The Bad Fats: Trans and Saturated Fat
Trans fat is formed when hydrogen is added to oil to produce partially hydrogenated shortening and margarine. Saturated fat differs from trans fat in that it is harder and more stable, being fully saturated with hydrogen. Both of these can raise (bad) LDL cholesterol; however, trans fat also decreases (good) HDL cholesterol.
To Be Safe
Both the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the National Academies of Science recommend keeping intake of trans fat as low as possible and limiting saturated fat to less than 10% of total calories (a limit of 20gm of saturated fat per day in a 2000 calorie diet).
Junk Food and How it Kills
Americans consume abundant trans and saturated fat in processed and fast foods such as French fries, chicken nuggets, doughnuts, cookies, and chips. A high intake of saturated fat increases cholesterol and fat deposition on the arterial walls. This results in the formation of hardened plaque and eventually creates the stiff, narrow blood vessels of atherosclerosis, a heartbeat away from a stroke or heart attack.
Be Safe
Replace these harmful facts with monosaturated and polyunsaturated fats (vegetable oils, especially olive oil). Research shows that risk of high cholesterol and heart disease is reduced most effectively when both saturated and trans fats in the diet are replaced with unsaturated fats. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition May 2003
Manufacturers Are Very Tricky
You can look on the Nutrition Facts panel of most foods to see the trans and saturated fat content. Be aware that often when trans fat is removed from food products, it is replaced with saturated fat.
If “Zero Trans Fat” is displayed on the package, check the ingredient list for hydrogenated veg oil. Manufacturers are permitted to make this claim if a serving has less than .5 mg of trans, even if the serving is ridiculously small.
Some manufacturers, Pepperidge Farm for one, are putting a very slightly altered form of shortening in their goods which has very similar properties to trans fat. It is named interesterified fat; watch out for it.
What to Use
There are a number of non-hydrogenated tub margarines that may be beneficial as they have less saturated fat than butter, but it’s difficult to know if they are altogether safe. Butter is a natural food and can probably be trusted more than something that came out of a food scientist’s kitchen.
The margarines that contain plant sterols have been shown to be effective for lowering cholesterol, but will we find out later that they have some other detrimental effect? In the past 50 years there have been such complete reversals on what’s best and healthiest and what’s not that I tend to not trust artificial food concoctions even if they have some good data to report.
