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July 10, 2003

Identifying Bad Fat. . . Trans Fats Cause Artery Blockage

By Jon Christian Ryter
Copyright 2003 - All Rights Reserved
To distribute this article, please post this web address or hyperlink

Back in the late 1950s, the AMA told us butter and fried foods prepared in lard (animal fat) were unhealthy and if America persisted in eating fatty dairy products which consisted of butter, cheese and whole milk, they would likely die prematurely from heart disease. The National Institute of Health, which was pressured, coddled and paid by the agri-industry (paid in the sense that the man in the White House and those in Congress received handsome contributions to their campaign war chests to promote vegetable oil-based products as more healthy than animal fat products.
     The heart attack scare was on.
     Even though the dairy producers knew their products were every bit as healthy as the corn oil and safflower oil products, their lobbying fell on deaf ears not only with the politicians but the consumers as well. The general public chose to take the word of the bureaucrats who, they believed, had no personal interests and therefore, were more believable than the dairy interest which had millions of dollars to win or lose.
     It turns out the dairy farmers were right all along and the bureaucracts, supported handsomely by the agri-industry that developed margarine and vegetable shortening back in the late 1920s and early 1930s but could never really
gain an appreciable market share until they were able to enlist the politicians to promote the fat scare as fact.
     Over the past 80 or 90 years, the medical community has become a lot smarter, and they aren't really indebted to the agri-industry. For the past 25 years or so the medical community has known that it is the trans fats in foods that create the substances that clog up our arteries.
     While small amounts of trans fats occur naturally in some foods, including meat and dairy products, about 95% of the trans fats that are consumed by Americans have been deliberately added to the foods we buy in the local supermarket to enhance their shelf life. All of them come from vegetable oils. The most dangerous offenders? Margarine. Salad dressings with vegetable oil bases. Baked goods made with vegetable shortening. Potato chips. All fried foods cooked with vegetable shortening. Cake frostings prepared with either margarine or shortening. Almost all vegetable oil cooking oils (a few of them do not contain trans fats).
     Within the last couple of years, the AMA, pressured to do so by groups such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest has reversed its previous stand and is acknowledging that butter is better for you than margarine. And, as shocking as it may seem, frying with bacon or sausage grease is healthier than frying your fried foods with vegetable shortening.
     Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson has taken the first step in correcting the half century old myth that vegetable oil based products are better for you than products cooked in animal fat by requiring that all prepared foods contain, under their nutritional fact label, a line telling the consumer how many grams or milligrams of trans fat are found in that product. Please note (when you look at the sample nutrition fact label above) there is no % of daily value listed because there is no healthy level of trans fat.
     When the vegetable oils in the foods you consume begin to break down in the body, some of them are converted to trans fats. Trans fats then stick to the walls of the arteries and create blockages that will eventually cause you to have a heart attack. According to Thompson, last year heart disease had a negative impact on the American economy of $214 billion (which includes $115 billion in direct medical costs). Over 300,000 Americans die from heart disease and/or diabetes (which is linked to obesity) each year.
     The Center for Science in the Public Interest has been pushing the federal government to determine what are the safe levels of trans fats which can be consumed (those which will wash out of the system), but it is not likely they will be able to do so since there are no safe levels. That is the consensus of the National Academy of Sciences and several other groups that have attempted to gauge "safe levels." They claim there is no scientific data available to establish a maximum safe daily intake level for trans fats. Why? Because any residue of trans fats that remain in the body when the foods consumed are excreted will adhere to the wall of the arteries. Ultimately they will become the blockages that will affect the lives of the people who consumed them.
     In 1999 the FDA wanted a label requirement for trans fats but pressure from special interest groups prevented it from happening. It was suggested (by those who wanted to conceal the fact that there was such a thing as trans fats) that trans fats be lumped under saturated fats (which also contribute to heart disease and obesity).
     Since this new law does not go into affect until January 1, 2006, consumers need to be very careful about the foods they eat. The American Heart Association is urging people on 2,200 calorie diets not to eat more than 20 grams of saturated fats and trans fats daily. (Example: one normal slice of apple pie contains 3 grams of saturated fats and 4 grams of trans fat + 7 grams of bad fat. A donut contains 5 grams of saturated fat and 5 grams of trans fat.
     Eat four donuts and you are through eating for the day.)
     Typical fatty foods--and potato chips aside--the American Dietetic Association estimates that the normal consumer eats about 5 grams of trans fats in a typical non-fatty food day (those, in other words, who watch what they eat and avoid high fat foods). While this is slight it is important to understand that the consumption of any trans fats increase the risk of heart disease. According to Walter Willett, Chairman of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, "Trans fats are considerably worse than saturated fats on a gram-for-gram basis and have other adverse metabolic affects." Like saturated fat, trans fats increase low density lipoproteins (which is the most damaging form of cholesterol). But it also lowers the high density lipids (il.e., good cholesterol) and raises your triglycride levels as well.
     In 1994 a Harvard study revealed that people who consumed partially hydrogenated oils which were high in trans fats were at twice the risk for a heart attack compared to those who avoided vegetable oils or foods prepared in them.
     Another report, the Nurses' Health Study suggested a strong link between trans fats and premature death. The step taken by the Bush Administration to label trans fats will help people make choices that will greatly reduced the risk of coronary heart disease in the future.
     In the meantime, to prolong your life, distance yourself from the foods mentioned earlier in this article. Good eating...good health...long life.

Jon Christian Ryter's shocking expose:
Whatever Happened To America?

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