Trans-Fatty Acids and Hydrogenation – Eating Less Fat

Like so many other nutritional concepts, the fat picture isn’t as simple as it often may sound in the latest news story or web site. Will you solve a cholesterol problem by completely eliminating animal products in your diet without changing anything else? Maybe, but maybe not. Will you develop a chronic disease if you eat too much polyunsaturated fat? Probably not, but nutritionists don’t have a definitive answer to this question, either. Will you live to be one hundred years old if your fat intake comes primarily from monounsaturated fats? Again, maybe, and maybe not. No-body exists in a vacuum, and even the Mediterranean diet is bigger than what kind of fat it includes.

Common sense, and the traditional Mediterranean diet, dictate that moderation in all dietary aspects makes the most sense: small amounts of meat and dairy, with an emphasis on monounsaturated fats. One of the best ways to cut saturated fat is to minimize your consumption of animal products like high-fat meat and dairy products, and maximize your consumption of plant foods. This is the crux of the traditional Mediterranean diet, and is easy to visualize with the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid. If plant foods make up the bulk of your diet, you’ll need to do little else to keep your saturated fat intake under control. That’s not to say you shouldn’t eat any meat or dairy products. Lean meat, low-fat or nonfat dairy, and small amounts of richer animal products can flavor and enhance a plant-based diet. But when you eat in the Mediterranean way, these animal products embellish rather than dominate the dinner plate.

Center your meals around delicious whole-grain foods and bean dishes, with plenty of vegetables and fruit. Meats and cheeses make delicious and occasional condiments for flavoring. When you fill up on whole grains, vegetables, and fruits, you will not have much room left for high-fat foods. When you do add fat to your diet, choose a fat rich in mo-nounsaturated fatty acids, like olive oil or canola oil, as of-ten as possible. The alternatives are far less appealing, healthwise. The major sources of saturated fat include but-ter, shortening, lard, and cocoa butter.

Consume these fats on rare occasions. Try substituting olive and canola oil in baking and as a dip for bread. There are many ways to avoid the use of saturated fats in traditional American recipes and still produce an excellent dish. Contact the American Di-etetic Association for recommended cookbooks including such recipes. Co-conut, palm, and palm kernel oils are perhaps the most notorious of the plant oils because they are among the few that contain a large proportion of saturated fat (take a deep breath and check the labels of your favorite processed foods).

If most of the fat in your diet comes from monounsaturated fat sources like olive oil and canola oil instead of the many sources of saturated and trans-fatty acids fat, you’ll find you can indeed eat fat and maintain a healthy heart, as long as you eat fat in moderation, keep your weight at a healthy level, and eat a diet based on plant foods. Remember the Mediterranean Diet Pyramid when choosing foods and planning meals. Olive oil is best, but you only need a drizzle.

TRANS-FATTY ACIDS AND HYDROGENATION

Trans-fatty acids are made from the hydrogenation of unsaturated fats. Recent research has suggested that trans-fatty acid, which is found in most margarines and many processed baked goods, may be even more hazardous to our heart health than saturated fats! Confused? Isn’t margarine supposed to be better for us than that saturated-fat villain known as butter? Nutritionists today say absolutely not!

Trans-fatty acids occur when unsaturated fat, such as polyunsaturated corn oil, is processed with hydrogen to form a solid fat (making for a better “spread” substitute for butter) and a product that has a longer shelf life. The draw­back? Adding a hydrogen artificially to an otherwise natu­rally unhydrogenated oil creates a strange chemical formation called “trans.” Research has indicated that high levels of these trans-fatty acids may increase LDL choles­terol (“bad” cholesterol) levels as much as saturated fat. Studies have also linked trans-fatty acids to increased rates of certain cancers.

Hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats have be­come a staple in many, many processed foods Americans know and love. Sources of trans-fatty acids include prepack­aged, processed foods, even most of the “low-fat” varieties. Items such as crackers, cookies, chips, granola bars, candy bars, packaged baked goods, even some ready-to-eat cereals and breads and sweetened drinks contain trans-fatty acids. Trans-fatty acids are almost a hidden ingredient, buried in the long ingredient lists of prepackaged foods.

The only way to know if an item has trans-fatty acids is to read the label and look for the words “hydrogenated” or “partially hydro­genated.” Those words mean the food contains trans-fatty acids. The Food and Drug Administration is in the process of mandating that the amount of trans-fatty acids be listed on a food product’s Nutrition Facts label.

So what is a Mediterranean-inspired person to do? Be­cause these trans-fatty acids were never a part of traditional diets, why eat them? Choose natural whole foods (fruit, whole grains, fresh vegetables, and so on) over processed, preserved foods. Use olive oil as your principal form of fat, and if you can’t decide between butter and margarine, why use either? Dip your bread in a bit of olive oil instead.