Lowering Your Trans Fats
The FDA has banned the use of trans fats in foods, but the best way to ensure you are fully eliminating artificially produced trans fats from your diet is to completely avoid eating pre-packaged foods, processed foods, and deep-fried foods, and to stop using cooking oils containing trans fats. Making these changes will improve your heart health overall.
Why You Should Avoid Trans Fats
Consuming trans fats, especially those from hydrogenated oils, increases your LDL cholesterol. This is the “bad” type of cholesterol that clogs and hardens your arteries, leading to a higher risk of blood clotting, heart attack, or stroke.
As there is no real nutritional benefit to including hydrogenated oil in your diet, doctors recommend reducing your intake of trans fats as much as possible. In fact, the FDA recently banned products containing partially hydrogenated oils in the US, as they are one of the most common sources of trans fat.
However, some of these products may still be on the market until 2021: the FDA is allowing companies to sell products that businesses produced before the ban took place. Additionally, if a product has less than 0.5 grams of trans fat, food companies can market it as having 0 grams of trans fats, so it’s still important to be aware of foods that may contain it.
Eating Fat Leads To Weight Gain
A common diet myth is that eating high fat foods causes you to gain weight.
While its true that eating too much of any macronutrient, including fat, makes you gain weight, consuming fat-rich foods as part of a healthy, balanced diet does not lead to weight gain.
On the contrary, consuming fat-rich foods may help you lose weight and keep you satisfied between meals.
In fact, numerous studies have shown that eating high fat foods, including whole eggs, avocados, nuts, and full-fat dairy, may help boost weight loss and feelings of fullness .
Whats more, dietary patterns that are very high in fat, including ketogenic and low carb, high fat diets, have been shown to promote weight loss .
Of course, quality matters. Consuming highly processed foods that are rich in fats, such as fast food, sugary baked goods, and fried foods, may increase your risk of weight gain .
Summary
Fat is a healthy and essential part of a balanced diet. Adding fat to meals and snacks may facilitate weight loss by boosting feelings of fullness.
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Science And Advocacy Lead To Change In The Us
In 2003, following a long campaign led by Dr. Fred Kummerow, along with the Center for Science in the Public Interest and researchers from the Harvard School of Public Healths Department of Nutrition, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled that trans fats must be declared on the Nutrition Facts label by 2006.
Despite intense lobbying efforts against the label addition by some parts of the food industry, this ruling sparked a major makeover of the American food supply. The FDA once estimated that approximately 95% of prepared cookies, 100% of crackers, and 80% of frozen breakfast products contained trans fat. When food companies realized that consumersarmed with this new informationwould avoid products containing trans fat, many found ways to make their products without partially hydrogenated oils. For example, major manufacturers started using trans-free oils for making tortilla chips and other crunchy snacks frozen food makers introduced frozen fried chicken products without trans fat and many major restaurant chains reformulated their products to reduce trans fats.
Impacts of the 2006 ruling
- A study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Americans blood-levels of trans fats dropped 58 percent from 2000 to 2009evidence that the labeling law has had its desired effect.
NYC leads by example
Hdl: Nine Ways To Raise Your Good Cholesterol
They call HDL good cholesterol. But its better than that. HDL keeps arteries young. The more HDL you have, the better. But how do you get your HDL level up?
HDL is especially important when you have diabetes. A new Italian study followed more than 47,000 people with Type 2 for four years. Those with low levels of HDL had a 44% increased chance of developing signs of diabetic kidney disease. Low HDL levels were more dangerous than high levels of triglycerides, which were thought to be a greater risk.
HDL stands for high-density lipoprotein. Our bodies have two main types of cholesterol carriers. Low-density lipoprotein takes cholesterol from the liver to the rest of the body. LDL leaves a lot of extra cholesterol lying around, where it can form hard stuff called plaque in arteries.
HDL goes the other way. It brings extra cholesterol from other parts of the body back to the liver. It keeps plaque from forming and helps keep arteries open. It undoes damage that life, food, and time do to arteries.
Your HDL level means a lot for your risk of stroke, heart disease, kidney disease, and other kinds of blood vessel damage. Since diabetes complications result from blood vessel damage, you really want your HDL level up.
A level over 60 mg/dl is considered excellent. From 40 to 60 is OK. Below 40 is considered low.
2. Stop smoking. Many studies show HDL goes up in people who stop smoking, even though their weight tends to increase.
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High Fat Foods Are Unhealthy
High fat foods get a bad rap, and even highly nutritious fatty foods get lumped into the bad foods category.
This is unfortunate because many high fat foods are packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants and can help you stay satisfied between meals, supporting a healthy body weight.
For example, full fat dairy, egg yolks, skin-on poultry, and coconut are high fat foods that are commonly shunned by people trying to lose weight or simply maintain health even though these foods contain nutrients the body needs to function optimally.
Of course, eating too much of any food, including the foods above, can derail weight loss. However, when theyre added to the diet in healthful ways, these high fat foods may help you reach and maintain a healthy weight while providing an important source of nutrients.
In fact, eating fat-rich foods like eggs, avocados, nuts, and full fat dairy may help boost weight loss by decreasing hunger-promoting hormones and increasing feelings of fullness .
Summary
Nutritious, high fat foods can be included as part of a healthy diet. High fat foods contain important nutrients that your body needs, and eating higher fat foods can promote feelings of fullness, keeping you satisfied.
Tips For Lowering Trans Fat Intake
If you live or spend time in a country where there is weak regulation or no ban on industrial trans fat, here are a few tips that may help you lower your intake:
- Choose liquid vegetable oils.
- Avoid eating commercially prepared baked foods , snack foods, and processed foods, including fast foods. To be on the safe side, assume that all such products contain trans fats unless they are labeled otherwise.
- When foods containing partially hydrogenated oils cant be avoided, choose products that list the partially hydrogenated oils near the end of the ingredient list.
- To avoid trans fats in restaurants, one strategy is to avoid deep-fried foods and desserts. You may be able to help change these cooking practices by asking your server, the chef, or manager if the establishment uses only trans fat-free oils and foods.
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You Choose Refined Carbs Over Fiber
Choosing breakfast foods high in refined carbohydrates is one of the worst things you can do for your cholesterol, and one of the easiest traps to fall into, as so many popular breakfast items fit this bill, says Sharon Puello, MA, RD, CDN, CDCES.
A diet high in refined carbohydrates can increase your triglycerides and the number of small LDL particles in your blood, which both increase your risk for heart disease, explains Puello.
Starting your morning with sugary cereal, donuts, pastries, pancakes, bagels, or any other refined carbohydrate can significantly affect your risk for heart disease. Researchers found that just one to two extra servings of refined carbohydrates per day can increase the risk of coronary heart disease by 10 to 20 percent. But, adding one to two servings of whole grains can decrease the risk by the same amount.
Choose whole grains and fruit over refined carbohydrates and add a healthy serving of protein and fat to your breakfast to keep you full and satisfied.
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High Fat And Cholesterol
Pregnant women are often told that they should avoid high fat and cholesterol-rich foods during pregnancy. While many women think that following a low fat diet is best for their and their babys health, eating fat is essential during pregnancy.
In fact, the need for fat-soluble nutrients, including vitamin A and choline, as well as omega-3 fats, increases during pregnancy (
Summary
Fat-rich foods are important for both fetal and maternal health. Healthy, fat-rich foods should be included in meals and snacks to promote a healthy pregnancy.
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Trans Fatty Acid In Foods
Trans fatty acid is defined as unsaturated fatty acid with at least one nonconjugated double bond in the trans configuration. There are several food sources of TFAs. TFA from partially hydrogenated vegetable oil is the major source of dietary industrial TFAs , and this type of TFA is regarded as contributing to cardiovascular events. There is a trend toward decreasing consumption of this type of TFA. The second major source of TFA is from ruminant fat, and in some cases ruminant fat is a major contributor of TFAs due to the reduction of the intake of industrial TFAs. The impact of ruminant fat TFAs on human health has not been conclusive, regarding both health benefits and harmful effects depending on the reports. A small amount of industrial TFA is also present in edible oils formed during the deodorization process at high temperature . The physiological effects of TFA contained in edible oils are not well established .
TFA in humans is attributed not only to dietary origin but also to that endogenously formed through the production of free radicals during metabolism . However, it is likely that most of the TFAs in humans are attributable to dietary origin, although the biological activities may differ between these two sources of TFAs. Endogenously formed TFAs were detected in breast cancer tissue specimens and erythrocyte and lymphocyte membranes of children with dermatological diseases .
Turkey: Good For High Cholesterol
Could a Thanksgiving favorite be the answer to lowering your cholesterol?
If you are watching your cholesterol levels, you know that it is important to look at the cholesterol content, as well as saturated and trans fats, in the foods you consume. Turkey can be an excellent choice if youre looking to limit your saturated fats, but, of course, its all in how you prepare it.
Obviously, if you fry a turkey in high-fat oil, this will raise the fat content of the meat. Whether or not it raises the saturated or trans fat content is determined by the type of oil you fry in. On the flip side, if you roast the meat and let the fat drip into a separate pan, you can cut the level of fat in the turkey.
According to the
Try some of these heart-healthy turkey recipes from around the web!
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Good Fat Versus Bad Fat And How To Tell The Difference
Eating the right type of fat is vital to your health. In fact, certain types of fat can actually help reduce your risk of heart disease, help you lose weight, help in the absorption of certain vitamins, keep your skin and hair healthy, improve your immunity, boost your physical well-being and for our kids they are a vital source of energy and necessary for mental and physical development.
We live in a food crazed culture constantly surrounded by high fat, high sugar and highly processed food. Theres lots of confusion surrounding fat in terms of what and how much should we eat. With so much packaged or convenient foods at our finger tips its important to learn which foods are the better choice.
The Facts On Trans Fats
The government has banned them from our food. Heres what it means for your health
Health Canada has banned artificial trans fat, making it illegal for manufacturers to add partially hydrogenated oils to foods sold in Canada. This ban is being phased in and as of September 2020 all artificially produced trans fat will be removed from the food supply.
How will this affect our food supply and our health? Heart & Stroke registered dietitian Carol Dombrow provides some answers.
What are trans fats and where are they found?
Trans fats are a type of fat found in some foods. Artificial trans fat is made when hydrogen is added to a liquid vegetable oil to make it more solid.
Trans fats can be found in commercially baked and fried foods made with vegetable shortening, such as fries and donuts. Its also in hard stick margarine and shortening and some snack and convenience foods. When you see partially hydrogenated oils on the label of a processed food, that means it contains trans fats.
Small amounts of naturally occurring trans fats can be found in some foods such as dairy products, beef and lamb, and some oils.
How do they affect our health?
Trans fats can increase your risk of heart disease. They increase your bad cholesterol and decrease good cholesterol , fostering the buildup of fatty deposits that can clog your blood vessels and lead to heart attack.
Why is a ban necessary?
What does a healthy diet look like now?
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Potential Adverse Outcome Pathways Of Trans Fatty Acids
Although the majority of studies performed on trans fatty acids are observational, a substantial number of experimental studies have been performed. These studies vary from experiments in cultured cells and animal models to human clinical trials. A number of these studies have provided evidence that certain trans fatty acids influence the regulation of physiological processes such as lipid metabolism, inflammation, oxidative stress, endoplasmic reticulum stress, autophagy, and apoptosis. The dysregulation of some of these biological pathways by trans fatty acids has been proposed as a potential underlying mechanism that contributes to the negative effects of trans fatty acids on cardiometabolic health . These potential adverse outcome pathways are further explained in detail in the following sections.
Are There Naturally Occurring Trans Fats
Small amounts of trans fats occur naturally in some meat and dairy products, including beef, lamb and butterfat. There have not been sufficient studies to determine whether these naturally occurring trans fats have the same bad effects on cholesterol levels as trans fats that have been industrially manufactured.
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Which Foods Contain Trans Fats
Trans fats can be found in many foods including fried foods like doughnuts, and baked goods including cakes, pie crusts, biscuits, frozen pizza, cookies, crackers, and stick margarines and other spreads. You can determine the amount of trans fats in a particular packaged food by looking at the Nutrition Facts panel. However, products can be listed as 0 grams of trans fats if they contain 0 grams to less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving. You can also spot trans fats by reading ingredient lists and looking for the ingredients referred to as partially hydrogenated oils.
Myths About Dietary Fat And Cholesterol
For decades, people have avoided fat- and cholesterol-rich items, such as butter, nuts, egg yolks, and full fat dairy, instead opting for low fat substitutes like margarine, egg whites, and fat-free dairy in hopes of bettering their health and losing weight.
This is due to the misconception that eating foods rich in cholesterol and fat may increase your risk of various diseases.
While recent research has disproven this notion, myths surrounding dietary cholesterol and fat continue to dominate headlines, and many healthcare providers continue to recommend very low fat diets to the general public.
Here are 9 common myths about dietary fat and cholesterol that should be put to rest.
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What Is Soluble Fiber
Soluble fiber provides the greatest heart-health benefits. It helps lower total and LDL cholesterol levels by binding to bile in the gut and removing it with the body’s waste. Bile is made up of cholesterol. Good sources of soluble fiber include:
- Oats and oat bran.
- Apples, bananas, pears and citrus fruits.
- Brussel sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, sweet potatoes, squash.
Work To Be Done Worldwide
Outside of the U.S., a number of countries, such as Denmark, Switzerland, Canada, and Britain, have already restricted or banned trans fats. However, trans fat remains prevalent in many developing nations where inexpensive partially hydrogenated oils have become staples not only for the food industry, but also for home use. This shift away from traditional cooking oils toward partially hydrogenated oils is contributing to the growing global epidemic of cardiovascular disease. For example, trans fats in India are often found in vanaspati, a partially hydrogenated oil often used as a low-cost alternative in food preparation.
Encouragingly, in 2018 the World Health Organization also put trans fat in the spotlight on a global stage. Estimating that industrial trans fat intake leads to more than 500 thousand deaths from cardiovascular disease annually, the WHO is calling on governments to eliminate, or REPLACE, trans fats by 2023 through six strategic actions:
Because the WHO has no enforcement capacity, it is up to national and local governments to carry out these actions in to eliminate industrial trans fats.
Two years into the campaign, the WHO reported that 58 countries so far have introduced laws that will protect 3.2 billion people from the harmful substance by the end of 2021. However, more than 100 countries still need to take actions to remove trans fat from their food supplies.
Progress in Asia
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