All Omega Smart Bars are Trans Fat Free!
WHAT ARE TRANS FATS?
Trans fats are a type of mostly man-made fat loved by the food industry due to its long shelf life and low cost. However as consumers we pay the price with an increase in heart disease.In the late 19th century, chemists discovered that by adding hydrogen atoms to unsaturated fats by bubbling hydrogen gas through vegetable oil in the presence of a nickel catalyst they could produce a (1) partially hydrogenated oil that does not spoil as easily as a non-hydrogenated fat. Hydrogenated oil can withstand repeated heating without breaking down. And the process can turn a liquid oil into a solid, which allowed for easier transportation and wider uses; this solid fat was also much less expensive than solid animal fats.
These characteristics were attractive to food makers. Over the last several decades, partially hydrogenated oils became a mainstay in margarines, commercially baked goods, and snack foods. When saturated fat was fingered as a contributor to high cholesterol, companies such as McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts switched from beef tallow to partially hydrogenated vegetable oil for frying French fries and donuts.
At the time, switching from butter or lard (both of which contain high amounts of saturated fat) to a product made from healthy vegetable oil seemed to make sense. Intake of trans fat increased dramatically. Before the advent of partial hydrogenation, the only trans fat that humans consumed came from eating cows (or dairy products), lamb, and deer; in ruminants like these, bacteria living in the stomach make small amounts of trans fat. But due to the growth of partial hydrogenation, by the early 1990s, trans fat intake in the United States averaged 4 to 7 percent of calories from fat.
In 1981, a group of Welsh researchers speculated that trans fat might be linked with heart disease. (2) A 1993 a Harvard study strongly supported the hypothesis that intake of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils contributed to the risk of having a heart attack. (2) In that study, the researchers estimated that replacing just 2 percent of calories from trans fat with healthy unsaturated fat would decrease the risk of coronary heart disease by about one-third. An influential symposium on trans fat later in the 1990s drew public attention to the issue.
Today we know that eating trans fats increases (LDL, "bad" cholesterol), especially the small, dense LDL particles that may be more damaging to arteries. It lowers levels of (HDL, "good" cholesterol) particles, which scour blood vessels for bad cholesterol and truck it to the liver for disposal. It also promotes inflammation, (3) an over activity of the immune system that has been implicated in heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and other chronic conditions. Eating trans fat also reduces the normal healthy responsiveness of endothelial cells, the cells that line all of our blood vessels. In animal studies, eating trans fat also promotes obesity and resistance to insulin, the precursor to diabetes.
This multiple-pronged attack on blood vessels translates into heart disease and death. An analysis of the health effects of industrial trans fats conducted by researchers with the Harvard School of Public Health Department of Nutrition indicates that eliminating trans fats from the U.S. food supply could prevent up to 1 in 5 heart attacks and related deaths. That would mean a quarter of a million fewer heart attacks and related deaths each year in the United States alone. (4) (As noted above, trans fats do naturally occur in dairy foods and meat from ruminant animals, but trans fats from these sources do not make up as significant a part of the American diet, so they are not as much of a public health concern.
1. Katan MB, Zock PL, Mensink RP. Trans fatty acids and their effects on lipoproteins in humans. Annual Review of Nutrition. 1995; 15:473-93.
2. Thomas LH, Jones PR, Winter JA, Smith H. Hydrogenated oils and fats: the presence of chemically-modified fatty acids in human adipose tissue. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 1981; 34:877-86.
3. Mozaffarian D, Pischon T, Hankinson SE, et al. Dietary intake of trans fatty acids and systemic inflammation in women. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2004; 79:606-12.
4. Mozaffarian D, Katan MB, Ascherio A, Stampfer MJ, Willett WC. Trans fatty acids and cardiovascular disease. N Engl J Med. 2006 Apr 13;354(15):1601-13.
Keeping Track of Trans Fat
Now that the once-ubiquitous but invisible trans fats are listed in bold print on food labels, it's easier to spot them in packaged foods. Keep in mind, though, that according to the FDA, a product claiming to have zero trans fat can actually contain up to a half gram. (Canada set a different standard of zero as under 0.2 grams.) So you may still want to scan the ingredient list for "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil" and "vegetable shortening," and look for an alternative product without those words, especially if it's something you eat regularly.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends limiting intake of trans fats, but doesn't offer a specific target. The federal Institute of Medicine is a bit more specific. It says "there are no known requirements for trans fatty acids for specific bodily functions," and so trans fatty acid consumption should "be as low as possible." How to do this? Look for products that don't contain any. This is easier now that more and more companies are competing for the attention of trans-free shoppers. It's harder to avoid trans fat in restaurants, since they are not required to provide nutrition information about the food they serve. One strategy is to avoid deep-fried foods, since many restaurants continue to use partially hydrogenated oils in their fryers. You may be able to help change this behavior by asking your server, the chef, or manager if the establishment uses trans-free oils.