Trans Fatty Acids: Unhealthy or Undebated

Chronic disease as part of the aging process appears to some to be nothing more than the spin of a roulette wheel. Choose the wrong parents, wind up with the wrong genetic material, grow up in the wrong neighborhood, unknowingly eat the wrong foods, and the roulette wheel stops on your number. The counter to that rather arbitrary perspective on life and health is that good health and longevity are self-determined. And the personification of that perspective is the health-conscious, nearly panic-stricken individual who reads every health food article and takes to heart nearly all health claims.

The bulk of us live somewhere in the middle, between the roulette wheel and the spooked health-consumer; that is to say, most of us watch for important health and diet discoveries from reliable sources, take the proper steps to fit those new discoveries into our lifestyles, and hopefully live longer, more disease-free lives. And as a society, we take for granted that the intellectualization and distillation of scientific hypotheses turned scientific theories turned scientific facts, is a specialization which can be summed up by the consensus statements of highly respected academicians and or policymakers. And really, we should live in a time where no further consideration is necessary.

The case under consideration, as the title suggests, is the consumption of trans fatty acids. The designation trans fatty acid is actually a family of fats with oddly placed double bonds in the geometric "trans" configuration at various locations along the fatty acid molecule. The whole process began back in the butter versus margarine wars, when a butter substitute was sought by those chasing the butter market. The Federal Margarine Act of 1886 halted the process and forbid the sale of margarine after years of campaigning by the dairy lobby. With the color added laws, margarine had to be sold in its native state as the law prohibited adding any artificially coloring. As market forces are want to do, a color additive was sold separately and mixed into the sheepish colored margarine by the consumer, giving a yellow colored butter substitute.

Liquid oils at room temperature are hardened by exposing them to heat and pressure, a process we've all heard of called partial hydrogenation. The native vegetable or fish oils with numerous double bonds in the "cis" configuration are “hydrogenated” or water is added across the double bond to create a single bond. Fully hydrogenating a fatty acid with native double bonds results in a saturated fatty acid, absent of any double bonds. In the case of partial hydrogenation, some double bonds remain intact, thus “partial” hydrogenation results in molecules being shuffled like a deck of cards to create novel fatty acids not usually found in nature.


Some of the molecules created by the process remain in the native or “cis” configuration (a) while others result in flipped double bonds giving some a “trans” configuration (b) as depicted above. Chemically, trans fats behave like saturated fats. In some cases two trans bonds are created, referred to as trans-trans fat. Some fatty acids come with one cis and one trans double bond in a variety of locations. Therefore, the term trans fat is a global term, usually referring to the 18 carbon 1 double bond trans variety; however, like the term saturated fat, trans fat can refer to any of a number of molecules, including 16 and 14 carbon trans fat, or 18 carbon trans-trans fat or 18 carbon cis-trans fat.

The real surprise, whether you believe trans fat may or may not impact your health, is a simple review of the scope and variety of foods that contain trans fat. That review is illustrative to say the least. The foods containing trans fat range from gravies to cookies. Breaded chicken dishes may or may not contain trans fat. Some commercial varieties may contain a shockingly high percentage of fat as trans fat, while others may contain virtually none. Deep-fried anything is a notorious source of trans fats. Donuts and French fries are in fact a roulette wheel spin of trans fat; again, they may be high in trans fat or may contain just a small amount. And without a label, as a consumer you really have no idea which ones will be high in trans fat and which ones are low in trans fat—they all look and taste the same.

Popcorn either microwave or commercially bought at movies or county fairs may or may not contain trans fat. Most commercially available cookies are either bad for you or . . . bad for you. They’re either high in saturated fat or high in trans fat. A complete inventory of foods that contain trans fat and those that don’t isn’t really as simple as it might seem. As I’ll discuss later, even if you decided to avoid all trans fat, the places you’ll find it are in many cases in foods without a nutrition label--comercially processed and served at restaurants, fast food establishments or diners. And in those with a nutrition label, watch out for the new labeling system, there are hazards to navigate. More later . . .