MPOC - Trans Fats - Major Health Threats

Trans fatty acids (TFAs) or well known as trans fats, formed mainly by the commercial hydrogenation (“hardening”) of oils and fats, are incorporated into a variety of food products where they lurk with evil intent. Now, scientific evidence has accumulated to reveal TFAs’ ugly nature, especially how they nibble away at heart health.

Evidence from 4 large prospective population-based studies, which involved a total of 145,000 persons, with a followup for 6-14 years, reveals all and finally nails the “bad guy” tag on TFAs. When the results of these 4 large population cohorts (the Health Professionals Followup Study, the Alpha-Tocopherol, Beta- Carotene Cancer Prevention Study, the Nurses’ Health Study, and the Zutphen Elderly Study) are combined, a 2% energy increase in TFAintake raises heart disease risk by 25% (relative risk= 1.25). This adverse effect, however, was highest in the Nurses’ Health Study where a 2% energy increase in TFA intake pushed heart disease risk up by 93%!

Compared to the above findings, elevations in the LDL/HDL cholesterol ratio induced by a 2% energy increase in TFA intake raises heart disease risk not by 25%, but only by 5%. The higher 25% increase in heart disease risk observed for the population-based prospective studies could be attributed to the combined adverse influence of TFAs on other lipid risk factors [low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLC), triglycerides, and lipoprotein(a)], and impairment of flow-mediated vasodilation, thereby interfering with normal endothelial function.

Also, daily intake of a few grams of TFAs in hydrogenated fats may lead to an incorporation of TFAs in the cells involved in cardiac rhythm regulation, with a subsequent lowered threshold for cardiac arrhythmias, a major cause of sudden cardiac death!

As such, TFAs cannot “wear the mask” of saturated fat anymore for they are, gram-for-gram, 2.5 times to more than 10-fold worse than saturated fat as a risk factor of heart disease, according to a report by the Danish Nutrition Council.

As if that’s not bad enough, scientific research has also suggested that trans fat intake contributes to other health risks such as insulin resistance in Type 2 diabetes (Nurses’ Health Study), systemic inflammation (Nurses’ Health Study), cancer of the breast and colon (European Community Multicentre Study on Antioxidants, Myocardial Infarction, and Breast Cancer), and allergic conditions such as rhinitis, atopic diseases and asthma (The International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood).

Trans double bond
Yusof Basiron, Kalyana Sundram, Palm Oil Development (2002): No.44, P14-18

There’s more to this infamous TFAtale! Pregnant and lactating women beware! Trans fat in your diet reduces the availability of essential fatty acids (linoleic acid and a-linolenic acid) and their long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LCPUFA) derivatives in maternal blood and breastmilk, which are associated with low birthweight, and smaller head circumference of newborns. Besides, you would be passing TFAs in breastmilk to your breastfed infants! Therefore, it would certainly be prudent to avoid foods containing trans fats. In this regard, read the food labels and watch out for words such as “trans”, “hydrogenated”,“hardened”, and “polyunsaturated margarine”!

Available information shows that the average intake of trans fats in western countries is on the decline. However, considerable amounts of industriallyproduced TFAs are still incorporated into food products such as margarines, shortenings, cakes, chips, biscuits, chocolate bar, doughnut, and popcorn. For example, a doughnut contains about 3.2g TFA, a large serving of chips 6.8g of TFA, and one serving of popcorn, as much as 12g of TFAs. For consumer information and safety, there is currently a push for themandatory declaration of trans fats on food labels in many countries around the globe.