Butter is creamy, rich, easy to spread, and like everything that tastes good, its high in saturated fat. Wanting to reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease, Americans have been making an effort to reduce their fat intake and demanded healthier alternatives.

Americans also wanted a good-tasting product that spread easily right out of the container, and along came margarine. So, finally something that tastes great and is not bad for you, -- but then again.

Chemically Speaking

Margarine has unsaturated fat, called "trans" fat. "Trans" fats are formed when vegetable oil is hardened to become margarine or shortening, through a process called hydrogenation. During hydrogenation some of the missing hydrogen atoms are put back into polyunsaturated fat. This makes a product with a higher melting point and thus a solid at room temperature.

The harder the margarine or shortening, the more likely it contains more "trans" fat. The softer the margarine or shortening, the more unsaturated fat it contains. Hydrogenating fats increases the shelf life and adds flavor to foods, therefore hydrogenated fats are found in many crackers, cookies, snack foods, and fried fast foods.

Types of Fats: Not All Are Created Equal

There are three main types of fatty acids: saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated, and all are not created equal. Fatty acids are a group of chemical compounds composed mostly of carbon and hydrogen atoms. All foods that contain fat have different mixtures of saturated and unsaturated fats.

Saturated Fats

Saturated fatty acids have hydrogen atoms attached to every carbon atom. Saturated fats raise your low-density lipoprotein (LDL) blood cholesterol level (the bad cholesterol) and promote formation of artery-clogging fatty deposits more than anything else you eat.

Saturated fatty acids are found in greatest amounts in foods from animals, such as fatty cuts of meat, poultry with the skin, whole-milk dairy products, and in tropical oils like coconut, palm kernel, and palm oils.

Unsaturated Fats (Monounsaturated, Polyunsaturated)

Trans fatty acids are unsaturated fatty acids, like oleic acid--the principal fatty acid in olive and canola oils. Monounsaturated fatty acids are missing one pair of hydrogen atoms in the middle of the molecule, while polyunsaturated fatty acids are missing more than one pair of hydrogen atoms.

Vegetable oils high in oleic acid tend to reduce blood cholesterol when they replace saturated fats. However, the body perceives trans fats more like the cholesterol-raising saturated fats. Eating trans fatty acids raises your LDL blood cholesterol level (the bad cholesterol), which increases the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD).

CAD causes about 500,000 deaths annually, making it the number one cause of death in the United States. Trans fats also decrease your high-density lipoprotein (HDL) blood cholesterol level (the good cholesterol).

Healthy Heart Diet for American Adults

The American Heart Association recommends the following dietary guidelines for healthy adults. These guidelines apply to total calories eaten over several days, such as a week and not to single food items. As always, check with your doctor before making changes to your diet. Your individual needs and requirements may vary.

Total Fat: no more than 30% of total calories

Cholesterol: less than 300 mg per day

Sodium: less than 2400 mg per day

Carbohydrates: 55-60% or more of calories with an emphasis on complex carbohydrates

How Do You Know What Youre Eating?

Sorting through the food label for nutritional information is sometimes confusing. Right now, the only way to know whether or not a food contains trans-fat is to look for the term hydrogenated' in the list of ingredients. Two to three percent of total calories in the American diet come from trans fats.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wants a food product's label to clearly list how much and what kind of fat it contains. The amount of heart unhealthy fat(trans fat plus saturated fat) per serving will be clearly stated to help people see how a food fits into their overall daily diet.

When trans fatty acids are present, the FDA is asking that an asterisk would be placed after the heading saturated fat which would refer people to a footnote listing the amount of trans fat. The food label is a powerful way for people to gain information about trans fatty acids, and it could help people reduce their risk of CAD disease, by limiting the amount of fat in their diets.

 

 

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