When you think of the "bad fats" - those who can hurt your health - you probably think of the saturated variety. They are the ones that can raise their blood cholesterol levels, or LDL, as well as their risks to develop severe conditions as heart disease.
Well, you should know that saturated fats have some company in this department: trans fats.
Boxing For Fat Loss - Be A Trans-Fat Detective
Health - wise, trans fat with a double whammy. They can also raise your bad cholesterol levels, but they can also lower your HDL, or "good" cholesterol. Together, these two effects are primary risks to develop heart disease, and are a reason why many experts consider transs. A bad boy bigger than saturated fat.
What should you do? To begin with, lower the amounts of saturated fats and trans in your daily diet. You can do so by choosing reduced fat foods such as lower fat dairy and more rined bovine meat cuts. (They contain less total fat, fat less saturated and less trans fats.) Reduced fat crackers and microwave popping maize will contain less fat, less saturated fat and less fat trans. You get the photo.
and may not be a popular notion, but making your own meals - yes, homemade - really help you control the amount of fat you eat. You can choose the type and amount of fat in every recipe you prepare. If you make pie crust, biscuits or waffles, use canola oil instead of shortening and using less cooking fat, in general, whenever possible. There are those intelligent replacements that help a lot.
I continue to mention all these terms such as unsaturated, saturated and trans fats. When you think of types of fats, remember that much has to do with the amount of hydrogen in each type of fat molecule.
When the molecules are all filled with hydrogen - or are saturated with it, the fat tends to be solid at room temperature. Monoinsaturated fats have a double connection in your carbon chain and polyunsaturated fats have more than one double connection, and both are better for your health than saturated fats and trans fats.
But trans fats make things a bit more complicated. They receive their name from their distinct chemical structure. They naturally occur in small amounts in meat and dairy. But they can be found in larger quantities in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils that are mainly used in shortening, some margarines and processed foods.
Remember about this hydrogen. When food manufacturers need in a more stable and solid way of oil to make their products, they will swing hydrogen gas through vegetable oil. The process actually changes the chemical structure of fat, spinning some of it in trans fats. The oil does not accept all hydrogen to become fully saturated, but becomes a detrimental fat of fat.
Trans fats are lurking on all commercially made food products containing partially hydrogenated oils or scenery. They are also hiding in fries used by many fast food joints. (A Dutch 1998 study estimated that, in frying fast food chains, a third is composed of trans fats.)
These common foods are likely to contain trans fats:
- Most margarines and shortens;
- Frying fats in processed foods;
- Fast food fried, such as fries;
- and any food that lists "partially hydrogenated oils" in ingredients such as: biscuits, cake mixes, snack cakes, snack, chips, donuts, pie crusts, biscuits, breakfast cereals, Frozen waffles, microwave popcorn, packed cookies and other baked and fried items.
until the labels give us trans fat information, be sure to check the list of ingredients for the words "partially hydrogenated" or " shortening". If they are in the first three ingredients for a particular food product, and the food product contains a little total fat, there is likely there is a fair amount of trans fats in that food.
Pay special attention to margarines that list the grams of monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat along with the total grams of fat and grasses of saturated fat. With this information, you can actually discover the grams of trans fatty acids making a bit of math:
- Step 1 - Add the grasses of saturated fat, monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat.
- Step 2 - If the step number 1 is less than the total amount of fat on the label, you can assume that the grams that are missing are trans fats.
Trans fats can increase the risk of type 2 diabetes in women. In a 2001 study, the researchers found that when women replaced 2% of trans fats that ate with polyunsaturated fat, they abandoned the risk of diabetes by 40%.
But for women, risks do not end there. Trans fats can increase the risk of colon cancer as well. Researchers suspect that trans fatty acids are carcinogenic, but need more proof to be sure. They know of a recent study that high levels of dietary fats doubled the risk of colon cancer in women in menopause not in hormone replacement therapy.
Trans fats were also implicated in the development of breast cancer. A Dutch study suggests an association between the amount of trans fat stored in the body and risks of the disease in women after menopause.
