The end of partially hydrogenated oil (trans fats)?... not so fast

**shakey1** · 08-02-2017, 02:19 PM

With the phasing out of partially hydrogenated oils in processed foods, the industry was quick to come up with a replacement.

Hidden trans fats can lurk in other processed ingredients.
You may have heard in the news that the FDA finally banned “partially hydrogenated oils” from our food (within the next 3 years). This is a step in the right direction – although a long time coming – because the consumption of artificial trans fat is strongly correlated an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, and has been shown to lower good cholesterol and raise bad cholesterol levels for quite some time. The CDC has linked it to an increase in death rate and The Institute of Medicine says that trans fats have “no known health benefit” and there is no safe level to eat. No safe level! This ingredient should never have been allowed in our food in the first place! But, it’s not time for a celebration quite yet…
Although the FDA banned partially hydrogenated oils, they don’t address the other artificial additives in our food that also contain these heart-wrecking artificial trans fats. According to the EWG, some refined oils, emulsifiers, flavors and colors also contain trace amounts of trans fat, but they don’t need to be labeled as such and won’t be removed from our food.
This additive is a byproduct of oil processing – including partially hydrogenated canola and soybean oils – which contain this artificial trans fat that is so detrimental to our health. Even though mono- and diglycerides may contain trans fat, they aren’t required to be labeled as trans fats on food packages, and can even be in food labeled “No Trans Fat”. The FDA labeling regulations on trans fat only apply to triglycerides, and not to emulsifiers like mono and diglycerides. According to nutrition researcher Mary Enig, Ph.D., mono- and diglycerides are:

“usually by-products of fats and oils processing such as partial hydrogenation and various forms of extraction and interesterification processes. Even though they do have some caloric value, they are not counted as fats, and the fatty acids are not identified as having a particular composition. If they are fatty acids with trans bonds, they are not likely to be identified as such, nor would they be identified as any particular fatty acid…
… as the public becomes more aware of the dangers of trans fats, the industry may be tempted to add more MGs [monoglycerides] and DGs [diglycerides] containing trans fats in order to obtain the qualities they want in a food without having to list trans fats on the label”.

Sure enough, mono and diglycerides are in a lot of foods that are labeled “No Trans Fat” and “Zero Grams of Trans Fat”, such as Crisco shortening, Franz New York Bagel Boys Bagels, and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Light version. I’m not sure how much trans fat may be in these products based on them containing this ingredient but I definitely would leave them on the shelf.

Food companies are looking for cheap replacements to partially hydrogenated oils – will they be using more “monoglycerides” and “diglycerides”?
To really avoid artificial trans fats, keep in mind that the “No Trans Fat” label just means that the product contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving from partially hydrogenated oils (while still allowed in food), but they could still contain additional trans fat from hidden sources like mono and diglycerides.

https://foodbabe.com/2015/07/31/ther...st-everything/

http://www.livestrong.com/article/44...-diglycerides/

**donnay** · 08-02-2017, 02:37 PM

Good rule of thumb is: Stay away from processed foods!

**Created4** · 08-02-2017, 03:19 PM

When it comes to dietary fats and oils, a good rule of thumb is to stay away from anything that was not in the food chain 100 years ago. It took the technology of the industrial age (think WWII) to start extracting oil from plants that traditionally did not give us dietary oils (think soybean and corn - the two most heavily subsidized crops in the U.S.)

Then, to boost sales in these new liquid vegetable oils, they condemned natural saturated fats which are solid and stable at room temperatures. To make these new vegetable oils shelf stable and look and feel like a "fat" instead of an "oil", they used the process of hydrogenation.

There never was any science backing up the condemnation of saturated fats, which have been in the food chain for thousands of years.

It took a politician (the McGovern report) to declare them unhealthy and change USDA dietary advice.

This is an actual black and white film clip from the McGovern Report, where scientists told McGovern they lacked science to condemn saturated fats, and McGovern saying they did not have time to wait for the science - they had to protect the public.