Fat is probably one of the most misunderstood dietary nutrients, stemming from a widely held but misguided belief that fat should take much of the blame for our obesity epidemic. In the 1980s, with the release of the FDA’s nutritional guidelines warning against foods high in fat, a slew of low fat diets and foods flooded the market. Americans now fear fat and think that removing it from their diet will also remove it from their waistline. But, the truth is that there are many different kinds of fats, some unhealthy and some healthy, and a reasonable amount of healthy fats can actually help you lose weight.
To stay healthy, it is important to know the different types of fats, which types are good or bad, and why. In a series of posts, I’ll discuss each type of fat, starting today with an unhealthy one: Trans fat.
More and more, you’re seeing trans fat listed on food labels. Though it’s in more than 40,000 packaged foods, it’s so bad for you that food manufacturers have fought for years to keep it off ingredient labels. In 2003, the USDA finally adopted regulations requiring trans fat content to be included on nutritional labels. The regulations are being phased in, but it is helpful to know where it comes from because some labels still do not list it explicitly.
Trans fats were invented by food manufacturers in the 1950s as a way of appealing to our natural cravings for fatty foods. But there’s nothing natural about trans fats. They’re cholesterol-raising, heart-weakening, diabetes-causing, belly-building chemicals that didn’t even exist until the middle of the last century, and some studies have linked them to an estimated 30,000 premature deaths in the US every year.
In one Harvard study, researchers found that getting just 3% of your daily calories from trans fats increased your risk of heart disease by 50%. Three percent of your daily calories equals about 7 grams of trans fats, roughly the amount in a single order of fries. Americans eat an average of 3-10 grams of trans fats every day.
To understand what trans fats are, think of a bottle of vegetable oil and a stick of margarine. At room temperature, the vegetable oil is a liquid, the margarine is a solid. Now, if you baked cookies using vegetable oil, they’d be really greasy and no one would want to buy cookies swimming in oil. So to create cookies (and cakes, chips, pies, muffins, doughnuts, waffles, and many many other foods we consume daily) manufacturers heat the oil to very high temperatures and infuse it with hydrogen. The hydrogen bonds with the oil to create an entirely new form of fat – trans fat – that stays solid at room temperature. The vegetable oil is now margarine. And foods that might normally be healthy, but maybe not as tasty, now become fat bombs.
Because trans fats don’t exist in nature, your body has a hell of a time processing them. Once consumed, trans fats are free to cause all sorts of mischief inside you. They raise the number of low-density lipoprotein (LDL or “bad”) cholesterol particles in your blood and lower your high-density lipoprotein (HDL or “good”) cholesterol. They also raise blood levels of other lipoproteins and the more lipoproteins you have in your bloodstream, they greater your risk of heart disease. Increased consumption of trans fats is also linked to increased risk of diabetes and cancer.
Yet, trans fats are added to a shocking number of foods! They appear on food labels as “partially hydrogenated oil” (usually vegetable or palm oil). Go look in your pantry or freezer right now – you won’t believe how many foods contain them. Crackers. Popcorn. Cookies. Fish sticks. Cheese spreads. Candy bars. Frozen waffles. Stuffing. Even foods you might assume are healthy, like bran muffins, cereals, and nondairy creamers, are often loaded with trans fats. And because they hide in foods that look like they’re low in fat (such as Wheat Thins), these fats are making you unhealthy without your even knowing it.
Take control of your trans fat intake. Check the ingredient labels on all the packaged foods you buy, and if you see partially hydrogenated oil on the label, consider finding an alternative. Even foods that seem bad for you can have healthier versions: McCains shoestring french fries, Ruffles Natural reduced-fat chips, Wheatables reduced-fat crackers, and Dove dark chocolate bars are all trans fat free.
And remember, the higher up on the ingredients list partially hydrogenated oil is, the worse the food is for you. You might not be able to avoid trans fats completely, but you can choose foods with a minimal amount of it.
The other way to avoid trans fats is to avoid ordering fried foods. Because trans fats spoil less easily than natural fats and are easier to ship and store, almost all fried commercial foods are now fried in trans fats rather than natural oils. Fish and chips, tortillas, fried chicken – all are packed with belly-building trans fats.
And avoid fast food joints, where nearly every food option is loaded with trans fats (drive-thru restaurants ought to come complete with drive-thru cardiology clinics).
Avoid:
-Margarine
-Fried foods
-Commercially manufactured baked goods
-Any food with partially hydrogenated oil in its list of ingredients
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Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: Veggie sandwich from the deli across the street – lettuce, tomato, avocado, sprouts, carrots, vinegar and oil
Dinner: Nachos and a veggie taco at H Street Country Club
