Tuesday, November 08, 2005
This article was reported on straits times, a definitely reliable source. read about it..i know its long, but still, for your health sake, do read it. its very important!!
Pub Date: Feb 26, 2005 Pub: ST
FOR two decades now, people have been admonished to give animal fats a wide
berth because these saturated fats can raise one's blood cholesterol
levels. Many health-care professionals have made their careers telling
people to use vegetable oils instead, since their unsaturated fats may
lower one's blood cholesterol levels.
Naturally, liquid vegetable oils were also hardened to use in place of
animal fats. This is still done by boiling them in the presence of a metal
catalyst and lots of hydrogen. The industrial process, called
hydrogenation, produces margarine, vegetable shortening and others
generically called 'partially hydrogenated vegetable oils'.
Unfortunately, no one bothered to investigate if hardened vegetable oils
were also better than animal fats like butter, lard or tallow. We now
know that they are not. In fact,they are worse than animal fats because
hydrogenation produces an intense artery clogger called trans fats.
The epidemic of heart disease that seemed to have begun in the mid-20th
century may not have been caused, as is popularly believed, by a modern
diet too high in animal fats, but by the introduction of trans fats into
our diets.
Trans fat is really bad news. Last week, McDonald's agreed to settle a
US$8.5 million (S$13.8 million) lawsuit accusing it of misleading the
public after it had vowed in September 2002 to use healthier oils in all
its stores by February 2003. Today, it still delivers 6gm of trans fat in
its large order of fries, for instance.
The problem is that trans fat can clog up the pipes feeding the heart and
brain, resulting in heart attacks or strokes. Beginning in 1990, research
started to show that trans fat not only increase one's 'bad' (LDL)
cholesterol, but also reduce one's 'good' (HDL) cholesterol that helps
clean the insides of our arteries, an effect that even saturated fats don't
have. Large population studies have since confirmed the worst fears.
In 1999, a 21-year follow-up of 832 men in Massachusetts, the United
States, from the world-famous Framingham Study showed that margarine intake
significantly increased the risk of heart attacks in men. Then, that
largest of investigations into chronic diseases in women called the Nurses'
Health Study, conducted by Harvard dons, showed that trans fats double the
risk of heart disease in women.
Other large studies indicate that a given amount of trans fat causes more
heart disease than the same amount of saturated fats In 2002, the Institute
of Medicine (the US government's top medical advisers) finally concluded
that, compared to other fats, the only safe level of trans fat in the diet
was zero.
So you want to avoid it, but how to track the villain down? Look for it in
the 'Nutrition Information' label or 'Nutrition Facts' panel on the box or
wrapping of your loaf of bread, cookies, crackers, chips, frozen pastry
like pies and pizzas or curry puffs and prata. However, the label won't
usually say 'trans fats'. Instead, it is more likely to say 'partially
hydrogenated vegetable oils'. Fast food outlets here, including McDonald's,
Burger King and MOS Burger, all use partially hydrogenated oil in their
deep-fat fryers and on their griddles, because it can take repeated heating
without breaking down or compromising taste.
Why is it used so widely? Compared to animal fats, vegetable oils in liquid
form go bad faster, can't withstand the high temperatures in deep fryers,
and make batter or dough runny. In frying dough to make doughnuts, for
example, liquid oils cause glazes to crack because they don't solidify the
same way that harder animal fats do. Once partially hydrogenated, however,
it can be repeatedly heated, while helping products remain fresh and even
look better. On the shelf, for example, it keeps oil from separating out of
peanut butter. It is also partially hydrogenated fats that make the crumb
in baked products like cakes or breads soft and easy to chew. They provide
the food its structure, stand up, creaming and 'mouth feel' by adding
moisture, lubricity, pliability, flakiness and airiness.
But trans fat also kills. Until 1990, trans fats were deemed to be more
like good unsaturated fats. In fact, it was only in 1990 that McDonald's
replaced beef tallow with partially hydrogenated soybean oil. Now, we have
come full circle. But while nutrition science wants to revise its dietary
recommendations, the medical community isn't exactly aggressively warning
people about trans fats yet. After all, from the 1980s, physicians have
been assiduously advising all and sundry to use margarine instead of
butter. How to backpedal now?
Still, with the McDonald's story - and recent news that US food companies
will declare the levels of trans fats in their foods by January next year,
and Canadian firms by 2007 - perhaps consumers will sit up and take notice.
However, no one knows yet how large a market for 'trans-reduced' or
'virtually trans-free' or 'trans-free' products will there be. Eventually,
it will all come down to consumer demand.
You won! 1:41 AM
