The Fat Truth

Federal and state agencies are hoping to regulate an industrial poison responsible for perhaps 100,000 deaths per year in the United States.The poison is produced by mixing certain liquid organic chemicals with industrial catalysts such as platinum or palladium to alter the chemical bonds. The altered version takes on a solidified form useful for industry but, apparently, deadly for humans. Like asbestos, these chemicals were once heralded for their copious beneficial properties, and they found their way into everyday products. Removing these poisons from the environment will take great political will, encountered by resistance from industry every step of the way.You wouldn't think that regular folks would object to banning such a harmful class of chemicals, but they do. We're talking about trans fats, created in laboratories, like a Frankenstein monster, in an attempt to make a better dietary fat out of plant oils by zapping them with energy.Trans fats have largely replaced butter and lard in commercial bake goods and fast foods. Advocates say they lower food costs, allowing poor people better access to french fries and other junk foods. They extend shelf life, too, which saves somebody money. Opponents say the only problem with this convenient scenario is that trans fats cause a lot of heart disease.
Yet this new proposal isn't a ban on food, as restaurant associations and food conglomerates paint it to be. This is a ban on a manmade food additive. And this isn't about personal choice. This is about their choice, the food producers. Like nicotine, a trans fat is something deliberately added to a product to produce a desired effect.Food made better through chemistryFats, often maligned, are vital for proper nutrition. Fatty acids are the raw materials that help regulate blood pressure, blood clotting, inflammation and other body functions. But fats are not created equally. There are three categories: saturated (solid at room temperature), unsaturated (liquid at room temperature) and trans fats. The healthiest are unsaturated, which means the fat molecule's carbon backbone isn't saturated, or maxed out, with hydrogen atoms. Saturated fats, mostly from dairy and meat products, are not as healthy, although they do contain valuable nutrients.Trans fats offer no nutrition. Worse, they raise levels of LDL, the bad cholesterol, and lower levels of HDL, the good cholesterol, according to numerous studies. They lead to more rapid weight gain and abdominal fat, as first reported by Wake Forest University researchers. And some studies show a link to diabetes and poor liver function. Harvard School of Public Health's conservative estimate is at least 30,000 deaths annually from eating trans fats, and perhaps as high as 100,000 deaths.While small amounts of trans fats are present naturally in milk and beef, most trans fats are from an industrial process. Food producers create it by partially saturating plant oils, breaking certain chemical bonds so that the carbon atoms align straight and remain solid at room temperature.
A ban on trans fats won't seem draconic if the fat is viewed as a nasty chemical additive, like certain food dyes. This isn't a steppingstone to a Big Brother situation. Alcohol and saturated fats, for example, are safe within reason and are indeed pleasurable. Artificial trans fats will never be missed.
http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/061010_bad_trans_fats.html