What is Trans Fat?
Trans fat is a form of unessential unsaturated fat. This form of fat has detrimental health effects on human health.
What are the forms of Trans Fats?
Trans fatty acids are formed from unsaturated fats with artificial or natural alterations. Due to this alteration unsaturated fat changes structure to trans from the cis form.
Natural trans fatty acids may be found in small amounts in ruminant animal products such as cheese, butter, and meat products.
Food manufacturing processes may form trans fatty acids artificially. The primary source for them is hydrogenated vegetable oils. In the partial hydrogenation process, hydrogen is added to vegetable oil to make it more solid at room temperature, resulting in the transformation of fatty acids from cis form to trans form.
What is the effect of Trans Fat on health?
Trans fat has no known benefit to human health, and any incremental intake is associated with an increased LDL cholesterol and increased risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. Therefore there is no daily value, and no upper level is defined, and it is advised to limit the intake as low as possible. (FNB, 2005)(FDA, 2021a)
In the US, Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has removed artificial trans fats in processed foods. In 2015, the FDA withdrew the “Generally Recognized as Safe” status of partially hydrogenated oils. The FDA gave the manufacturers time until January 1, 2020, to extract partially hydrogenated oils in their recipes. This action is expected to reduce cardiovascular disease and prevent thousands of fatal heart attacks each year in the US. (FDA, 2021
References
* US Food & Drug Administration (FDA), 2021a, TransFat , Accessed at: 06.01.21, Accessed from: https: //www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/interactivenutritionfactslabel/assets/InteractiveNFL_TransFat_March2020.pdf,
* US Food & Drug Administration (FDA), 2021b, Trans Fat , Accessed at: 06.01.21, Accessed from: https: //www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/trans-fat,
* Food and Nutrition Board (FNB), 2005, Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate,Fiber, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids,
Do you want to follow your Dietary Fat intake? You can do it for FREE. DOWNLOAD Itsmyfood by clicking here.
