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What are Trans Fats? – Why are They Dangerous?

What Are Trans Fats? – Why Are They Dangerous?

There is a lot of publicity these days on the dangers of trans-fats. Restaurants waive banners telling us that they use no trans-fats in their cooking. However, these banners and this publicity do not tell us what trans fats are and why they are dangerous.

What are Fats

Fats, along with proteins and carbohydrates, are one of the major components of all foods. Fats play an important role in providing us with energy and help our bodies absorb the vitamins A, D, E, and K. Fat in food gives the food taste and consistency. Fats are especially important to infants and children under two because of the high energy needs of this age group. Infants and small children have the highest energy needs of any age group.

What kind of Fats are there?

Fats come from two sources animal and vegetable. The principle animal fats are lard, tallow, butter and cheese and other products made from whole milk. The principle vegetable fats are the many vegetable oils, such as olive oil, sunflower seed oil, and many more.

Whether the fat comes from an animal source or a vegetable source, the fat is naturally either saturated or unsaturated. The saturated fats are a primary dietary cause of high cholesterol. The easiest way to tell if the fat is saturated or unsaturated is to see if it remains a solid when left at room temperature. If it does, it is a saturated fat, and should be avoided.

The naturally unsaturated fats come in two types: either polyunsaturated or monounsaturated. These types of fats are found in fish, nuts and some plant-based oils, such as olive oil, corn oil and sunflower oil. Note that this list is NOT exclusive, and there are other oils which are also unsaturated. While it is a good principle to limit the amount of fat that is consumed it is also wise to shift as much as possible to the polyunsaturated and monounsaturated oils when consuming fats.

Trans Fat.

Trans Fat is possibly the worst fat of all to consume. Sadly, it is also the most widely encountered. Trans Fat can contribute to obesity and can also contribute to shifting the balance between “bad” cholesterol and “good” cholesterol in your body. Trans Fats can raise the LDL, or "bad” cholesterol, and at the very same time, actually lower the HDL, or “good” cholesterol. So it is a real double trouble addition to our normal diets.

Trans Fat does not occur naturally. It is created when vegetable oils are put through a process of bubbling hydrogen through the oil, or hydrogenation. This process was developed about one hundred years ago.

The first hydrogenated fat product was Crisco. It was marketed as an effective alternative to animal fats such as lard. It enabled the large scale processing of food and created taste and texture compatibility in store-bought bakery products to home-made products. Furthermore, it extended the shelf-life of these products, and was relatively inexpensive to produce. Hydrogenated fat played an important role in producing the vast amount of convenience food that the United States demanded as it expanded in the 20th century, and at that time its health risks were not understood.

As the United State moved into the era of fast-food restaurants, the demand for low-cost food soared. Fast-food chains discovered that partially hydrogenated cooking oils did not go rancid as fast as other oils, and did not break down as rapidly in the high temperature environment of the fryer. Therefore, they were MUCH more economical to use.

Since January, 2006, the FDA has required listing Trans Fats on the food label. However, there is no such labeling requirement in any restaurant or fast-food outlet. Therefore, it is pretty likely that your morning doughnut or lunchtime french fries were prepared using a Trans Fat oil.

There are two obstacles to replacing the hydrogenated cooking oil in prepared foods and in convenience restaurants. The first is cost. A similarly priced cooking oil does not exist as yet to economically replace hydrogenated oil. The second is taste. The alternatives to Trans Fat oils do not duplicate the taste that we have come to expect in our bakery or fired products. So it appears that hydrogenated cooking oils will be with us for some time. It is therefore up to the health conscious consumer to make his or her own choices when it comes to fats.

To help you in determining fat content, it can be helpful to search on the internet. If at the Google (or other search engine) home page you enter “restaurant name nutrition information,” for example, “mcdonald’s nutrition information”, you will be directed to the company website and the information they choose to give you. Some websites are very helpful, and some are very vague. However, it is a starting point.

How Much Fat Should You Get?

There is no Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for fat. RDA is also called the Recommended Daily Intake, or RDI. In Canada it is called the Recommended Nutrient Intake, or RNI. In any case, in the United States, an RDA has been established ONLY for the following nutritional elements: protein, vitamin A, D, E, K and B6, B12, C, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folacin, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, zinc, iodine and selenium. The RDA for each of these nutrients has been set to meet the nutritional needs of over 98% of all normal healthy people in the US. It does not cover the special requirements of people with illness or disease. The RDA has a margin of safety built in so that if a healthy person is getting 70% of the RDA they will be fine. If a person has special needs, they should consult a registered dietitian for their specific case.

That having been said, the American Heart Association recommends that you should limit your total fat intake to Less Than 25 – 35 percent of your total calories. In our calculations we will take the middle and use 30% of your total calories coming from fat.

Furthermore, you should limit saturated fat intake to less than 7 percent of total daily calories; Finally, you should limit trans fat intake to less than 1 percent of total daily calories. Now food labels tell you how many grams of fat the food has. To make these figures match up, you need to know that one gram of fat has 9 calories.

Therefore, if you have a 2000 calorie per day diet, you should consume no more than 66 grams of fat. (2000 calories times 30% equals 600 calories. 600 calories divided by nine gives 67 grams of fat.)

Of this 66 grams of fat, no more than 15 grams should be saturated fat. (2000 calories times 7% equals 140 calories, which divided by nine gives you 15 grams).

Finally, you should consume no more than 2 grams of trans fat. (2000 calories times 1% equals 20 calories, divided by 9 gives 2 grams of trans fat).

The average diet in the United States is exceedingly high in fat. Given our busy lifestyles, it is very difficult to avoid fat, or even to shift to a healthier type of fat. Sadly, this means that the daily croissant or sweet roll should be avoided, or at least skipped on several days of the week. The lunchtime burger and fries should also be revised to lean more towards salads and fruit.

Restaurants are aware of these trends, and as you drive down the street you can see restaurants with signs out in front saying something to the effect of “We use no transfats in our cooking.” Although this is a good sign, it does not mean that you are on safe grounds in fat consumption. You still could be consuming way too much fat and especially saturated fat even if you are avoiding transfats.

There is no easy answer to this problem, however I hope that this article has at least provided information that will make us more aware of the scope of the problem.

About the Author

Mark Wallace is a free lance author who writes exensively on health, fitness, and lifestyle interests. He may be reached at questions@glowinghealthforlife.com

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