Trans Fatty Acid
Here's a picture I took at the hospital's lab last week. The left test tube contains a normal sample of serum, but the one on the right has a layer of opaque fatty deposit. I meant to use this picture for a speech class presentation, but the silly projector didn't work. Anyway, I'll post what I said so at least you can have the words with an illustration.
2. Lower HDL. Just like you might know LDL as the “bad stuff” you might know HDL as the “good stuff.” HDL is what travels around in our vessels scraping off LDL and getting rid of it. But trans-fats not only create more of the harmful LDL, but lower the helpful HDL.
3. Atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. Atherosclerosis is what happens when all that LDL isn’t cleaned up and forms plaques on our arteries. Our marshmallow ride would be a case of atherosclerosis. Coronary heart disease is narrowed blood vessels. In CHD, blood struggles to reach all parts of the body causing strokes and heart attacks.
Here’s one I bet you weren’t expecting:
4. Cancer (I found that in my nutrition textbook)
5. Weight gain—even with total calorie control. (New England Journal of Medicine)
6. Fat distribution to abdomen area (maybe trans-fats are to blame for our muffin- tops…)
Alright, now that we’ve seen what trans-fats do, let’s find out how many are OK to eat:
Here’s what the New England Journal of Medicine wrote: “20-60 calories (2-7 grams) out of a 2000 calorie diet showed adverse effects.”
With this in mind, I found that the Average American eats 50 calories from trans-fats per day!!!
At this point, I think you’ll agree that we have a problem. What can we do about it? I found three steps to a solution:
1. Watch for trans-fats on labels. As of January last year, the FDA has required all food labels to include trans-fat content. Straining your eyes over a microscopic label is not always the most enjoyable process. But you only have to do it once. After you know something has a load of trans-fat, just avoid it.
2. Limit processed, snack and fast foods. It sounds impossible, but making your own sandwich instead of copping out at a drive-thru makes a huge difference. Keep in mind that a few minutes “lost” making a sandwich is a few years “gained” while not struggling from a stroke or cancer.
3. Be ready to fight for change! Here’s the good news: we ARE moving towards change. Countries like Denmark have outlawed trans-fats altogether, and Canada is planning to do the same, and WE are starting to catch on. New York City has now outlawed trans-fats in all their restaurants. So, when the opportunity comes, we can be ready to push “No trans-fats!” because, if McDonald’s can make their fries with NO trans-fat in New York, they can certainly take out the 72 calories from ours!
The other day I went to Twinkie’s web-site but it was “closed for construction.”
(I don’t think they like FDA’s new law).
Anyway, these things (showing Twinkie) are so loaded with trans-fat that they’re said to stay fresh for 50-100 years! That’s a lot longer than we’ll live if we eat them!
Let’s think about our own “shelf-life” instead.
It’s the last day of classes. Our speech class decides to take a trip to a water park to celebrate. We decide to try one of the new water slides. But something’s wrong: instead of the slide edges being smooth and frictionless, they’re like marshmallows. We struggle down, having to push ourselves most of the way.
This defective slide is like a clogged blood vessel. One reason it’s clogged is from trans-fatty acids or “trans-fats.” I became interested in this topic when my mom—who’s studying to be a nurse practitioner—was doing research on them. I took out my own nutrition textbook and did some research.
You’re probably thinking, “Not another fat lecture!” But if you’ll just bear with me, I’m going to try to make this as clear as possible.
First of all, let’s figure out what these fats are. You’ve probably heard of saturated and unsaturated fats? Saturated fats are the “unhealthy” fats in the solid form, like butter, lard and the fat found in meat. Unsaturated fats are the liquid or oil fats. And trans-fats are like something in between. They are a type of unsaturated fat but are hydrogenated, which means that hydrogen is pumped in the oils, to make them solids at room temperature. That’s what partial hydrogenation means: trans-fats aren’t all the way filled with the hydrogen like the saturated fats, just partially.
Now that we’ve found out what trans fat is, let’s find out where and why we find these so-called “bad fats.”
There’s a small amount of trans-fat in beef, lamb and dairy, but MOSTLY trans-fats are created artificially (by that hydrogenation process). Why are trans-fats used? Trans-fats are cheaper and easier to use, and because they are not fully hydrogenated (or saturated) food labels can brag about a “cholesterol-free” product. Also, because trans-fats have a bunch of hydrogen atoms attached to them, they don’t react with the air, which prevents them from going rancid. (This gives them a super-long shelf-life).
Trans-fats sounds like a great idea, don’t they? But now let’s look at what these delicious fats do to our bodies.
After some research, I found 6 direct problems related to trans-fats in the body:
1. Raise LDL. You might know LDL as “the stuff you don’t want.” LDL is made of cholesterol and is known for getting stuck in our vessels, causing plaques. The interesting thing is that trans-fats raise this plaque-material twice as much as saturated fat does! (Harvard Study).
This defective slide is like a clogged blood vessel. One reason it’s clogged is from trans-fatty acids or “trans-fats.” I became interested in this topic when my mom—who’s studying to be a nurse practitioner—was doing research on them. I took out my own nutrition textbook and did some research.
You’re probably thinking, “Not another fat lecture!” But if you’ll just bear with me, I’m going to try to make this as clear as possible.
First of all, let’s figure out what these fats are. You’ve probably heard of saturated and unsaturated fats? Saturated fats are the “unhealthy” fats in the solid form, like butter, lard and the fat found in meat. Unsaturated fats are the liquid or oil fats. And trans-fats are like something in between. They are a type of unsaturated fat but are hydrogenated, which means that hydrogen is pumped in the oils, to make them solids at room temperature. That’s what partial hydrogenation means: trans-fats aren’t all the way filled with the hydrogen like the saturated fats, just partially.
Now that we’ve found out what trans fat is, let’s find out where and why we find these so-called “bad fats.”
There’s a small amount of trans-fat in beef, lamb and dairy, but MOSTLY trans-fats are created artificially (by that hydrogenation process). Why are trans-fats used? Trans-fats are cheaper and easier to use, and because they are not fully hydrogenated (or saturated) food labels can brag about a “cholesterol-free” product. Also, because trans-fats have a bunch of hydrogen atoms attached to them, they don’t react with the air, which prevents them from going rancid. (This gives them a super-long shelf-life).
Trans-fats sounds like a great idea, don’t they? But now let’s look at what these delicious fats do to our bodies.
After some research, I found 6 direct problems related to trans-fats in the body:
1. Raise LDL. You might know LDL as “the stuff you don’t want.” LDL is made of cholesterol and is known for getting stuck in our vessels, causing plaques. The interesting thing is that trans-fats raise this plaque-material twice as much as saturated fat does! (Harvard Study).
2. Lower HDL. Just like you might know LDL as the “bad stuff” you might know HDL as the “good stuff.” HDL is what travels around in our vessels scraping off LDL and getting rid of it. But trans-fats not only create more of the harmful LDL, but lower the helpful HDL.
3. Atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. Atherosclerosis is what happens when all that LDL isn’t cleaned up and forms plaques on our arteries. Our marshmallow ride would be a case of atherosclerosis. Coronary heart disease is narrowed blood vessels. In CHD, blood struggles to reach all parts of the body causing strokes and heart attacks.
Here’s one I bet you weren’t expecting:
4. Cancer (I found that in my nutrition textbook)
5. Weight gain—even with total calorie control. (New England Journal of Medicine)
6. Fat distribution to abdomen area (maybe trans-fats are to blame for our muffin- tops…)
Alright, now that we’ve seen what trans-fats do, let’s find out how many are OK to eat:
Here’s what the New England Journal of Medicine wrote: “20-60 calories (2-7 grams) out of a 2000 calorie diet showed adverse effects.”
With this in mind, I found that the Average American eats 50 calories from trans-fats per day!!!
At this point, I think you’ll agree that we have a problem. What can we do about it? I found three steps to a solution:
1. Watch for trans-fats on labels. As of January last year, the FDA has required all food labels to include trans-fat content. Straining your eyes over a microscopic label is not always the most enjoyable process. But you only have to do it once. After you know something has a load of trans-fat, just avoid it.
2. Limit processed, snack and fast foods. It sounds impossible, but making your own sandwich instead of copping out at a drive-thru makes a huge difference. Keep in mind that a few minutes “lost” making a sandwich is a few years “gained” while not struggling from a stroke or cancer.
3. Be ready to fight for change! Here’s the good news: we ARE moving towards change. Countries like Denmark have outlawed trans-fats altogether, and Canada is planning to do the same, and WE are starting to catch on. New York City has now outlawed trans-fats in all their restaurants. So, when the opportunity comes, we can be ready to push “No trans-fats!” because, if McDonald’s can make their fries with NO trans-fat in New York, they can certainly take out the 72 calories from ours!
The other day I went to Twinkie’s web-site but it was “closed for construction.”
(I don’t think they like FDA’s new law).
Anyway, these things (showing Twinkie) are so loaded with trans-fat that they’re said to stay fresh for 50-100 years! That’s a lot longer than we’ll live if we eat them!
Let’s think about our own “shelf-life” instead.
For a great website (I found after the speech) visit:
http://www.bantransfats.com/eateriesnews.html (this one lists the restaurants that are/are planning to go trans-fat free)
6 Comments:
Excellent Speech, and Excellent Pictures (below) !!
:)
Fascinating!
Continue to pursue all forms of learning with such intent to understand.
Nos vemos pronto!
It's fun to read this post after a year of organic chemistry.
barry:
what is that supposed to mean? (:
wait...I need you to help me. I have to give this speech now for a REAL chemistry class. Do you have some tips from your organic chem. knowledge to share? I was going to try to focus on hydrogenation and maybe what goes on in plaque formation. Any ideas on these or other areas? Give me some real stuff.
I just meant it was interesting reading.
My knowledge is completely worthless to you. I could tell you what a trans-alkene looks like, but havn't the faintest clue what it means in my poor body.
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home