Trans fats, hydrogenated fats or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are all synonyms that refer to a type of fat that results from the chemical transformation of vegetable oil. As a product of science, liquid oils became solid, and their predominant composition in unsaturated fatty acids changed to have mostly trans fats.
How Trans Fats Affect Your Health
Your body does not need or benefit from trans fats. Eating these fats increase your risk for health problems.
Cardiovascular disease risk:
Trans fats raise your LDL (bad) cholesterol.
They also lower your HDL (good) cholesterol.
High LDL along with low HDL levels can cause cholesterol to build up in your arteries (blood vessels). This increases your risk of heart disease and stroke.
Weight gain and diabetes risk:
Eating too much trans fat can cause you to gain weight. It may also increase your risk for type 2 diabetes. Cutting out high-fat foods can help keep your weight in check. Staying at a healthy weight can reduce your risk for other health problems.
I think the elimination of trans-fats globally will eliminate one factor for heart disease and stroke risk. It was interesting in the linked article that one person involved with removing trans-fats from New York City restaurants found little push-back from the status quo.
âWhat we found in New York City restaurants was that industry wasnât really willing to fight us on this,â said Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
This is a good development for public health and all people with diabetes.
Iâm generally on board with this, especially since recent studies indicate that for most people, saturated fats are perfectly healthy in moderation. And the âin moderationâ part brings me to the part of this article I just canât standâŚ
Eating too much anything can cause you to gain weight, assuming you donât have a very severe metabolic disorder (and not of the diabetic kind). And, as weâve discussed ad nauseum elsewhere on this forum, the âmay also increase your risk for type 2 diabetesâ is almost certainly linked (in the authorsâ minds) to the weight gain, and we know that causation between weight and Type 2 is tenuous and disputed, at bestâŚ
Anyhow, Iâm all for having my doughnuts fried in lard again and my breads full of saturated fats as well. Best ones always were, along with fried chicken, fries, and the handful of other deep fried foods I actually enjoy eating. Then again, I donât eat doughnuts these days, and rarely eat fried chicken, so this wonât affect me too much. But, I wonât have trans fats in my house: pointless, lower quality products with possible health risks.
