Deadly Donuts, Fatal Fries"Not only will a doughnut a day not keep the doctor away, it should increase your chances of having a heart attack or needing bypass surgery by roughly 40 percent."
By Syd Baumel
We grew up fearing animal fat, with a warm fuzzy feeling about margarine. But lately we've learned there's a skeleton in margarine's closet: trans fatty acids, also known as trans fats.Rare in natural foods, trans fatty acids abound in the partially hydrogenated vegetable oils of which most margarines, especially hard, stick margarines, are made. For years, researchers have been quietly discovering that trans fatty acids are at least as unhealthy as the saturated fatty acids that give animal fat and tropical vegetable oils their bad name. Last June, a review in the New England Journal of Medicine just about nailed the case against trans fatty acids to the wall.
Alberto Ascherio, a physician and Doctor of Public Health at the Department of Nutrition of the Harvard School of Public Health, and four associates reported that the amount of trans fatty acids consumed by the average American—though just 2 percent of total calories—was associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease of between 14 and 93 percent in three major studies. These studies and others suggest that, gram for gram, trans fatty acids pose a much greater risk to cardiovascular health than saturated fat. Why?
Saturated fat increases blood levels of bad, artery-clogging LDL cholesterol. But trans fatty acids go further: they also decrease blood levels of good, artery-protective HDL cholesterol.
"[T]he net effect of trans fatty acids on the ratio of LDL cholesterol to HDL cholesterol is approximately double that of saturated fatty acids," Ascherio et al. wrote. In a study they conducted, Bostonians whose intake of trans fatty acids from hydrogenated vegetable oils was in the top 20 percent were two and a half times as likely to have a heart attack as those whose intake was in the bottom 20.
"Worst of all are the oils used and reused day after day in restaurants. They typically contain over 30 percent trans fatty acids, making deep-fried fast foods as deadly as they are delectable."
What puts a person in the top 20?
"[T]he consumption of one doughnut at breakfast (3.2 g of trans fatty acids) and a large order of french fries at lunch (6.8 g of trans fatty acids) adds 10 g of trans fatty acids to one's diet and represents 5 percent of the total energy intake on an 1800-calorie diet," Ascherio and associates pointed out. Not only will a doughnut a day not keep the doctor away, it should increase your chances of having a heart attack or requiring bypass surgery roughly 40 percent. But that's not all!
Trans fatty acids are more likely than saturates to interfere with noncardiovascular processes in the body. Trans are the "evil twin brothers" of the cis fatty acids that naturally abound in vegetable oils. They have been mutated from cis to trans by extreme heat. In the body, while trans fatty acids can impersonate cis, they can't be put to the same constructive use, whether as precursors to prostaglandins (important hormonelike substances), components of supple cellular membranes, or for other vital functions. Trans are strictly bad news—the worst kind of fat you can eat, according to the Harvard scientists.
It's not just hydrogenated margarines that harbour these mutant fats. Extreme heat processing ensures that refined cooking oils are a significant source too, compounded by frying with them. Worst of all are the oils used and reused day after day in restaurants. They typically contain over 30 percent trans fatty acids, making deep-fried fast foods as deadly as they are delectable. Baked goods and other store-bought foods prepared with refined cooking oil or partially hydrogenated fat also are pretty poisons.
Government regulatory agencies are mobilizing to make food manufacturers include trans fatty acid content on their labels. But the Harvard scientists advocate a stronger stand:
Want to know the best way to promote weight loss? Simply by reading your nutrition facts you can live longer and enjoy a healthy lifestyle! Watch those fats and sugars and you will be well on your way to living a healthy and happy life! "Given the proper incentives, the food industry could replace a large proportion of the partially hydrogenated fats used in foods and food preparation with unhydrogenated oils. Such a change would substantially reduce the risk of coronary heart disease at a moderate cost. . ."In the meantime, you can just say no to trans fatty acids:by avoiding obvious sources, such as any food with "hydrogenated" in its list of ingredients; by switching to nonhydrogenated margarines (though some critics are wary of the genetically engineered Canola oil these margarines usually feature and their small modified tropical oil content) or small amounts of butter (in Transition to Vegetarianism, Rudolph Ballentine, M. D., makes the little-publicized, but scientifically well-supported case that milk fat—including butter—actually has anticancer, antiaging, and other health benefits); by using only unrefined vegetable oils (these include "first press" and extra virgin oils, but not "cold pressed" oils, which can be destructively processed); by not overheating or reheating fats and oils; and by using only naturally saturated fat (e.g., ghee/clarified butter, lard, tropical oils) or highly monounsaturated oils (peanut oil, sesame oil) if you have to fry or roast at high heat. Saturated fats can withstand it much better than unsaturates.
Still confused? So are the scientists. A great guide for the perplexed is Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill, by Vancouver nutritionist Udo Erasmus.
- For a wider selection of books on dietary fat at Amazon.com click here.
- Read about a survey of trans fats in commonly eaten foods by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
- Here's how the FDA is handling the problem—and their informative fact sheet. Stay tuned here to see if Health Canada follows suit.
Aquarian editor Syd Baumel has been writing about natural health and medicine since the 1980s. The second, expanded edition of his book Dealing with Depression Naturally will be published by Keats in July 2000.
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