Reuters: Trans fat alternative may have its own problems

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=healthNews&storyid=2007-01-24T172701Z_01_COL459548_RTRUKOC_0_US-TRANS-FAT.xml

Trans fat alternative may have its own problems

Wed Jan 24, 2007 12:27 PM ET

By Amy Norton

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Cholesterol-raising trans fats may be disappearing from supermarket shelves and restaurants, but one type of fat taking their place may be no healthier, new research suggests.

...

However, one of those replacement fats -- so-called interesterified fats -- may carry their own health threats, according to a study published in the journal Nutrition & Metabolism.

The interesterified oils may not only lower HDL levels but also cause a significant rise in blood sugar, researchers found.

...

Interesterified fats are already being used as a replacement for trans fats in commercial foods. "It's probably the number-one process to replace trans fats," Hayes noted.

The current findings, he said, suggest that more research is needed before the fats become the new standard.

Hayes said consumers can find out whether their newly "trans-fat-free" crackers and cookies have interesterified fats by looking for "fully hydrogenated oil" on the package's ingredient list.

If the ingredients simply list the type of oil -- canola or corn, for example -- then the fat is present "as nature intended it," Hayes noted.

SOURCE: Nutrition & Metabolism, online January 15, 2007.

Study available here:
http://www.nutritionandmetabolism.com/content/4/1/3

[demo dutch]

1. "as nature intended it," is the key to all food issues!!

[tridim]

3. Well, technically lard is "as nature intended it" too.

[killbotfactory]

12. And Lard contains no trans-fat

http://www.thehealthierlife.co.uk/article/3378/trans-fatty-acids.html

[tridim]

13. That's an eye opener

I had no clue it didn't have trans-fat.

I switched back to butter about 10 years ago for similar reasons.

[LostinVA]

22. Lard is okay in small doses, just like butter

No trans fat.

I can't fathom why people eat margarine - which is way worse for you than the real deal, and doesn't taste as good as butter (especially for cooking and baking).

[redqueen]

29. Awww...

I never even liked butter until I found this margarine made with olive oil. That stuff is delicious!

[Recursion]

48. Anybody old enough to remember when margarine was grey?

The dairy lobby made them sell it undyed so people would be grossed out.

And, seriously, margarine is gross. If you ever want to give up on margarine just google for how they make it. Plain, simple, organic butter is great for me...

[Recursion]

47. Lard is probably one of the healthier fat sources around

Why it, of all fats, got such a bad name is beyond me. I cook with it.

[truthisfreedom]

67. I always cook my eggs in bacon fat if I'm makin' bacon, but like the bacon itself,

I thoroughly drain them on paper towels by patting them down.

And I totally believe in butter.

[all.of.me]

21. Take all the processed foods off the shelf...

...and we'd be fine! The way they keep manipulating food makes my blood boil. Just leave it alone! It comes from the plant and the animal just fine the way it is.

If we shop the walls of the store, we're ok. Stay out of the aisles where the garbage is. We should not have to read labels to eat. Food should not have a list of ingredients, esp with words no one can pronounce.


:eyes:

[TechBear_Seattle]

23. Unfortunately, that won't necessarily help

Nearly all fruits and vegetables contain toxic subtances, and not just from pesticides and fertilizers. Poisons that have seeped into the water supply, carcinogenic chemicals and sulfur compounds that fall with the rain and pollution brought in from distant cities by the weather, just to get started. Then there is the fact that most of the US' farm soil is worn out: studies have been done that show most foods are not as nutritious as they used to be, because the trace elements needed to make vitamins have never been replaced.

It is no longer possible to eat healthy, even if you stick with organic vegetables that you grow yourself. It has become a matter of minimizing health risks as much as possible.

[all.of.me]

50. I know all that.

But don't you think that fresh, natural food is better for you than processsed foods with tons of artificial ingredients, fillers, plastic, and so on? Eating fresh and natural has got to be better for you than ingesting (and probably not digesting) things like polysorbate 80, EDTA, and bastardized oils/fats.

[Morgana LaFey]

38. It's all about $$$$

Making foods last longer, for one thing (on the shelf). Take the "living, vital stuff" out of the food and not even the vermin want it. But WE eat it, oh boy!

[all.of.me]

51. yeah, so we eat it and they continue to create it.

it's a vicious cycle.

[LisaM]

2. This constant battle to read all food labels pisses me off

Why not just insist that our food supply be safe?

Not only that, I can barely read the labels half the time.

[Liberal Veteran]

16. I agree wholeheartedly.

Let's say you already spend an hour every week shopping for groceries which is about average.

If you get 100 items (which isn't too much) and spend 2 minutes reading each label to ensure they contain everything you want and nothing you don't want, you could easily spend 3 or 4 hours just grocery shopping (assuming of course that you pick up an item and read the ingredients and have to move to the next similar item and read its ingredients until you find a suitable healthy food free of trans fats, etc).

That's a hell of a lot of time to spend when you still have so many other things to do during the week.

[tandot]

36. This is exactly how I am feeling

It takes me longer and longer to go shopping. You have to look at everything - nutrition label and ingredient list...trans-fats, high fructose corn syrup, and all the other sh*t companies put in to save money.

Then they are allowed to call their product "healthy" names like "multi-grain" or "whole wheat" with the "made with" in very small print (which means it may just have a small amount of whole wheat).

I just gave my neighbor a whole box of Granola bars I bought at Costco because we didn't see that it had high fructose corn syrup in it.

[Morgana LaFey]

39. Are there any health problems in your family?

And are all familiy members at their ideal weight?

If not, you shouldn't be buying hardly anything in a box or a bag with a label. If SO, you shouldn't be buying hardly anything in a box or a bag with a label so you can all STAY healthy.

Really.

[tandot]

46. Not buying anything out of the box is the ideal

but not everybody can do that.

We are healthy and buy fresh products as much as possible. However, we just don't have the time to make our own pasta, cheeses, yogurts, breads, fruit juices, or can our own tomatoes and vegetables, etc. I am away from home for 12 hours each day.

[LisaM]

52. I guess you just have to learn to know your brands

and make things from scratch.

I do know there's two kinds of pop I can buy, for instance. Boylan Bottleworks and Whole Foods. I just found out that Reser's frozen vegetarian burritos have trans fats in them!

Maybe it's time to start hectoring the grocery stores about the brands they carry. Costco is actually a decent company with a lot of clout. If they change their buying habits, it would have a ripple effect.

[tandot]

54. They now also carry Kashi granola bars and crackers

with zero trans-fats or refined sugars, which I now buy instead of the other brand that has all the junk in it.

I was trying to make my own granola bars with little success (they were awful). And it just takes too much time to make everything from scratch.

[LisaM]

60. Does the Nature Valley brand have trans fats?

They are the only ones I eat anyway.

All the crackers I've bought at Whole Foods have been horrible. They can't seem to do bread very well. Once I got these hot dog buns that they raved over and they disintegrated in my hands the second I took them out of the wrapper.

[tandot]

68. No trans fats but high fructose corn syrup which is just as bad

That is the reason I gave them away. High fructose corn syrup is as bad (if not worse) than trans fats. And the bad thing is that you'll find fructose in lots of things from sodas, breads, juice, yogurts...just look at the ingredient lists of things you have at home. Here is just one article but I've read lots of research on it (just google "high fructose corn syrup"):


http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A8003-2003Mar10?language=printer

<snip>
Fructose is a different story. It "appears to behave more like fat with respect to the hormones involved in body weight regulation," explains Peter Havel, associate professor of nutrition at the University of California, Davis. "Fructose doesn't stimulate insulin secretion. It doesn't increase leptin production or suppress production of ghrelin. That suggests that consuming a lot of fructose, like consuming too much fat, could contribute to weight gain." Whether it actually does do this is not known "because the studies have not been conducted," said Havel.

Another concern is the action of fructose in the liver, where it is converted into the chemical backbone of trigylcerides more efficiently than glucose. Like low-density lipoprotein -- the most damaging form of cholesterol -- elevated levels of trigylcerides are linked to an increased risk of heart disease. A University of Minnesota study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2000 found that in men, but not in women, fructose "produced significantly higher levels" than did glucose. The researchers, led by J.P Bantle, concluded that "diets high in added fructose may be undesirable, particularly for men."

Other recent research suggests that fructose may alter the magnesium balance in the body. That could, in turn, accelerate bone loss, according to a USDA study published in 2000 in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.
<snip>

[LisaM]

71. Oh, okay. I've cut that out too.

It really bothers me that our food supply has been manipulated this way, while we ourselves are blamed for rising obesity levels.

[Robbien]

4. Now that the FDA is in the hands of the corporatists

let the rule "Buyer beware" be your guide.

In the marketplace noone is on your side but you.

[brentspeak]

5. Good grief, is there no way to prevent getting our arteries from being clogged?

I've been using trans-fat free margarine for about a year now. Now I find out that all I did was simply pick another poison.

[Javaman]

31. use real butter, never ever use that margarine crap.

People have been eating butter for thousands of years, but it's odd that only in the 20th century the rate of heart disease skyrocketed. Why? because of corn based products.

dump the margarine and go back to real butter.

[Critters2]

42. Use real oils in their natural state--olive oil, etc--not as solids

Butter is full of saturated fat and cholesterol. And the environmental damage done by large scale animal agriculture should also steer people away from animal-based foods.

I simply use oils--not butter, not margarine, oils.

[brentspeak]

62. What about corn itself?

[Recursion]

49. Yes: real, unprocessed, non-hydrogenated oils

Olive oil, peanut oil, butter, lard, tallow, coconut oil, fish oil. Eat those in moderation and you'll get the fat you need in your diet along with some very healthy minerals. Avoid canola and anything hydrogenated.

[brentspeak]

61. Thanks

I do use a lot of olive oil. Now I just have to ditch the "no-trans-fat" margarine stuff I've been using.

[Hoping4Change]

6. Important information. Thanks for posting.

[Malva Zebrina]

7. How did all those people who lived into a ripe old age do so

while using lard for their pies? I know of an one hundred and eight year old woman still living, and for chreest sake, she ate gaddam lard for most of her life.
She ate homemade donuts fried in lard. She also ate numerous other ingredients that we oldsters recognize were aimed at us saying it "caused" cancer--I remeber mustard at one time being the culprit as well as coffee and pepper. uH--PLEASE go visit a cemetary to research the deaths of all those before us who ate "fats"-some of them lived to a ripe and fulfilled old age and they ate LARD- exclude those women who died in childbirth and those numerous children who died from diptheria and other diseases,.

[pitohui]

8. lard is perfectly natural, it's from pork

there is nothing wrong w. genuine lard or genuine butter

this is comparing fake fats to other fake fats, the claim that some are "smarter" or better than others probably should have been self-evidently silly, all fake foods are going to be poor alternatives compared to something we were evolved to eat -- animal fat

"i trust the cows more than the chemists"

[The Stranger]

25. Actually, there are some things wrong with lard.

That it comes from an animal doesn't mean "there is nothing wrong" with it.

[KurtNYC]

14. Unfortunately much has changed in the last 30 years

Food is much cheaper, activity is much lower and the most innocent looking foods have been reformulated to give them a longer shelf life. The emphasis on keeping food from spoiling on the shelves also keeps it from breaking down easily in your body.

People in the past have lived to a ripe old age eating plenty of butter, lard and the like but what they WEREN'T eating was HFCS, palm oil, partially hydrogenated oils, 20oz soft drinks, and as many quick, calorie-dense meals as many do now. if we avoid some of those we have a shot.

[Javaman]

33. Right on the head. nt

[Megahurtz]

9. ANY Manufactured or Adulterated Fats are Nasty!

I say stay away for your Health's sake!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. Isn't the alternative to transfats just regular unsaturated fats?

i.e. butter?

[pitohui]

11. the NATURAL alternative would be butter, lard, etc.

apparently these are other fake fats are being used

my solution has been that basically i can't eat crackers and most baked goods at all, they are junk unless they are from a chef who uses real butter/real lard only -- too expensive for me most of the time

if it's a mass market cracker, the safer thing to do is not to buy and not to eat

[Cronus Protagonist]

15. I eat butter myself

And I don't eat any kind of hydrogenated stuff. Margarine disgusts me, as do Oreos and other items that are loaded with that chemical poison, hydrogenated oils.

[JCMach1]

19. Also lard and butter 'fill you up' if you eat something that has a lot

you may not want to eat anything the rest of the day!

Processed fats don't have that effect!

[On the Road]

26. Unsatured Oils Need to be Made into Transfat

(ie hydrogentated) in order to give them the stiffness necessary to create a stick of margarine.

There are some softer tub margarines that avoid transfat.

[ima_sinnic]

17. avoid olestra, too

I don't know if olestra is one of these "interesterified" fats but after buying a bag of fat-free potato chips I got curious after checking the ingredients and did a little google research. It seems olestra somehow interacts with and wipes out carotene and vitamin A supplies in the body. I ate an intense diet of steamed carrots and sweet potatoes for a couple of days after eating those chips to restore my levels of carotene and vit A.

[w4rma]

18. I just try to eat as little fat, of whatever type, as possible.

I don't care which side the fats are hydrogenated on.

But, for folks who eat fatty foods more, I think this is very good advice in this article. Thanks.

Avoid (re-)hydrogenated oils and trans-fats when eating fatty foods.

[TechBear_Seattle]

24. Some fats are necessary

Vitamins A, D and E are fat soluble; if you don't have enough fat in your diet, you won't be able to absorb or use these vitamins very well. Certain other fats, like omega-3 found in fatty fish like salmon, are very high in antioxidants.

If you stick with "good" fats (olive oil, avocados, canola, nuts, fish) and minimize "bad" fats (red meat, coconut, palm kernel, transfats and anything that has been hydrogenated) you will do very well.

[w4rma]

40. It's impossible to avoid all fats, anyway. So I get enough fats even though I eat very very lean.

Besides, on days I don't get any fat my body can get the fat it needs off of what I've stored on me. That's why it's there.

[Recursion]

53. Oh God no... not for me at least

When I don't eat enough fat I get low energy, depressed, can't work out. I lose color in my skin and start having digestive problems.

I eat a lot of (natural, unprocessed) fat, but I have a very active lifestyle. I also have very low body fat and good blood pressure. YMMV; I don't think there's one single diet that's "right" for everybody. Listen to what your body tells you when you eat.

[w4rma]

64. Fatty and oily foods make my stomach feel sick after an hour or two. (nt)

[Vinca]

20. I give up - just butter and olive oil from now on.

My husband told me canola oil is bad, too.

[DemExpat]

27. I pretty much have settled on butter and olive oil too.

And a good quality organic corn oil for a few things as well.

DemEx

[Tyo]

28. Don't forget lard

And heavy cream. And lots of fresh local organic veggies. And hormone free locally raised meat. Non-farmed fish. And good wine. Eat and drink well, but don't pig out and keep it to between half a bottle and a whole bottle of wine a day. Simple. :)

[Allyoop]

34. Read the label!

I can't find lard that doesn't say on the label "lard and hydrogenated lard". We use butter and olive oil for cooking and I use lard for pie dough. Maybe 10 pies per year. We have rhubarb in our garden - love rhubarb cobbler! And, of course, I have to bake an apple pie for husband's birthday. Pumpkin pies at Thanksgiving are absolutely necessary. We used to have a cherry tree but it died, so I'll take cherry pie off the list. All things in moderation.

The problem is all the manufactured foods and drinks loaded with high fructose corn syrup that increases your appetite for more of what you've already eaten! When our children were growing up, we couldn't afford all that boxed junk, so they ate healthy home cooked meals. No allergies, no serious illnesses, except for occasional bouts of strep throat and colds. When they went to college, they changed eating habits and all now have weight problems and health problems! Should have listened to Mama!

[Tyo]

35. Listen to Mama - that's right!

My mom has never steered me wrong. She even warned me about a couple of boyfriends who turned out to be jerks.

As for the lard, a butcher shop (as opposed to a supermarket) will usually have some that is unprocessed and that you take home wrapped in butcher paper.

[athena]

66. Canola oil is one of the healthiest oils.

There was an urban legend that was making the rounds a few years ago, but there is no truth to it:
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/canola.asp

[Javaman]

30. How about this suggestion?

Don't eat processed crap!

more rearranging of the food content deck chairs.

If you are eating Cheeto's and they removed the trans-fats, do you honestly believe that whatever they are replacing them with will be better????

Come on folks, lets use our head here.

I have to sit down, this crap makes my brain hurt.

[tandot]

37. trans-fats are not just in cheetos

They are in some products that on first glance look like healthy food - like some whole wheat breads, cereals, and granola bars

[kineneb]

32. Just use butter.- Julia Child

Maybe she was right after all. At least it is something the body recognizes. Or at least use regular vegetable oils.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

41. Hemp oil is not only healthy, but damned fun.

I just don't get this country and its mindless fear of pot. Such a great plant, rope, fiber, food source, oil source, AND fun.

[sweetheart]

43. untested chemicals introduced to a population

over a lifetime produce 'x' result.

Why weren't they tested exhaustively before being introduced to a population?
... corporate malfesiance and for-profit, willinness to risk life for a profit.

[SoCalDem]

44. We need to go back to butter & lard.,...IN MODERATION

It's what our bodies have evolved to accept.

All these artifical products in EVERYTHING , has to be having an effect on our bodies..

[slackmaster]

45. I use olive, canola, and peanut oils; butter, and occasionally lard

Those are the only fats and oils I have ever cooked with.

I don't see any reason to use anything else, other than maybey something special like another nut oil. I bought a bottle of walnut oil once and most of it went rancid.

[tridim]

55. Sesame oil is great stuff if you cook Chinese

I always have a bottle in the cupboard.

[slackmaster]

57. Yes, I forgot about that

I use plain sesame oil, and "hot oil" which is sesame fortified with red pepper.

[Trillo]

56. I wondered why the name "transfat" was implemented or framed

in the public dissemination of knowledge. I guess it was so people would stay away from "transfats" without the understanding that the danger lay with hydrogenated oils of all sorts.

Myself, because its relatively inexpensive, I use soybean oil for various sundry purposes such as seasoning cast iron pans. However, when I buy it, I have to be very careful to buy fully processed oil instead of the hydrogenated soybean oil. Sometimes the store is out of stock on the "fully processed sobyean oil" and I have to get another type, such as fully processed peanut oil, which is also relatively inexpensive.

If not for the label where the ingredients are listed, I would have NO WAY of determining the differentiation.

It's no wonder that people are confused and seem "stupid" at times, there seem to be 'agendas with large megaphones' that obscure issues.

But why would anyone want people to have an unhealthily processed oil? Is it to deliberately create more long-term sickness?

[w4rma]

65. Extra Virgin Olive Oil is one of the most healthy oils.

I can't remember anything about soybean oil, however.

Back when I was reading on this subject I probably felt that soybean oil was either not as healthy as extra virgin olive oil or more expensive than extra virgin olive oil which may be why I don't remember anything about soybean oil. Also, I never acquired a taste able to discern between different types of oils.

[brentspeak]

73. What about regular olive oil?

I've been buying 100% pure olive oil because it's cheaper than extra virgin olive oil.

[Nikia]

58. I have heard from someone knowledgeable

That using a combination of saturated fats and other fats can be used in the place of transfats in some products like microwave popcorn to create the same effects.

[tridim]

59. What's healthier: Frying in Crisco or frying in lard?

It's a serious question, because I make killer fried chicken (about once a month) and I use Crisco. It's all hydrogenated fat right? If this thread is accurate, lard would be a better choice no?

[Psephos]

63. Use SmartBalance brand shortening, it's trans-fat free

Looks like and works like Crisco. Made from canola, soy, and palm-fraction oils.

Lard isn't the worst thing you can put in your body, but it isn't the best, either. Saturated animal fats raise blood cholesterol.

[brentspeak]

72. Isn't this article saying that trans-fat alternatives like SmartBalance are just as bad?

[Psephos]

75. No, it's a different class of fat (at least, for the shortening) n/t

[Thothmes]

69. Crisco or lard

Just my opinion, I prefer chicken fried in lard. To me it tastes better.

[Sgent]

70. Lard is better

Lard is a saturated fat. A list of fats from best to worst:

unsaturated fats (olive oil, canola oil) -- good for you
saturated fats (animal products) -- neutral for you in moderation
trans-fats / partially saturated (crisco, most margarines) -- bad for you in any amount
interestional fats -- bad for you according to a few studies (in the article above, some mouse studies)

[tammywammy]

74. I only use butter, olive oil or canola oil

I gave up margarine years and years ago after I learned about transfat. I

Plus, I think butter tastes way better too. :) And a little butter goes a long way.