What are trans fats? And why are trans fats bad?

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Here, we examine what are trans fats and why are trans fats bad. These are important topics and no modern-day discussion about fats and oils can be complete without considering these issues.

So what are trans fats?

Without going into complicated details of chemistry, trans fats may be understood as fat molecules that have been twisted out of shape during hydrogenation.

This is an industrial process - involving high heat, high pressure and the use of toxic substances (usually copper) that act as catalysts - to turn liquid vegetable oil into solid or semi-solid margarine.

Trans fats occur only when the liquid oils had been partially hydrogenated. When the oils are fully hydrogenated, the fat molucules break up and are no longer "out of shape".

But this does not mean that fully hydrogenated oils are okay, They come with their own set of problems.

Natural vs Artificial Trans fats

Trans fats versus saturated fats In the past, scientists did even know what are trans fats. So they conducted studies on the effects of eating saturated fats, they acutally studied people who ate saturated fats as well as trans fats. When these people got sick, the scientists blamed saturated fats. When researchers studies saturated fats and trans fats separately, they found that: the problems previously blamed on saturated fats are, in fact, caused by trans fats. These includes heart disease, obesity, diabetes and various types of cancer. on their own, saturated fat do not cause these problems trans fats are many times more harmful than saturated fats.

The question of what are trans fats is actually a bit more complicated, because there are also natural trans fats that occur in small amounts in products like beef, milk and cheese - mainly in the meat and milk of animals that eat grass.

However, natural trans fats are not known to cause health problems. In fact, some scientific studies show that they are good for health and this could be a reason to eat the meat and milk products of grass-fed cows, instead of cows that have been fed a diet of grains and other strange foods.

One form of natural trans fats is called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). And the issue gets even more complicated because some food supplement companies market artificially-produced CLA as a product that can help weight loss.

Most of us, however, need not worry about these different variations. But I thought I would just mention this in case some of you happen to buy, or to be thinking of buying such products.

So fFor the rest of us, when we ask what are trans fats we take it that they are artificial fat molecules created during the process of hydrogenation.

Rather than be bogged down by questions about what are trans fats, it is far more important to just know that:

• Trans fats are extremely harmful to health, causing a long list of health problems including heart disease, obesity, diabetes, various types of cancer, and so on
  
  
• Even very tiny amounts are harmful so you should avoid them as much as possible
  
  
• Trans fats are found in products such as margarine, vegetable shortening and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils * trans fats. They are used for making a very wide range of food products including bread, biscuits, cookies, pastries, cakes, chocolate, peanut butter, non-dairy creamer, ice-cream, etc.
  
  
• Trans fats are also often used for deep frying, especially commercial deep frying, Thus, they are commonly found in french fries, fried chicken and other fried foods – in fast food restaurants and even high-end restaurants.

In Part II of this article, we take a closer look at the many health problems associated with trans fats. Click here to learn what are trans fats bad for?