Guest post provided by Jonny Bowden, PhD, CNS aka “The Nutrition Myth Buster”.
So you’ve decided to eat healthy over the holidays. This year, you’re going to buck the trend and avoid that typical six-pound weight gain. What’s more: This year is the year to really get into shape, and take your overall health and vitality up a notch.
But now? With so much contradictory advice out there – paleo, raw foods, vegan, high protein, low fat, and my own recently published high-fat program (“Smart Fat: Eat more Fat, Lose More Weight, Get Health Now!”) – no wonder consumers are confused!
But there’s one thing every single health professional agrees on, no matter where they stand on the nutritional advice spectrum: Cut out the trans fat.
What are trans fats?
Trans fats are an artificially produced kind of “frankenfat” blamed for an estimated 20,000 heart attacks annually, and another 7,000 heart disease deaths. And they are a serious public health concern. They’re made by artificially forcing hydrogen atoms into unsaturated fat, forming a kind of mutant fat which is great for the shelf life of processed foods, but not for the life of the humans who consume it.
The ironic part is that the reason we put trans fat in our diet in the first place was an ill-conceived attempt to get saturated fat out. The irony is that the saturated fats we banished from our diet are turning out to be either neutral or beneficial, while hydrogenated vegetable oils (trans fats) are just plain bad news.
How can trans fats get hidden inside “zero trans fat” foods?
The FDA is now calling for the elimination of trans fats from the food supply over the next three years. But big commercial food manufacturers are a crafty bunch. Seeing the writing on the wall, Big Food began lobbying for loopholes in the regulations years ago. Sure enough, they got one. And it’s a doozy.
Holiday splurges can result in more than extra weight to shed in the New Year. Sweet cookies, pies, and candies all rich in fat, along with excess alcohol and calories can lead to a spike in triglyceride levels. This increase in triglycerides may put you at increased risk for heart disease.
Dr. Britt Burton-Freeman is Director, Center for Nutrition Research, Institute for Food Safety and Health, Illinois Institute of Technology; Associate Research Nutritionist, UC Davis. Her research involves obesity and vascular disease inflammatory and oxidative stress responses. Her research approach includes human and basic science methodology.
