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Ultimate Nutrition Column
The Trans Fat Alternative
Susan M. Kleiner, PhD, RD, FACN, CNS, FISSN The reaction to listing trans fats on food labels has created a revolution in the food industry. Except for several stragglers in the frozen food, snack food and popcorn categories, if you look at the nutrition facts label on the back of most packaged foods you'll see a big zero beside the trans fat column. If trans fats were so pervasive in the food supply before the labeling legislation, what are the food manufacturers using to replace it in the list of ingredients? More importantly, are the trans fat alternatives better, or worse for our health, than the original?Trans fat primer Just in case you've been living on the moon for the past few years and you're not sure what the big deal is about trans fats, here's a quick lesson. Unlike other fats in our food supply, trans fats are mostly artificial. A very small percentage of trans fats are actually found naturally in meat and dairy products, but the mother-load of trans fats are manufactured in the laboratory through the process of hydrogenation. This process changes a healthy liquid vegetable oil into a partially saturated fat. These fats were created as alternatives to butter and lard in processed foods, removing the saturated fats found naturally in those foods but maintaining the same flakiness, crispness and taste imparted by butter and lard, and at the same time increasing shelf life by reducing rancidity. They were a miracle boon to the world of packaged foods and restaurant fare. In 1993 Dr. Walter Willet of the Harvard School of Public Health questioned the impact on health that artificially manufactured trans fats might have on the American public. Research that he conducted at that time showed that the more industrially produced trans fats you ate the higher your risk of heart disease. Except for the consumer watchdog group Center for Science in the Public Interest, few people paid heed to Dr. Willet's findings. The explanation at the time was that trans fats just weren't that prevalent in the food supply; they were found mostly in margarines. Fast forward to the 21st century. Current research on trans fats shows that they are at least as bad, if not worse, than butter and lard in promoting heart disease. Until the labeling law went into effect last year trans fats were almost ubiquitous in our food supply, and heart disease is rampant. Huge serving sizes and overeating of fast foods, fried foods and snack foods haven't helped the situation any. The solution to the abundance of trans fats in the food supply was to require their listing on the nutrition facts labels of all packaged foods. With the negative press and public opinion weighting on their shoulders, food manufacturers took rapid flight from the use of trans fats and are racing to find an alternative. The race is on So what is in the food that we're eating now that trans fats are out? Well, first you should know that up to .49 grams of trans fat can be in a serving of food that is labeled as 0 grams of trans fat. Some manufacturers have just reduced the portion sizes of their foods to meet the zero trans fat threshold. Others have removed some proportion of their trans fat ingredients (but not all) and replaced it with mixtures of other oils. Many manufacturers are using the tropical oils: palm, palm kernel, and coconut oils, which are saturated vegetable fats, as replacements for trans fats. They can mimic many of the food chemistry attributes of saturated fats like butter. Historically nutritionists have guided consumers away from these saturated oils, but there is some speculation that because these come from plants, and not animals, their saturated fat content may not be as bad as we thought. The jury is still out on that one. New chemically rearranged fats are also on the market and big news in the industry. Called interesterified fats, the fatty acids are shuffled on each fat molecule in the laboratory to create partially saturated fats. Just like hydrogenation, interesterification produces some molecules that are rarely, if ever, found in nature. In a recently published study from Malaysia in the January 15th issue of the online journal Nutrition & Metabolism, researchers found that the interesterified fat that they tested had significantly more negative effects on blood sugar and cholesterol levels compared to a trans fat or palm oil. The study received wide press coverage, however, many scientific experts have argued that the design of the study was flawed. They claim that the study was funded by a Malaysian palm-oil-industry group, that the researchers conducting the study all had financial ties to the industry group, and the volunteers were employees of the organization. The goal, say experts, was to create the illusion that palm oil is the healthy alternative when compared to interesterified fats or trans fats. The interesterified fat used in the study was more highly saturated than a typical fat that would be used in place of trans fats by the food industry. Additionally, the trans fat was less hydrogenated, containing fewer trans fats, than one typically used in food processing. In fact, some industry scientists say that in past studies, interesterified fats have had more healthful effects on cholesterol than have trans fats. I'm not sure that's saying all that much. So the jury is still out on this one, too. The high-tech agricultural industry is getting in on the race, too. With genetic alteration through selective and interbreeding, more stable oils could be cultivated. These might be derived from soy, corn, sunflower and other domestically grown crops. Genetic engineering is also a possibility for creating entirely new crops. Who wins? Right now we don't have a clue about the health risks associated with any of the trans fat alternatives. Many feel that the tropical oils are the best option, others, that interesterified fats hold the most promise. The fact is that something is already replacing the trans fats in packaged foods. But not only packaged foods. Restaurants in NYC have had to make their menus trans fat-free. Nationwide the Starbucks chain has required all its bakeries to meet the requirements for zero trans fat labeling. In all likelihood, unless you only eat fresh, unprocessed foods at home, you are already eating foods using the trans fat alternatives. Who wins? In my book, it's the food manufacturers. A whole new industry of processed oils is being reborn. New products will be created that will be more palatable with the new oils. And it will be another decade or more before anyone notices whether these oils are healthy or harmful. Either enjoy being a guinea pig, or reduce your use of packaged foods and fast foods. As always, the most healthy alternatives are fresh, whole foods from a trusted source.
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