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NEWS YOU CAN USE
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Trans Fatty Acids...Friend or Foe? As a child, I remember pouring myself a large glass of milk and opening a package of Oreo cookies to indulge myself until stuffed. I would twist open the dark cookie and slowly lick the white center clean. On occasion, I would leave my Oreo cookie whole and dip it into my milk until it became soft and mushy, gradually melting in my mouth. Now my comfort food was banished with a label of BAD FAT. What is this Bad Fat called: Trans Fatty Acid. Trans Fatty Acid (TFA) is unsaturated oil to which the food manufacturers have added hydrogen to make it a solid. This process is often used to make solid margarine out of oils that are normally liquid at room temperature. The problem is that the process produces TFA that is similar to saturated fats (solid at room temperature: butter or lard) but are still chemically distinct. TFA is also found naturally in some animal fats. TFA increases the shelf life of packaged products; provides oils thick enough to put into margarine and is in the majority of baked products, fast foods and processed foods. The premise is that TFA makes all foods safer, which we now know is a fallacy. On a food label, the TFA is listed as "hydrogenated" oil on the ingredient list. The food industry has been opposed to the addition of TFA to the food label partly due to the flavor that it imparts. The Food and Drug Administration has ruled that trans fat grams will be listed directly below the saturated fat line beginning on January 1, 2006. In the interim, some manufacturers, such as Kraft, have begun to decrease the TFA in several of their products. Last year McDonald's proposed that it would do the same with its french fries, but it has yet to make a change. However, Frito-Lay has already started to list the TFA on its labels and most likely other manufacturers will follow Frito-Lay's lead. Some of the adverse effects of
the TFA reported in humans include: Additional effects of consuming TFA are
noted in the literature, but a current Netherlands study published
in the March 10th issue of the British medical journal The
Lancet, shows that just a 2% increase in TFA intake causes
a 25% jump in the risk "People at risk for coronary heart disease are advised to reduce their intake of trans saturated fatty acids by selecting foods with no or low content of trans fatty acids," stated Gomen, the author. "Furthermore, this study illustrates that with respect to the trans fatty acid content in foods, food manufacturers can play an important role in the population-based strategies to reduce coronary heart disease risk." |
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News You Can Use "In working to unravel the mysteries of obesity, a hormone called insulin has become the focus of many studies. We now believe that insulin plays an important role in obesity. For instance, research indicates that the level of blood insulin may explain why some people can eat a mountain of food and not gain an ounce to enter the cells and be converted into energy. While others continue to gain even on severely restricted diets. All research seems to lead to one surprising conclusion. Counting calories may not ensure weight loss. If the blood insulin is high, the body cannot metabolize fat efficiently. Insulin is a hormone secreted by a gland called the pancreas. Insulin makes it possible for food (in the form of blood glucose) to enter the cells and be converted into energy. Normally, the pancreas produces just the right amount of insulin for the job. Cells respond as they should and blood glucose is burned as fuel. When this mechanism does not function properly, instead of being converted to energy the blood glucose level rises. Then the pancreas needs to produce more and more insulin in an effort to keep the blood sugar more normal." -- Adapted by Donald S. Robertson, MD., M.Sc from his book "The Snowbird Diet." |
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Southwest Bariatric Nutrition Center
Scottsdale, Arizona