The Skinny on fats
the good , the bad, and the ugly
Hidden Killer / It's Trans
Fat. It's Dangerous. Beware
of Canola , Oshana
And It's in Food You Eat Every Day. January 30, 2002
The San Francisco Chronicle Phantom fat is hiding in
your cereal bowl. It's the bad boy in your bag of microwave popcorn. It lurks in
those low-fat cookies and even in that energy bar. The stuff
is called trans fat, created when ordinary vegetable oil is processed into
partially hydrogenated oil. It's why Crisco stays solid at room temperature and
what makes cakes moist, cookies fresh and crackers crisp. Partially hydrogenated
oil is in about 40 percent of the food at the grocery store, including some
products most consumers regard as healthy. A generation ago,
when cardiologists waved Americans off saturated fats like butter and beef
tallow, partially hydrogenated oils became a prefered alternative. Now, in an
about-face, researchers have determined that trans fat can grease the way to a
heart attack faster than a cup of lard. Some of the nation's
leading medical researchers, including many in the Bay Area, also believe that
the trans fat that marbles the modern American diet may be why kids are so fat,
diabetes is at record levels and why some people develop cancer. They say trans
fat is a big player in Syndrome X, a cluster of health problems characterized by
a beer belly, high blood pressure and out-of-whack blood fats and sugars.
"There should be a warning on food made with this stuff like there is on
nicotine products. It's that bad for you," says Dr. Jeffrey Aron, a
University of California at San Francisco professor of medicine and one of the
nation's leading experts on fatty acids and their effects on the body.
But there is no warning label. Trans fat amounts aren't regulated at all, so
manufacturers and fast food operators don't have to list it on nutrition labels.
That means there's no easy way to know how much you're eating. And chances
are, it's a lot more than you think. Virtually every
fast-food or family restaurant french fry is cooked in trans-fat filled grease.
Almost half of all cereals, both cold and hot, contain it, according to the Food
and Drug Administration. So do 70 percent of cake mixes, 75 percent of chips and
other salty snacks, 80 percent of frozen breakfast foods like waffles, and 95
percent of cookies. Even products people buy when they want to
eat healthier -- granola, power bars and
low-fat cookies and crackers -- are made with partially hydrogenated vegetable
oil. During a recent survey of 140 varieties of crackers on a typical
supermarket shelf, only three brands had no partially hydrogenated oil.
Because trans fat flies under the radar, food labeled "low in saturated
fat," "cholesterol-free" or "made with 100 percent vegetable
oil" can have so much trans fat that consumers focused on heart-healthy
food wouldn't touch some products -- if they knew. The FDA, which
could decide by September whether to require trans fat on food labels,
estimates that listing it could prevent as many as 5,600 heart disease deaths a
year -- not only because people would be able to chose healthier foods but also
because manufacturers would choose to reduce the amount of trans fat rather than
put it on the label. "The labels on food say how much fat
but not what kinds of fat," Aron explains. "It's
insidious and we're nowhere near the level of awareness we
need to be." WHAT IT IS Trans fat is the byproduct of
the hydrogenation process patented in 1903 by William Normann. He discovered a
way to turn relatively healthy liquid vegetable oil into something that stays
solid at room temperature and improves shelf life. However, it also blocks
arteries just as readily as saturated fat. Crisco was soon introduced with an
advertising campaign that called it "a scientific discovery which will
affect every kitchen." But partially hydrogenated oil
didn't really catch on until World War II, when people turned to margarine and
shortening as alternatives to rationed butter. As convenience foods started to
hit the market in the 1960s and '70s, more hydrogenated oil was used.
Consumption rose significantly in the 1980s and 1990s when the public embraced
the
connection between heart disease and saturated fats. Fast-food restaurants
replaced the beef fat in the fryers with partially hydrogenated oils. Food
manufacturers began to tout products that were free of saturated fats but that
had plenty of trans fat instead. Now, in light of new
research, those changes don't seem like such great ideas.
An American Heart Association study released last July showed that foods cooked
with trans fat might clog arteries quicker than food cooked in animal-based
saturated fat. Like beef fat, trans fat also raises the
level of bad cholesterol (LDL), which can lead to
strokes and heart attacks. But trans fat goes one step further, scrubbing
away good cholesterol that keeps arteries clean. The
ongoing Nurses' Health Study of 80,000 women, conducted by Harvard Medical
School and the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Massachusetts, showed that for
each 2 percent increase in the amount of calories from trans fat, a woman's
coronary risk jumps by 93 percent. And the New England Journal of Medicine
reported in 1998 that women who want to reduce their risk of heart disease would
be better off if they replaced saturated and trans fats with unhydrogenated
mono- or polyunsaturated fats than if they cut down on the total amount of fat
they eat. But heart disease may be only one of trans fat's
threats to health. A growing number of doctors say it plays a starring role in
something more prevalent and ultimately worse -- Syndrome X.
Former Stanford University director of endocrinology Gerald Reaven named
Syndrome
X in 1988 after he observed a collection of health problems ultimately linked to
cells'
inability to process insulin. Also called metabolic syndrome or, more commonly,
beer belly syndrome, the prevalence of the condition has increased along with
the amount of refined foods and partially hydrogenated oil Americans eat.
"Forty years after it's been in the food system on such a large scale, what
is becoming
clear is that this is dangerous stuff," says Jack Challem, a Tucson-based
nutrition expert and author of "Syndrome X: The Complete Nutritional
Program to Prevent and Reverse Insulin Resistance." Even
though Americans' saturated fat intake has dropped by 10 percent across the
board, diabetes rates and obesity have gone up, researchers say. The cases of
diabetes alone climbed 33 percent in the 1990s, and doctors point to lifestyle
changes as part of the problem. It's not so much Crisco in pie crusts that's
raising trans fat levels, but rather prepared foods and popular fried restaurant
food. Average Americans now get a third of their calories from food they haven't
prepared themselves. The nation's children kids eat 40 percent of their meals at
fast food restaurants. Trans fatty acids make up a small part
of the average daily diet - - somewhere between 3 to 8 percent of the total
daily caloric intake. But even a handful of grams a day is enough to gum up the
workings of a cell, says Aron, author of "Gut-Check: Your Prime Source for
Bowel Health and Colon Cancer Prevention." Picture the cell as
a Swiss watch, he says. Sprinkle a few very fine grains of sand in that watch
and it will continue to tick, but after awhile it won't keep time. Eventually it
won't work. That's how trans fat works in the body, he says. It changes how the
cell membranes work -- how they talk to each other and function. Trans fat can
help make cells them resistant to insulin, and when you have resistance to
insulin you have obesity. Researchers at the Centers for
Disease Control earlier this month released estimates that showed at least 47
million Americans, more than 20 percent, have Syndrome X. Other Syndrome X
experts say that estimate is conservative and put the figure as high as 70
million. Trans fat is such a hidden part of the American
diet, people have no idea that it contributes to their illness.
"One of the defining moments for me came when I looked at a box of
breakfast bars," says Challem. "Half the fat was saturated fat, but
there was no animal product in the ingredient list. This is in everything. Trans
fatty acids are like a wild card. It's as if you're screwing up how the body
processes food." HOW DO YOU KNOW? The fight to put trans
fat on food labels has been a difficult one, in part because adding trans fat
would be the first change to the national nutrition labeling laws since labels
became mandatory in 1993. Margo Wootan, a scientist with the
Center for Science in the Public Interest, the health advocacy group that first
petitioned the FDA to add trans fat to labels in 1994, says consumers won't see
an FDA decision on trans fat until after the results of a sweeping nutrition
study by the National Academy of Sciences is released this summer. And even
then, it could take another year or more. Meanwhile, food
manufacturers are rushing to find new ways to deliver the taste people
want in baked goods and snacks without using as much trans fat.
"As the science has evolved related to trans fat, of course the industry is
looking to different sources and re-engineering and reformulating
products," says Bob Earl, senior director for nutrition policy and
regulatory affairs for the National Food Processors Association.
New, lower-fat margarines are being marketed as trans fat-free. Oil processors
are mixing super-hard, trans-free hydrogenated oils with liquid oil to make a
suitable replacement. Nutritionists are revisiting tropical palm and coconut
oils, which may not be as bad as once thought and could actually have
cancer-fighting properties. Healthier canola and sunflower oils that remain
stable at high temperatures are coming onto the market. New seed oil crops are
being bred to produce oils that don't need hydrogenation. "GMOs hold
great promise for us," Earl says. Some natural food
companies, like Barbara's Bakery and Newman's Own Organics, have begun to use
alternatives to hydrogenated oil. Peter Meehan, CEO of Newman's Own Organics,
says palm oil has almost half the saturated fat of regular palm kernel oil and
is a breakthrough for baked products that have required partially hydrogenated
oils. Finding that substitute was key to Newman-O's, the company's chocolate
sandwich cookie, introduced last year. Still, eliminating
so-called "bad fat" is likely impossible for a nation with a taste for
shelf stable cakes, crunchy snacks and fast food. "If
you were to get rid of saturated and hydrogenated fats, bread would not have the
same flavor, crackers wouldn't have the crumble, pie crusts wouldn't be tender.
We need these fats to maintain taste and performance," Earl notes.
He and others in the food business warn against trans-fat hysteria in a culture
where exercise has declined and fast food consumption has increased. In other
words, don't blame the food for a fatter, lazier public.
It's an intersection where food manufacturers and some health advocates actually
agree. "At this point I'm not convinced trans fat is
poison people shouldn't eat. They should just eat less of it," says Wootan.
"I would hate to see them get trans fat out of their diets at the risk of
raising saturated fat levels again."
-------------------------- How much bad fat do you really eat?
On the standard American food label, trans fat content is invisible. Only three
types of
fat -- unhealthy saturated fat and, in cases when certain health claims are
made, healthier poly- and monounsaturated fats -- must be listed under the total
fat content. But there are some tricks to figuring out if food has trans fat.
Figure out how much fat you need every day. For an average healthy person who
eats 2,500 calories a day, about 30 percent or less should come from fat. That
translates to about 80 grams a day. And of that, only about 25 grams should be
saturated or trans fat. Look for the words hydrogenated,
partially hydrogenated or fractionated in the list of
ingredients. The vast majority of trans fat comes from hydrogenation. The higher
up partially hydrogenated oil is in the list of ingredients, the more trans fat
the product has. Note the amount of total fat listed and
compare it to the breakdown of specific fats on the label. The results may
surprise you. A box of reduced-fat Triscuits, for example, has 3 grams of fat
per 7-cracker serving. Saturated fats make up 1/2 gram and monounsaturated fats
1 gram. The crackers have no polyunsaturated fats, so the remaining 1 1/2 grams
must be the only other kind of dietary fat -- trans fat. One
study, by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, showed that foods with
partially hydrogenated oils in the ingredient list contained 1 gram of hidden
trans fat for each gram of saturated fat. That means that Chips Ahoy cookies,
for example, with 2 grams of saturated fat per serving also contains 2
additional grams of trans fat. That trans fat acts like saturated fat in the
body, restricting arteries' ability to contract. -------------------- Know
your fats Here's a description of the various kinds of
dietary fat. Every dietary fat or oil is made up of any of four kinds of fats -
- monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, saturated and trans. Mono-
and polyunsaturated fats. These are considered "good" fats. They do
not clog arteries and, in moderation, can contribute to a healthy diet. They
include olive, canola,
peanut and walnut oils. Saturated fat. This is mainly animal fat,
the kind found in beef, butter, lard, the skin of chicken, whole milk, whipped
cream, egg yolks and other products that come from animals. Coconut and palm
oils are also saturated. Too much raises the level of artery- clogging
cholesterol. Trans fat (trans-fatty acids). These are formed
when oil is hydrogenated. Some naturally occurring trans fats can be found in
small amounts in animal products. Like saturated fat, trans fat raises the level
of harmful blood cholesterol (LDL) as well as the ratio of LDL to the more
beneficial HDL cholesterol. Some researchers believe it changes how cells
process insulin -- which can lead to diabetes -- and have linked it to cancer.
Trans fat is found in many processed, convenience and fast foods -- french
fries, fried chicken, doughnuts, pastries, cookies, crackers and some breakfast
cereals. Partially hydrogenated oil. This manufacturing
process creates trans fat. A hydrogen atom is mixed with non-saturated liquid
oil from plants like corn or soy beans to make fat like shortening and margarine
that stay solid at room temperature. Fractionated oil. This
type of oil is created by a manufacturing process that uses high temperatures or
solvents to separate hydrogenated oil into liquid and solid parts. When listed
on food labels, it indicates the presence of trans fat.
---------------------------------- Two brands top trans fat-free margarine
rating To most cooks, and certainly to The Chronicle Food
staff, margarine never has been a
good substitute for butter. But there comes a time when the saturated fat in
butter needs to be avoided. And now, it turns out that trans fat -- the stuff
that makes most margarines stay solid at room temperature -- is worse than
saturated fat. As a result, new lower-calorie, trans fat-free
margarines are hitting the market. For people who have made a decision to eat
less of both kinds of bad dietary fat, the Food staff tasted eight of them. The
bad news is, most were so bad that we can't recommend them. The good news is we
found two to recommend. Keep in mind that these are margarines we suggest for
people who need to restrict their intake of saturated and trans fat.
SMART BALANCE (16 OUNCES, $1.99 at many markets). This was the best of the lot.
It contains 80 calories per tablespoon, along with 2.5 grams of saturated fat.
The selling point is its lack of trans fat and a claim that the balance of good
to bad fats makes it better for blood cholesterol. It is a very pale product and
very stiff, which put some tasters off. But the clean, non-oily taste made it a
winner. BRUMMEL & BROWN (16 OUNCES, $1.89 at many
markets). This spread was the
second favorite. Made with yogurt, it has 45 calories per tablespoon and one
gram of
saturated fat. The texture is very creamy and the flavor just slightly salty. It
is a lower-fat alternative to Smart Balance. If you want a
trans fat alternative that tastes more like butter, make up a batch of
"Better Butter." The recipe below is adapted from a recipe in
""Laurel's Kitchen" (Bantam Books, 1981). It does contain
saturated fat from the butter, but can be a good alternative for people who
don't want to use a processed spread. --------------------------- BETTER
BUTTER This keeps well in the refrigerator. Oil and butter
alone will work, but the other ingredients help it stay firm longer. Even when
cold, it spreads easily. It liquefies if left at room temperature, but will
solidify when refrigerated. INGREDIENTS 1 cup butter ( 1/2 pound) at room
temperature 1 cup light olive oil or other light oil, such as canola
2 tablespoons soy milk, skim milk or reconstituted dry milk (optional)
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
1/4 teaspoon lecithin (optional) INSTRUCTIONS Place all the
ingredients in a blender or food processor. Process until
smooth. Pour into containers and store in the refrigerator. Yields a little
more than 2 cups. PER TABLESPOON: 110 calories, 0 protein, 0 carbohydrate,
13 g fat (4 g saturated), 16 mg cholesterol, 59 mg sodium, 0 fiber.
----------------------- Trans fat lurks in unexpected places
Partially hydrogenated oils are more prevalent than you might think. Since only
total fat and saturated fat are required to be on food labels, you have to be a
fat detective to figure out if trans fats are in the product. A trip through a
supermarket and a quick read of ingredient lists found these surprises. CHART:
Product Total fat Saturated Unsaturated "Hidden" content fat fat trans
fat per serving. Safeway Select Healthy Advantage 3 grams 1/2 gram O 2 1/ 2
grams Blueberry Breakfast Bars
Details Hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil are high on the ingredient list.
. Healthy Choice Low-fat 2 1/2 grams 0 not listed 2 1/ 2 grams? Microwave
Popcorn
Details Partially hydrogenated oil is the third ingredient . Quaker 100% Natural
3 grams 1 gram 1 1/2 gram 1/2 gram Low Fat Granola With Raisins Details
Partially hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oils are listed. . Gerber
Graduates Arrowroot 1 gram 0 not listed 1 gram? Cookies For Toddlers
Details Partially hydrogenated soybean oil is the third ingredient listed. .
Jiffy Cornbread Mix 4 grams 1 1/2 not listed 2 1/ 2 grams grams?
Details The fourth ingredient is shortening, which is composed of paritally
hydrogenated oil. . Maruchan Instant Lunch 12 grams 6 grams not listed 6 grams?
Pork Flavor
Details Partially hydrogenated vegetable oil is the second ingredient listed. .
Ortega White Corn Taco Shells 4 1/2 grams 1 gram 2 1/2 1 gram Details Fried in
partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. . Clif Luna Lemonzest bar 4 grams 3 grams
0 1 gram
Details Contains fractionated palm kernel oil.