sad, because in recent years consumers have gotten much better at reading product labels and trying to understand what’s in their food. Yet at the same time, companies have gotten so much better at hiding information from us.

There is a way to avoid the worst of the trans fats altogether: Skip packaged foods, snacks and frozen meals. Enjoy your fish, steaks, poultry and veggies – the healthy items you find in the perimeter of the supermarket.

Some of these products have a certain amount of natural trans fats, but if you’re eating right overall you don’t have to worry about those.

Remember, the best foods don’t have a label to mislead you – because nature didn’t put them into a package.

Sometimes, it feels like each new day brings another threat to our health.

Getting lost in the headlines because of the swine flu panic is a report on the rise of powerful new superbugs responsible for deadly pneumonia cases.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections – and that’s a mouthful, so we can call it MRSA for short – have been increasingly common in hospitals in recent years.

But now they’re starting to appear out in the community, according to a study published in Lancet Infectious Diseases in May. And that is truly troubling, because it means these superbugs may be present in the places we live, work, eat and play.

These MRSA infections can manifest themselves in a number of ways, especially when they’re acquired in hospitals. Some people suffer from boils. But others can suffer from severe infections of the blood and lungs, and at surgery sites.

The one thing they have in common: They’re very difficult to treat. In most cases, it takes intravenous antibiotics, but these infections can also be fatal.

The superbug pneumonia commonly appears after a flu-like illness – which makes this even more frightening when you consider the recent swine flu outbreak.

Researchers aren’t quite sure how many people are suffering from the superbug pneumonia acquired outside of hospitals, but they do believe it’s fatal 50 percent of the time.

But don’t panic.

There are few surefire ways of avoiding these powerful new bugs, aside from shutting yourself away from the rest of the world, but there are ways to dramatically reduce your risk.

Of course, washing your hands frequently can help reduce your exposure to the microscopic villains, but you need to go a lot further than that and help your body stay strong.

You need to eat right, make sure you’re getting all the right nutrients, get a good night’s sleep on a regular basis, and get some exercise. It’s simple – but not simplistic. The truth is, your body’s immune system is a direct result of the things you put into it.

If you’re overweight and loading up on carbs, like so many other Americans, then the odds are strong that your immune system is a mess.

And that means you’re not only more likely to get ill, you’re more likely be stay sicker longer – and I’m not just talking about these new superbugs.

So eat better, get quality sleep, and exercise more, and you’ll truly be in “fighting shape” – ready to fight off any threat to your immune system, giving you a better chance of getting healthier more quickly.

We’ve been hearing a lot lately about health effects of booze in our lives.

Just last week I told you about research that shows how moderate drinkers live longer, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I enjoy my scotch on the rocks, and know how good it feels to open a cold can of beer on a hot summer day.

But when you start drinking heavily to deal with your problems – or, more accurately, to avoid dealing with your problems – you could be starting yourself down a road towards serious trouble.

A new study confirms what most of us already know – but plenty of people somehow still can’t avoid: Heavy drinking to cope with the blues can lead to alcoholism and depression.

The study, published in the August edition of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, followed more than 5,000 twins aged 30 or older.

They found that people who drink heavily to improve their mood are at greater risk of both alcoholism and depression. They also found that this appears to be an inherited trait, and it’s more likely to happen to men than women.

Remember, alcohol is a beverage and a treat to savor, and it can even lift your spirits or help you unwind when you need it. Not even the authors of this study take issue with that.

But when you start drinking too much, too often, as a means of dealing with life’s bigger challenges, it becomes more than a treat.

It turns into a problem.

Just about any healthy behavior can become unhealthy if you turn to it again and again as a coping mechanism. Eating can become a hazard when it’s used as a psychological crutch. Other people turn to more traditional vices, such as gambling.

Most folks won’t get into any trouble if they bring $20 to a weekly poker night, even if they lose it all. But when it becomes about something other than a fun night out, then just like eating, drinking or any number of conditions, it can become an addiction and a real problem.

Battling any addiction can be a challenge, and often the best way to win is to end it before it starts.

Remember, drinking alone won’t solve a thing. Country music is filled with songs like “The Bottle Let Me Down,” where this kind of heavy drinking fails to stop the pain.

So if you find yourself reaching for that bottle – or anything else that could be habit-forming or unhealthy, for that matter – think twice before you sing that song.

Stop now before the problems start, and you’ll save yourself from a world of pain.

Here’s one more reason to avoid psychiatric drugs: There’s a possibility they could contribute to sudden cardiac death.

New research has found that folks who die from cardiac arrest were more likely to have taken one of the three most common kinds of psychiatric drugs – antipsychotics, antidepressants and benzodiazepines, used commonly to treat anxiety.

Finnish researchers looked at the medications taken by 321 victims of cardiac death and compared it against the drugs used by 609 patients who survived heart attacks, and presented their findings at the annual meeting of the Heart Rhythm Society, held in May.

And they found that that nearly 11 percent of those who died were taking antipsychotics, versus just 1.4 percent of the survivors. There were also discrepancies with antidepressants (7.4 percent versus 3 percent) and benzodiazepines (18.4 percent versus 5 percent).

When you consider how over-prescribed these meds are in the first place, that’s a lot of people who could be facing an increased risk.

More research is needed before anyone can say for certain whether there’s a real link between these drugs and sudden cardiac death. As a result, the researchers say there’s no reason to give anyone advice based on this information just yet.

But I will, because my advice is based on everything else we already know about these dangerous drugs.

It’s not hard to see how this could be true when you consider all the other side effects of psychiatric drugs.

When you consider the stakes – your life – and the fact that there are viable, effective alternatives to drugs like antidepressants, there’s really no reason to take this risk.

As I’ve mentioned before, I rarely prescribe antidepressants to my patients. When I do, it’s often a short-term solution when there’s no other choice, to help them get by while we work to identify and fix the underlying problem.

These alternatives are real, they work, and they’re safe.