What exactly is a trans fat? Most people aren’t exactly sure, but they’ve gotten the general idea that trans fats, whatever they are, are bad for you.
As of 2018, partially hydrogenated oils are no longer allowed in U.S. food products.
In 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration decided that the man-made trans fats found in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils were unsafe for human consumption and gave food manufacturers three years to eliminate them from their products. As of 2018, partially hydrogenated oils are no longer allowed in U.S. food products.
Long before the official ban was announced, however, trans fats had gotten a pretty bad reputation. Manufacturers were already moving to get the trans fats out of their products—or at least make it look as if they have. But have you ever wondered what they’ve replaced them with?
Let's take a closer look and answer the questions:
- What are trans fats?
- Why are you supposed to avoid trans fats?
- What are some alternatives to trans fats?
What are trans fats?
First, what exactly is a trans fat? I don’t want to spend too much time on the chemistry, even though it’s really kind of interesting. Suffice it to say that a trans fat is an unsaturated fat that has acquired all the bad habits of a saturated fat, and adopted a few new ones just for spite.
Like saturated fats, trans fats raise your LDL (or “bad”) cholesterol. To make matters worse, they also lower your HDL (or “good”) cholesterol. Plus, trans fat molecules are harder for the body’s enzymes to take apart, so they are more prone to ride around in your arteries, looking for trouble to get into.
A trans fat is an unsaturated fat that has acquired all the bad habits of a saturated fat, and adopted a few new ones just for spite.
Because of all this, experts now consider trans fat to be a bigger factor in heart disease than saturated fat. And although formal charges have yet to be filed, trans fat is also being eyed for various other crimes, including acting as an accomplice in the development of Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes, and infertility.
What foods contain trans fats?
It may surprise you to learn that not all trans fats are man-made. Dairy products and some meats contain small amounts of naturally-occurring trans fats. But these are not the ones that we’re concerned about. First of all, they don’t add up to very much. Secondly, there’s research to show that these natural trans fats aren’t as dangerous as the man-made ones.
There’s research to show that natural trans fats aren’t as...
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