Recently,i was browsing through some articles and i found some about this trans fats thing. It's kinda scary that so many food and snacks that i eat all contain this, and for some food that you eat because you dont wanna get fat and it's said low-fat....well, it's low saturated fat but probably high trans fat instead.
And why you dont wanna have too high trans fat in your body? Trans fats cause significant and serious lowering of HDL (good) cholesterol and a significant and serious increase in LDL (bad) cholesterol; make the arteries more rigid; cause major clogging of arteries; cause insulin resistance; cause or contribute to type 2 diabetes; and cause or contribute to other serious health problems.
About Trans Fat
There are four kinds of fats: monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, saturated fat, and trans fat. Monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat are the "good" fats. It is generally accepted that consumption of saturated fat should be kept low, especially for adults. Trans fat (which means trans fatty acids) is the worst kind of fat, far worse than saturated fat.
"On a per-calorie basis, trans fats appear to increase the risk of coronary heart disease more than any other macronutrient, conferring a substantially increased risk at low levels of consumption (1 to 3 percent of total energy iintake). In a meta-analysis of four prospective cohort studies involving nearly 140,000 subjects, including updated analyses from the two largest studies, a 2 percent increase in energy intake from trans fatty acids was associated with a 23 percent increase in the incidence of coronary heart disease...."New England Journal of Medicine, April 2006
What not to eat
1. Don't eat any product which has the words "partially hydrogenated" or "shortening" in the ingredients list.
2. If the label says zero trans fats, don't believe it. If the words "partially hydrogenated" or "shortening" are in the ingredients list, it DOES contain trans fat.
3. Be careful when consuming products with labels from outside the United States. Sometimes they contain partially hydrogenated oil but it's not on the label.
4. In restaurants, bakeries, and other eateries, ask whether they use partially hydrogenated oil for frying or baking or in salad dressings. If they say they use vegetable oil, ask whether it is partially hydrogenated. Don't be shy about asking. Assume that all unlabeled baked and fried goods contain partially hydrogenated oil, unless you know otherwise.
5. Keep saturated fat intake low too. This is very important.
6. Remember that polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fats are good fats.
One more thing. Cholesterol that affects our arteries comes from two sources: (i) animal products and (ii) bad fats. If a product is "cholesterol fee," that doesn't mean that it won't raise your bad cholesterol. If the product itself contains no cholesterol but it does contain trans fat or saturated fat, it will raise your bad cholesterol.
You can read full details here.
Back in May 2003, Ban Trans Fats filed a lawsuit against Kraft Foods cuz their Oreo (that i love so much) contained too much trans fats and it wasn't shown in the Nutrition Facts label. They weren't asking for money but only for an injunction ordering Kraft "after the expiration of a reasonable grace period to cease and desist from marketing and selling Oreo Cookies to children in the State of California, until such cookies contain no partially hydrogenated oil or other trans fat."
Just one day after the media coverage about the lawsuit began, Kraft announced that it would reduce or eliminate the trans fat in the Oreo.
Well, that doesn't mean Oreo in Thailand is already trans fats-free, i'd doubt that. And it's not the only product in the market ~ so we need to be more careful in choosing what to eat. So far, Denmark is the ONLY country that has a law to ban every product that contains trans fats.
1 comment:
Finally, I saw something was changed in your blog. I like this Issue. Miss you
Post a Comment