Trans Fats - A Danger to Health

You have probably heard about trans fats but do you know what they are and why they are potentially dangerous to health?

There are different kinds of fats:

• Unsaturated
• Polyunsaturated
• Saturated
• Trans fats

The first two, unsaturated and polyunsaturated are actually beneficial (see Omega 3 - Miracle Oils?) and can be found in oily fish like salmon and mackeral, olive oil, canola oil and cornbean oil, etc.

Saturated fat, the kind found in meat and dairy products, is said to be bad although some experts say that its danger is overstated because the body normally converts it to monounsaturated fat.

In contrast, trans fats are positively bad and research has shown that they are implicated in increased cholesterol levels, cardiac disease, diabetes and cancer. They are found in some processed foods like margarine, cookies, snacks, fried foods and candies. They are manufactured fats, produced by pushing hydrogen into vegetable oils to produce a solid fat, hence the name hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats.

You might wonder why companies would use dangerous fats in their products. The answer is simple—money! Trans fats greatly prolong the shelf life of processed food.

So how can you tell if food contains trans fats?

Look at the label. If a food contains trans fats, the list of iingredient will show shortening or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil or hydrogenated vegetable oil. The higher up the list it occurs, the higher the proportion contained in the product.

Recently the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that food labels will be required to list the amount of unhealthy trans fatty acids, or trans fats, to give consumers better information when choosing their foods. This new regulation will come into force from the 1st January 2006.

The new requirement will mean that manufacturers of most conventional foods and some dietary supplements will have to list in the Nutrition Facts panel the trans fat content of the product, in addition to the information about its overall fat content and saturated fat content.

"We are empowering Americans to make healthier choices about the foods they eat," Secretary Thompson said. "By putting trans fat information on food labels, we are making it possible for consumers to make better educated choices to lower their intake of these unhealthy fats and cholesterol."

"Our choices about our diets are choices about our health, and those choices should be based on the best available scientific information. This label change means that trans fat can no longer lurk, hidden, in our food choices," said Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., commissioner of FDA. "Americans will now be armed with better information to reduce their intake of saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol - which could significantly lower the risk of heart disease, the leading cause of death in America today."

By providing more useful information to consumers seeking a healthy diet, the new labels are expected to reduce the costs of illness and disease for Americans. The FDA estimates that the changes in regulations will save between $900 million and $1.8 billion each year in medical costs, lost productivity and pain and suffering.