Tag Archives: trans-fats

Trans fats – the good*, the bad, and the ugly

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*There actually is no good. Just bad and ugly. Anyways…

**Note, if you don’t want to read a science-y post, move along, but if you’re down with a little learning, than read on, my friends! 

A while ago after I posted this about trans-fats hiding in sneaky places like seasonings, a friend of mine asked me to write a post about trans-fats in general. What are they, anyway? Why are they so bad? Is that what margarine is made of?

So, here you go Todd, here’s the deal:

To start off, lets just do a brief review of what exactly trans-fats are. No, I’m not going to give you a super-specific chemistry lesson (sorry to my 10th grade Chemistry teacher, Ms. Fink — Chemistry is cool, but not that cool). First off, the difference between saturated fats and unsaturated fats is the way that the carbon atoms are bonded to each other. Fat molecules with all double bonds between carbon atoms = unsaturated fat, and those with all single bonds (which allows for the maximum “saturation” by hydrogen atoms) = saturated fat.

Hydrogenation is the process of turning the double carbon bonds into single bonds, allowing the saturation mentioned above (this turns unsaturated fats into saturated fats). Partial Hydrogenation, on the other hand, keeps some of the carbon bonds as double, and changes some to single bonds. This process creates a fat that will be solid at room temperature, but melts (and spreads*) easily.

*The allure of Margarine: the easy spread.

(thats what she said)

Sorry. Inappropriate. Moving on.

Back in the day, margarines and shortening such as Crisco were made using this chemical process of partial-hydrogenation. The goal was to provide consumers with a buttery like substance that could be taken out of the refrigerator and spread immediately and easily on to other foods. This was also a way to overcome a shortage of butter fat waaaaay back in the day, and to create buttery spreads using things like soybean oil and other plentiful vegetable oils.

So how does partial hydrogenation turn a normal unsaturated fat into a trans-fat? 

The process of partial hydrogenation, as stated above, turns some of those double carbon bonds into single bonds. At these sites, this process also moves the hydrogen atoms so that they are on opposite sides of the carbon atom, instead of being on the same said. THIS is a trans-fat (an unsaturated fat in the trans-formation rather than the cis-formation).

What do these types of fats do to us?

If you read my other posts (here and here) about fats, you’ll know that I have a special affinity for them, unsaturated and even saturated, to some extent.  However, trans-fats are a different story. This type of fat has been proven to not only lower your HDL (the very important type of cholesterol), but will also raise your LDL (the less desirable of the two). As  mentioned in those other posts, heart health is not so much affected by total cholesterol, as once thought, but much more by the ratio of HDL:LDL in your blood. With trans-fats actively reducing this ratio, it only spells bad-news-bears for your heart health. Long story short: trans-fats contribute significantly to heart disease.

WHY do food manufacturers use partially-hydrogenated oils? 

This one’s easy! Partially-hydrogenated oils are super-cool to a select few in Big Food because they do a few things really well: increase shelf life, decrease the need for refrigeration, and are also much cheaper to use than other types of oils and fats.

Wait, Big Food makes decisions based on money, not health?  That’s a topic for a MUCH bigger post. We’ll leave that one alone for today.

Partially hydrogenated oils are thankfully not used in margarines anymore, and Crisco has changed their formula so that they meet the FDA guidelines for trans-fats (which are not perfect, by any means).  However, they are still used a lot in many of the processed foods that are so heavily consumed in the US, and in many fast-food restaurants as well. Scrutiny over the past several years has drastically cut the use of trans-fats in restaurants, however the use of partially-hydrogenated oils in processed foods is thriving, and I honestly can’t see that changing drastically any time soon.  I dare you to take a walk down any of the inner aisles of your local chain grocery store, and you’ll see what I mean. Partially Hydrogenated _____ Oil (vegetable, soybean, etc.) appears on the label of countless types of processed foods.

The #1 thing that is very important to remember about trans-fats is that the label can say “Zero grams of trans-fats!” as long as it has less than .5g per serving. CHECK YOUR INGREDIENT LIST. If partially hydrogenated oils are present, there are in fact trans-fats present. There’s just a nice little loophole in the FDA guidelines for them to hide)

Are ALL trans-fats evil?

Well technically, no. There are some naturally occurring forms of trans-fats, however these natural forms have a combination of cis-and trans-formations, which means that they are not quite as detrimental as the chemically formulated trans-fats. Avoiding all trans fats may not be possible due to these naturally occurring animal sources, however chemically processed forms should be avoided when at all possible.

So there you go with a brief overview on the trans-fats. There are certainly a lot of other details I could throw in, but I know that this is already getting slightly long and I can’t bore all of my readers to death on a lovely Wednesday like today.

I don’t know about you guys but I really do find this stuff fascinating, and I really love to see the advances that the food industry has made over the last several years. Yes, trans-fats are still used an awful lot, but there is a huge improvement when compared to the usage of them 20 years ago. Hopefully I’ll be proven wrong and there will be an even more drastic decrease in the use of trans fats over the next several years.

Until then (and forever), shop fresh, shop local, and leave the chemically-formed robot foods to feed those who survive the Apocolypse.

Freshness (?).. Hostess… Kids (with diabetes and heart disease)… They go together!

Raid Your Pantry – Trans Fats in Hiding

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I’m going to start today’s post with a story:

Back in my college days, I did an internship at a local hospital, where I spent most of my days handing out Saltine Crackers and Ginger Ale to patients (in between bed-pan cleanings, of course).  One fine day, I went to give some kind old gentleman his Saltine Crackers as usual. However, this particular guy was not very pleased with his food selection. Upon reading the label, he threw them at me yelling “I’m Not eating any of that partially-hydrogenated CRAP!!”  Meaning, of course, the partially hydrogenated oils on the ingredient list.

Now, at the time, I thought he was Bat Sh*t Crazy. But as it turns out, he knew his stuff. As we know now, partially hydrogenated oils = trans-fats = devil food. Trans-fats are not to be lumped in with the other fats I mentioned here and here, as these guys have actually been shown to lower your HDL (good cholesterol) and raise your LDL (bad cholesterol), contributing significantly to coronary heart disease.  Trans-fats DO exist in some animal products in trace amounts, so it may be virtually impossible to eliminate them completely, and the National Academy of Sciences has  ”recommended that trans fatty acid consumption be as low as possible while consuming a nutritionally adequate diet”.  To make it simple, avoiding all natural sources: almost impossible. Avoiding processed sources: totally possible.

Fast forward to present day.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that Will (mah boyfriend) was going through the kitchen throwing away some of our spices. Now, considering the fact that this is someone who gets very upset about throwing food away, this was something that was extremely out of the ordinary. When I went to investigate, it turns out that he was throwing these spices out for good reason. A reason that will probably surprise a lot of you: They had trans-fats in them.

Shocking, I know.

While most of us have gotten the memo about the evils of trans-fats and cleared our homes of all the processed crap that contains this stuff (…right?) I bet one place you never thought you had to look was in your spice cabinet.

Now, I’m not talking about the legitimate spices, like oregano, basil, thyme, etc. I’m talking about the spice mixes. The ones that we found in our kitchen alone were:

McCormick Garlic Sea Salt

McCormick Montreal Chicken Seasoning

McCormick Vegetable Medley Seasoning

Of Course none of them list trans-fats on the nutrition label, but a closer look at the ingredient list revealed the culprit:

Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (aka Trans-Fat City)

And as I’m sure most people are aware of by now, companies are allowed to list “0 Trans Fats” on the nutrition facts, as long as the amount per serving is less than .5 grams. Before you yell at me, yes, the amount that you’d be getting from one shake of the spice jar is miniscule.  But the kicker is that trans-fats accumulate in your body, which  means that if you have a little here, and a little there, they will add up, and they may very well do you harm in the long run.

After we found this little devil hiding in our pantry, I took it upon myself to do a little investigating. I actually went to our local grocery store (Shaw’s) and stood in the baking aisle, reading the ingredient label for just about every single spice.  Yes, I did get a few weird looks, but hey, it’s worth it in the name of public health, right?

As for the results of my spice-snoop: I have both good news and bad news for you.

First, the good news:

The spices that I had in my pantry were a little bit older (probably at least a couple of years, honestly), and in my new search I found that McCormick has apparently smartened up and eliminated the trans-fats from their ingredients, including in the spices mentioned above. YAY McCormick!

And Now, for the bad news:

As I got through the McCormick spices, I was happy to see no partially-hydrogenated oils on any of the ingredient lists. However, I did find some on a couple of other spices from a company called Lawrys: in their Garlic Salt and Garlic Powder.

(Sorry about the blur, I was trying to take these relatively quickly before I was asked to leave for creeping on the spices for too long)

I know it’s a little difficult to read, but both of these include partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve never even considered that there may be trans-fats in the spices that I’m using, especially something that seems so simple as garlic salt.

So I guess I have two major thoughts here:

  1. Lawrys: Get your act together. You know better. 
  2. It is worth taking the five minutes to check your own pantry. If you are like me and tend to hold on to spices for a while, you just may have some of these old McCormick spices that have trans-fats in them, and there are clearly some brands that are still using them today, unfortunately.

And on those lines, just because I was in the baking aisle, I decided to scope out some pudding mixes as well since I’ve been seeing quite a few recipes on blogs that include pudding mixes as sweeteners for greek yogurt/cottage cheese/etc. What I found was that all of the Jello Brand pudding was trans-fat free (Yay!!), however my store (Shaws) brand, was not (Boo).

So finally, just a reminder to be careful because trans-fats can hide in the sneakiest of places, the foods where you would least expect them. Have any of you had to eliminate foods you like because of trans-fats? Do you pay attention to food labels and ingredient lists?