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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Industrially-produced trans fats kill more than 500,000 people every year

By Muhammad Qasim
June 23, 2018

Rawalpindi: Industrially-produced trans fats kill more than 500,000 people every year apart from causing serious health threats for hundreds of thousands of people around the globe.

According to WHO, eliminating trans fats is key to protecting health and saving lives as every year, trans fat intake leads to more than 500,000 deaths of people from cardiovascular disease.

Conventional wisdom on dietary fats has changed. Once all fats were considered as unhealthy, and responsible for all manner of diseases, from cardiovascular disease to diabetes but after years of research, it is found that all fats are not created equal – that there are good fats (unsaturated fats), bad fats (saturated fats) and very bad fats (trans fats). We do need to educate ourselves about which fats should ideally be avoided and which ones are more heart-healthy.

Head of Community Medicine at CMH Lahore Medical College Professor Dr. Muhammad Ashraf Chaudhry expressed this while talking to ‘The News’ on health hazards caused by industrially-produced trans fats.

He explained that good fats or unsaturated fats, liquid at room temperature are derived from vegetable and plants while saturated fats (bad fats), solid at room temperature are derived from animal products such as meat, dairy, butter, whole milk, cheese, cream and eggs and from some plant-based sources such as coconut, palm and palm kernel oils.

Very bad fats are trans fats or hydrogenated fats contained in hardened vegetable fats, such as margarine and ghee and are often present in snack food, baked foods, and fried foods. These fats can raise total and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels while also lowering HDL (good) cholesterol levels, said Dr. Ashraf.

These fats are used to extend shelf life of processed foods, typically cookies, cakes, fries and donuts. Any item that contains “hydrogenated oil” or “partially hydrogenated oil” likely contains trans fats. Hydrogenation is the chemical process that changes liquid oils into solid fats. The tide is turning against trans fats. Trans fats are largely artificial fats, he said.

He said studies have also shown that women with the highest blood levels of trans fat have twice the risk of breast cancer as compared to women with low levels. Trans fats also increase the risk of prostate cancer in men who have highest blood levels of certain trans fats, he said.

He added trans fats pose a higher risk of heart disease than saturated fats, which were once believed to be the worst kind of fats. While it is true that saturated fats – found in butter, cheese, and beef, for example—raise cholesterol levels, trans fats go a step further. “Trans fats also increase triglycerides levels in the blood, adding to our risk of cardiovascular disease.”

Dr. Ashraf said diets high in trans fats increase heart disease risk by 21% and deaths by 28%. Replacing trans fats with unsaturated fats decreases the risk of heart disease, he said.

The stiffer and harder fats are, the more they clog up your arteries. Artificial Trans fats do the same thing in our bodies that bacon grease does to kitchen sinks. Over time, they can “clog the pipes” that feed the heart and brain, which can lead to heart attack or stroke risk, explained Dr. Ashraf.

He added that studies have shown that children who start at ages three or four eating a steady diet of fast food, commercially prepared fish sticks, stick margarine, cake, candy, cookies and microwave popcorn can be expected to get heart disease earlier than kids who are eating foods without trans fats. “By starting healthy eating habits early, parents can help their children avoid heart attacks and strokes.”

Foods which are rich sources of trans fats and need to avoid are: cookies, crackers, cakes, pastries, pizza dough, breads such as burger buns, fried foods, including donuts, French fries, fried chicken, fried fish sandwiches, biscuits, nuggets, snack foods, including chips, candy, packaged or microwave popcorn etc., said Dr. Ashraf.

He added that recently, the WHO has set target for elimination of industrially-produced trans fats from global food supply by 2023.