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#1
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Trans Fats
I introduced my parents to concerns about trans fats with an email link to a
Harvard analysis. So, at dinner Sunday my dad showed me his new margarine and pointed out that it had no trans fats. When I looked at the label I immediately saw HYDROGENATED Soybean Oil. However, under fats, Transfats were specifically listed as zero. The tub has over 30 servings, so I'm guessing the tiny serving had less than .5 grams of transfat. I have read that items less than .5 grams are listed as zero. Doing this with transfats seems like cheating. The total fat was 5 grams per serving, so I figure the transfats could be 10%. Is my interpretation right? Anything hydrogenated should be a transfat. I had read that trans fat labeling was not required until 2006. I don't buy margarine, so I was surprised by all this. I started to try to explain about serving sizes to my 74 year old dad, but he is certain that there are no transfats in the tub. Dave http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group...bHighFat/links http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/LowCarbHighFat/ |
#2
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Trans Fats
Dave wrote:
I introduced my parents to concerns about trans fats with an email link to a Harvard analysis. So, at dinner Sunday my dad showed me his new margarine and pointed out that it had no trans fats. When I looked at the label I immediately saw HYDROGENATED Soybean Oil. However, under fats, Transfats were specifically listed as zero. The tub has over 30 servings, so I'm guessing the tiny serving had less than .5 grams of transfat. I have read that items less than .5 grams are listed as zero. Doing this with transfats seems like cheating. The total fat was 5 grams per serving, so I figure the transfats could be 10%. Is my interpretation right? Anything hydrogenated should be a transfat. I had read that trans fat labeling was not required until 2006. I don't buy margarine, so I was surprised by all this. I started to try to explain about serving sizes to my 74 year old dad, but he is certain that there are no transfats in the tub. Note that trans fatty acids are unsaturated fatty acids that have gone through the hydrogenation process without getting hydrogenated. Strictly speaking only "partially hydrogenated oils" should have trans fats. Fully hydrogenated fats/oils should have no trans fats as they have no unsaturated fat at all. Whether the food labelling legal directives allow some loopholes I don't know. MattLB |
#3
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Trans Fats
Note that trans fatty acids are unsaturated fatty acids that have gone
through the hydrogenation process without getting hydrogenated. Strictly speaking only "partially hydrogenated oils" should have trans fats. Fully hydrogenated fats/oils should have no trans fats as they have no unsaturated fat at all. Whether the food labelling legal directives allow some loopholes I don't know. MattLB Hmmm. If I understand you, saturated fats cannot be made in trans fats. Soybean oil is 14% saturated fat, so I figure the other 86% is unsaturated fat. When you say that a fully hydrogenated fat or oil would have no trans fats because they have no unsaturated fat, you imply that our example, hydrogenated soybean oil has no transfats. However, if the soybean oil is 86% unsaturated fat, the result of hydrogenation should produce trans fats. No? Your first sentence seems to say that unsaturated fatty acids can go through the hydrogenation process without getting hydrogenated. This seems self contradictory. Can a house go through the painting process without getting painted? Either I am seriously failing to understand you, or you are yanking my chain. The later would not be unusual on USENET. Dave http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group...bHighFat/links http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/LowCarbHighFat/ |
#4
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Trans Fats
In sci.med.nutrition Dave wrote:
However, if the soybean oil is 86% unsaturated fat, the result of hydrogenation should produce trans fats. Hydrogenation produces saturates, partial hydrogenation produces trans-fatty acids. -- Cliff Stamp http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/ The one unforgivable sin, the offence against one's own integrity, is to accept anything at all simply on authority -- Maureen Johnson Long Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. -- Publilius Syrus |
#5
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Trans Fats
"Dave" wrote in message . com... I introduced my parents to concerns about trans fats with an email link to a Harvard analysis. So, at dinner Sunday my dad showed me his new margarine and pointed out that it had no trans fats. When I looked at the label I immediately saw HYDROGENATED Soybean Oil. However, under fats, Transfats were specifically listed as zero. The tub has over 30 servings, so I'm guessing the tiny serving had less than .5 grams of transfat. I have read that items less than .5 grams are listed as zero. Doing this with transfats seems like cheating. The total fat was 5 grams per serving, so I figure the transfats could be 10%. Is my interpretation right? Anything hydrogenated should be a transfat. I had read that trans fat labeling was not required until 2006. I don't buy margarine, so I was surprised by all this. I started to try to explain about serving sizes to my 74 year old dad, but he is certain that there are no transfats in the tub. Dave http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group...bHighFat/links http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/LowCarbHighFat/ I don't know about the exact details on this item but it's true in general that if the amount of X in a product falls below a threshold level, the producer is allowed to claim it's zero. About the 2006 schedule it's amazing what the companies can pull out. Every time the FTC comes up with something to prohibit false advertising, the companies claim they need time to get it on the label. But it has made my head spin how fast they have come out with labeling on carbs and transfats even though I know it has to do with $$$$$. |
#6
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Trans Fats
Thanks Cliff,
So, if I'm getting this, saturated fat created in an oil by hydrogenation is not considered a trans fat; and trans-fatty acids produced in an oil by partial hydrogenation are trans fats. Am I close? If so, the studies showing that trans fats caused more CHD than saturated fat were studying trans-fatty acids. (?) wrote in message ... In sci.med.nutrition Dave wrote: However, if the soybean oil is 86% unsaturated fat, the result of hydrogenation should produce trans fats. Hydrogenation produces saturates, partial hydrogenation produces trans-fatty acids. -- Cliff Stamp http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sstamp/ The one unforgivable sin, the offence against one's own integrity, is to accept anything at all simply on authority -- Maureen Johnson Long Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. -- Publilius Syrus |
#7
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Trans Fats
The term hydrogenation stems from the chemical structure of lipids.
Every lipid molecule is simple a carbon chain with varying numbers of hydrogen atoms attatched and varying numbers of double bonds. "saturation" is the degree to which the maximum number of hydrogen bonds are attatched....so unsaturated fats have fewer H atoms while saturated fats are fully loaded with the maximum H atoms possible per carbon atom. Saturated fat has no double bonds to the structure is flatter and the molecules pack together....hence its solid at room temperature. Unsaturated fats have some double bonds between carbon atoms and so don't have the maximal amount of H atoms. This results in a less linear structure so the lipids don't pack together as well....thus liquid at room temperature. Mono-unsaturated fat has one double bond while polyunsaturated can have three (the omega-3's), six (the omega 6's) and on up. so, trans-fat is produced commercially by forcing normally unsaturated fats (vegetable oils) to give up some of their double bonds and accept more H atoms. Hence the fat is now partially hydrogenated...still has some double bonds, but less than it naturally should. Food companies do this because the partially hydrogenated oils have different melting points and other properties that they find desirable to make their food last longer on the shelf.....oh and impair our health. These trans-fats have conformations unlike naturally saturated or naturally unsaturated fats and, as I understand it, when the body trys to encorporate these weird shapes into membranes, etc. things don't work as well. Hopefully this helps, I'm going off what I remember from nutritional biochem so some details may be less than exact, but the general gist is right. Cheers! Lisa "Dave" wrote in message .com... Note that trans fatty acids are unsaturated fatty acids that have gone through the hydrogenation process without getting hydrogenated. Strictly speaking only "partially hydrogenated oils" should have trans fats. Fully hydrogenated fats/oils should have no trans fats as they have no unsaturated fat at all. Whether the food labelling legal directives allow some loopholes I don't know. MattLB Hmmm. If I understand you, saturated fats cannot be made in trans fats. Soybean oil is 14% saturated fat, so I figure the other 86% is unsaturated fat. When you say that a fully hydrogenated fat or oil would have no trans fats because they have no unsaturated fat, you imply that our example, hydrogenated soybean oil has no transfats. However, if the soybean oil is 86% unsaturated fat, the result of hydrogenation should produce trans fats. No? Your first sentence seems to say that unsaturated fatty acids can go through the hydrogenation process without getting hydrogenated. This seems self contradictory. Can a house go through the painting process without getting painted? Either I am seriously failing to understand you, or you are yanking my chain. The later would not be unusual on USENET. Dave http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group...bHighFat/links http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/LowCarbHighFat/ |
#8
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Trans Fats
Dave wrote: Note that trans fatty acids are unsaturated fatty acids that have gone through the hydrogenation process without getting hydrogenated. Strictly speaking only "partially hydrogenated oils" should have trans fats. Fully hydrogenated fats/oils should have no trans fats as they have no unsaturated fat at all. Whether the food labelling legal directives allow some loopholes I don't know. MattLB Hmmm. If I understand you, saturated fats cannot be made in trans fats. Soybean oil is 14% saturated fat, so I figure the other 86% is unsaturated fat. When you say that a fully hydrogenated fat or oil would have no trans fats because they have no unsaturated fat, you imply that our example, hydrogenated soybean oil has no transfats. However, if the soybean oil is 86% unsaturated fat, the result of hydrogenation should produce trans fats. No? Your first sentence seems to say that unsaturated fatty acids can go through the hydrogenation process without getting hydrogenated. That's true. This seems self contradictory. Can a house go through the painting process without getting painted? If you don't have enough paint, yes. Either I am seriously failing to understand you, or you are yanking my chain. The later would not be unusual on USENET. No chain yanking, I promise. A bit of background: Saturated fats have straight fatty acids, whereas unsaturated fats have kinked fatty acids. This leads to saturated fat being solid a room temperature, whereas unsaturated fat is liquid (oil). To make margarine, which is solid, requires converting some of the unsaturated (with hydrogen) oil to saturated fat. This is done by pumping hydrogen gas through the oil in the presence of a catalyst. The catalyst binds and distorts the unsaturated fatty acid making it vunerable to attack by the hydrogen. If the hydrogen attacks and binds the fatty acid it will no longer be unsaturated, it will have become saturated (with hydrogen). If there is enough hydrogen and the process is done for long enough you should end up with all the fatty acids fully hydrogenated (saturated). If the hydrogenation is only partial - just enough to make the oil more solid - not all of the unsaturated will be turned into saturated. If the unsaturated fatty acid is released from the catalyst without picking up any hydrogen it will spring back to its original shape, OR, it will spring back in a trans shape. The key thing is that this trans shape, while still unsaturated is straight instead of kinked. This means it appears to be a saturated fat and behaves like one physically, but as soon as the body tries to burn it like saturated fat it finds it can't. The result is that trans fats hang around in the body and are difficult to get rid of without free radicals. Any unsaturated fats + free radicals = damage to the body, so all in all trans fats are bad news. MattLB |
#10
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Trans Fats
Dave wrote:
Wow. Thank you so much. So, in a sense it is the catalyst that triggers the problem. What do they use as a catalyst? Usually nickel, because it's cheap and easy to get hold of. If one take an anti-oxidant, will this make it harder for the body to remove transfats? Tricky one. The attempted removal of trans fats is done by white blood cells, which generate free radicals on demand (usually to attack bacteria), so it's possible there may be a reduction in their effectiveness with high levels of antioxidants. On the other hand the places trans fats tend to end up, like the fatty deposits in arteries, don't have much in the way of antioxidants anyway, which is half the problem. (I'm thinking of making a webpage out of your explanation.) Okay, that'll be 1000 dollars a word :-) MattLB |
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