We’ve already covered that many processed foods are bad for your health. By now hopefully a lot of people know that the excessive amount of sugar (and other sweeteners) is one of the big culprit. However, there’s another one that a lot of us are not aware of yet – Trans fats. But what are trans fats and why should you stay away from them as much as possible?

What are Trans Fats?

Trans fats, also known as trans-unsaturated fatty acids or trans fatty acids, are a type of unsaturated fats and occur in small amounts in nature. While they do exist in dairy products and meat, the amount is very small and negligible compared to the amount many people consume through other sources.

Natural Trans Fats

There are two fatty acids that contain traces of trans fats. These two fatty acids are vaccenyl and conjugated linoleyl (CLA) and can be found in milk, butter, meat etc. Very different from non-natural trans fats, these two fatty acids can actually have health benefits as they lower LDL and tryglyceride levels (if you want to read more about LDL and tryglcyerides, check our article about cholesterol).

Artificial Trans Fats

In the early 20th century chemists found a way to create trans fats via hydrogenation. Without going too much  in the chemistry behind it, it involves insane amounts of pressure and heat applied to the original oils. The products of the hydrogenation process such as margarine, shortenings etc. have gained huge popularity in the food industry as it improves texture, shelf life due to reduced rancidity and flavor stability.

 

Health Risks of Trans Fats

By the middle of the 20th century scientists started to realize that trans fats are detrimental to the human health. However, thanks to the food lobby, bribed scientists and simply bad science, natural fats became demonized instead. In the 1980’s fast food restaurants even made the change from beef tallow to vegetable oils (which contain trans fats).

Trans fat has been shown to consistently be associated, in an intake-dependent way, with increased risk of coronary heart disease, a leading cause of death in Western nations (source)

 

Trans fats might be edible (meaning, not immediately toxic) but they do raise LDL, lower HDL, increase tryglycerides and promote systemic inflammation. When you look at the diseases associated with trans fats, it’s shocking. The higher your consumption of trans fats, the higher your risk of suffering from the following diseases:

• coronary heart disease
• obesity
• high blood pressure
• type 2 diabetes
• alzheimer’s disease
• liver dysfunction
• infertility in women
• major depressive disorder
• behavioral irritability and aggression
• diminished memory

Foods That Contain Trans Fats

Trans fats can be found in a wide variety of processed foods. Some of them are rather obvious and easy to spot and some of them might surprise you. You can find trans fats in

• shortenings
• margarine
• bread/cake products
• cookies and crackers
• salty snacks
• cake frostings
• coffee creamer
• frozen pizza
• refrigerated dough products
• deep fried foods

 

Official Guidelines

Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence that trans fats are disastrous to human health, unfortunately they are still not officially banned. That being said, authorities such as the National Academy of Sciences, World Health Organization and Food & Drug Administration agree on the following

• trans fatty acids are nonessential, meaning you do not have to include them in your diet
• they do not provide any known benefits to your health
• there is no “safe” level or daily recommended level as the more you consume the higher the health risks

Why are they not banned yet? As they are also naturally occurring in animal products in trace quantities, it’s difficult to completely remove them from all food products across the board.

Luckily the FDA in the US has now established a new guideline that by 2018 no product is allowed to contain manufactured trans fats anymore.

As I live in Japan, I checked Japanese guidelines. The ministry of agriculture, forestry and fishery confirmed that trans fats are bad but at the same time explains that most studies are conducted on American subjects. At this point it is apparently not clear yet if trans fats have the same negative effect on Japanese people (as if their metabolism worked differently…).

 

What You Should Do

It all starts with awareness. Now that you know that trans fats are extremely disastrous for your health, the next step is to check the foods you consume on a regular basis. Check the ingredients list for words like partially hydrogenated fats, shortening and margarine.

If you don’t know if a product in the list above contains trans fats, it’s safer to assume that it does.

Reality is you will not be able to completely remove trans fats from your diet. However, what you can do is make an effort to reduce your trans fat consumption to a minimum. Your health will thank you.