When healthy oil becomes dangerous

Trans fat = poison

If you think you are avoiding trans fat by not using fake foods like margarine or processed peanut butter.

Surprise! There is another way that you may be ingesting trans fat while thinking you are being "good". I'm talking about when good things go bad.

Suzanne Sommers has done decades of research into healthy eating and in her book, "Slim and Sexy Forever" she says:

"Trans fats also occur when we heat polyunsaturated fats (such as vegetable oil) to high temperatures for frying. I know it sounds ironic, but you are actually better off frying food in saturated fat - such as butter, lard, or palm kernel oil - or in monounsaturated fat - such as peanut oil - than you are frying it in polyunsaturated oil such as corn, safflower, or vegetable oil. We've been led to believe these polyunsaturated oils are a healthier choice, but beware of frying foods with them because when heated too high, they become the most unhealthy types of fats - trans fats.

In response to the fat scare, many restaurants and food chains boast that they fry only in "cholesterol-free" oils, such as vegetable, corn, or safflower oil. These "healthy" oils in their natural state become dangerous trans fats when heated to high temperatures for frying!"

Dangers of trans fats!!

DANGERS OF TRANS FATS
– in causing obesity and diabetes

The latest research into the dangers of trans fats in relation to obesity tells us that not all calories are equal. And certainly not all fats are equal.

In May 2006, researchers at Wake Forest University reported, after a six-year study, that calories from trans fats made laboratory monkeys fatter than calories from other forms of fat. And this was in spite of efforts by the researchers to prevent the monkeys from gaining weight, by placing them on a low calorie diet.

The researchers also found that calories from trans fats made the monkeys much fatter around the tummy.

Trans fats re-distributed body fat, moving fat from other parts of the body to the abdomen area, thereby creating the “pear-shape” figure that has been strongly associated with heart disease, diabetes and other illnesses.

Lawrence Rudel, Ph.D., who headed the research, declare that the dangers of trans fats are worse than anticipated.

Other scientists are now saying that we need to re-think the whole idea that weight gain depends on calorie intake – because the latest study shows that even low calorie diets can produce weight gain if those calories come from trans fats.

In the Wake Forest study, researchers were originally investigating the dangers of trans fats in causing arteriosclerosis, or plaque build-up in the arteries.

In the study, researchers fed 51 male vervet monkeys a western-style diet, which had 35 percent of their diet coming from fats. Half the monkeys got a lot of trans fat, totaling 8 percent of their total calorie intake. The other monkeys were fed unsaturated fats such as olive oil.

Both types of diets were calorie-controlled, as the researchers did not want the monkeys to put on weight. This was to ensure that whatever dangers of trans fats found during the research were due to trans fat intake, and not to other factors such as weight gain.

So in theory, the monkeys should not have gained weight. But they did.

Over six years -- equivalent to a 20-year span for humans -- the monkeys who ate unsaturated fats increased their body weight only marginally, by 1.8 percent. Monkeys that were given trans fats, however, put on 7.2 percent more weight.

Dangers of trans fats – diabetes

A 7.2 percent weight gain may not seem much. But it is significant for two reasons:

• The monkeys were not supposed to gain any weight at all
  
  
• Even a 5 percent weight gain is enough to increase a person's risk of diseases like diabetes.

Said Dr Kylie Kavanagh, who reported the findings at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in Washington:

"In the world of diabetes, everybody knows that just 5 percent weight gain or weight loss makes an enormous difference. This little difference was biologically quite significant."

The trans-fat eating primates also had higher blood glucose levels and were more insulin resistant than their counterparts. In other words, the monkeys were showing early signs of Type II diabetes or adult-onset diabetes.

Dangers of trans fats – beer bellies

More significant than the 7.2 percent weight gain was the fact that the monkeys developed “beer bellies”, putting on much more weight around the tummy.

“The trans-fat eaters also had about 33 percent more flab around their bellies. You can see white gobs of fat in these guys”, said Dr Kylie Kavanagh.

Click here to read about the dangers of trans fats in causing heart disease.

Source: http://www.stop-trans-fat.com/index.html

Trans Fats - Unsafe at any meal

Trans fats are dastardly! Here is a list of their damage on our systems:

* Lower HDL (the "good" one, which we want to be high)

* Raise LDL (the "bad" one, which we want to be low)

* Raise Lp(a), which promotes atherosclerosis and clotting (a bad thing)

* Reduce blood vessel function

* Promote obesity, diabetes and hypertension (really bad thing)

* Alter fat cell size and number (shudder! another really bad thing)

* Reduce cream in breast milk

* Reduce fertility and correlate with low birth weight

* Increase asthma

* Reduce immune response

* Interfere with the conversion and use of DHA and EPA

* Disrupt enzymes that metabolize carcinogens and drugs

* Damage cell membranes

* Create free radicals (Cancer! A really, really bad thing!)

Trans fats do a lot of damage in addition to causing heart disease. Recall that all of your cell walls are made of fat. Like natural fats, trans fats enter the tissues and become part of the cell membrane, where, unlike natural fats, they disrupt every cellular activity, from metabolism to immunity. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are walking around with cell walls made of trans fats, which have no place in the diet or the body.

The sooner we ban trans fats - as Denmark has - the better!

Credited to Nina Planck in her book: "Real Food - what to eat and why"

The Trans Fat Deception

0 Grams Trans Fat!

That is what the package says, but what does it mean? Could it be true?

You would think that if a package says zero grams of trans fats, then the food would have no trans fats in it, right?

Wrong! The label above lists partially hydrogenated vegetable oil as the third ingredient! (According to FDA guidelines, the ingredients must be listed in order - the most listed first, in order down to the least ingredient listed last).

If the food is broken down into serving sizes small enough so that there is less than 1/2 gram per serving, then they can put ZERO on the label. It appears that this is the case even if there is 0.49 grams of trans fat in that serving.

This is nothing new, however, and has been the case with regular fat as well for a long time. If a serving of a food had less than 1/2 gram of fat in it, then the manufacturer could put 0 grams fat on the label.

Why this is so important NOW is because trans fats are unlike any other fat - they are the worst fat out there. They wreak havoc with your body, causing irreparable damage to your cells.

What Trans Fats Do: They fool your body. Your cells are designed accept fatty acids - good fats. But trans fats are NOT good fats, and trick your cells. They are accepted by your body, but cannot be metabolized like a real fatty acid, and cannot be rejected. The integrity of your cell membrane is compromised and your cell is no longer able to function properly.

New Products Are Being Released...

That claim to be trans-fat free. Many truly are. Many are not. The only true way is to check the labels for ANY of these phrases:

* Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil
* Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil
* Partially Hydrogenated ANYTHING Oil
* Shortening
* Margarine

Trans Fat Free Margarine is being released now by many manufacturers. There is only one brand that we have seen that, when you check the ingredients, is truly trans fat-free, and that is Smart Balance (which can be found in most any grocery store).

The manufacturers that produce foods that claim to be trans fat-free (but contain trans-fats) rest their public position on the idea that the FDA has said that "the FDA .... recommends keeping your intake of both saturated and trans fats as low as possible."

Note that the manufacturer is lumping trans fats in with saturated fats as though they were even close to the same hazard - they are not.
(For the truth about Trans Fats and Saturated fats, we highly recommend reading this book: Trans Fats, by Judith Shaw).

How do they do it, then? Their explanation is with somewhat tricky language like this: "As a result, some products qualify, according to FDA guidelines, for 0g trans fat per serving although they have as one of their components partially hydrogenated vegetable oil."

The FDA has released new labeling guidelines that go into effect in 2006. Until that time, you will see many manufacturers adding the labels "No Trans Fats", "0 Grams Trans Fats", and other trans fat related information to their labels.

Unfortunately, the guidelines fall short, and there is only one way to truly know. That is to read the ingredient lists.

Trans Fat Tips:

** Zero Tolerance. Zero is the only amount of this poison that you should allow into your body.

** Read Ingredient Lists. Frustratingly, you cannot trust even the nutritional panel when it indicates "0 grams" of Trans Fats.

** Go Natural. You will find that natural foods (nuts, milk, butter, vegetables, fruits, etc) are all trans fat free.

** Choose Wisely. Olive oil for cooking. Butter for baking. Butter or Smart Balance as a condiment.

** No Margarine. Some claim to be trans fat free, but they aren't!



----FormulaZone Staff, November 28, 2004