Everywhere you go you hear about deadly trans fat, awful trans fatty acid, and terrible hydrogenated oil. Okay, so I get the picture that these things aren’t good for you, but I have no clue what they are… until today! Let’s take a trip to the dark side of your diet and learn something new about processed foods.
There is good fat and bad fat. The bad fat are these trans fats. They recently moved to the top of the hit list, beating out saturated fats (as in butter) for the title of worst fat. Saturated fats will increase your overall cholesterol, but trans fats not only increase bad cholesterol but also decrease good cholesterol. (I know… good fat / bad fat, good cholesterol / bad cholesterol… they could have made this easier)
While these life-sucking trans fats can occur naturally, the bulk of the trans fat in our diet comes from processed foods that use hydrogenated oil. That is oil, be it vegetable or animal, that has been injected with hydrogen. Most margarine is nothing more than hydrogenated canola oil. The process makes the oil harder (or creamier) but has the unfortunate side effect of changing the chemical structure in the fat. That’s when the trans fats are created.
The main benefit of hydrogenated is a higher melting point (will stay solid at room temperature) and processed food products have a significantly longer shelf life. Natural oil will go bad after a time, but hydrogenated oil will keep those cookies fresh for years.
It would be wise to keep an eye out for trans fats in your diet. In the last few years it has become a requirement for all foods in the USA to declare the use of hydrogenated oil, and in New York City all restaurants are banned from preparing food with trans fats. So next time you have a cupcake, make sure to choose the butter-cream icing… you know, for health sake.
