Choice of Natural Or Modified Fats For Solid Fat Formultions: The Current Health Dilemma
by Kalyana Sundram & Yusof Basiron

Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC), 2nd Floor Wisma Sawit, Lot 6, SS6 Jalan Perbandaran, 47301 Kelana Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
E-mail: kalyana@mpoc.org.my, yusof@mpoc.org.my

Modified Fats: Hydrogenated Fats Containing Trans Fatty Acids (TFA)

Trans fatty acids (TFA) are present in traditional stick margarine, bakery and frying fats, vegetable shortenings, and vanaspati that have been subjected to hydrogenation. They gained prominence and acceptance as a universal food culture by replacing butter and saturated fat as the healthy alternative.  TFA are readily reflected in bakery products, fried foods, and breakfast margarine and to a smaller extent in dairy and meat products. Estimates of TFA consumption are very varied and this has been hampered by a lack of an accurate database to reflect their contents in common foods. Indeed, even in the United States and Europe this is a problem since TFA intake is still not featured in their national surveys. Current TFA consumption in the United States is estimated at about 2.6-3.0 energy percent whereas in some Middle Eastern and South Asian populations it may be as high as 7 energy percent.
TFA negatively impact human plasma lipoprotein profile and have untoward implications for atherogenesis. TFA deleteriously affect lipoproteins by increasing TC, LDL-C, lipoprotein Lp (a) and decreasing HDL-C relative to their cis isomers [10]. This has raised the need to replace hydrogenated fats with natural solid fats in a large number of food formulations. The nutritional efficacy of the solid fats replacing hydrogenated fats should be such that they do not adversely affect plasma lipids and other CHD risk factors. The cholesterolaemic effects of TFA have been ranked intermediate to the saturated fatty acids and the neutral or mildly hypocholesterolaemic cis-monounsaturates. In addition it has been suggested that these deleterious effects of TFA do not occur when sufficient amounts of 18:2 are available in the diet [11]. Direct comparison of TFA with palm oil (16:0-rich), LM (12:0+14:0) and cis 18:1 by Sundram et al.[11]suggested a ranking order for the ability of these fatty acids to raise LDL-C as follows: TFA>12:0+14:0>16:0 = cis18:1. Furthermore, differences between TFA and 12:0+14:0 were not significant and the response of 16:0 was identical to cis18:1. These detrimental observations of TFA have been reinforced by outcomes from several population studies, which fortify the overall conclusion that TFA increase relative risk for coronary heart disease. There is also mounting evidence that TFA have adverse impacts on diabetic risk for the general population [10].
Based on these findings and a review of all available published literature relating to TFA, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies of Sciences, USA  [10] has declared that there are no data available to indicate a health benefit from consuming TFA and an Adequate Intake, Estimated Average Requirement, and Recommended Dietary Allowance are not established for TFA. Resulting from this expert recommendation and the mounting evidence against TFA, there is currently an urgent race to reformulate many solid fats TFA-free.