Trans fats: what is their harm and where do they “hide”

Dear reader, we present to you our beauty columnist Inessa Tsarkova!

Inessa is an active nutritionist, gastroenterologist, therapist, naturopath and aromatherapist, health coach, integrative medicine doctor with a holistic approach. And now he will share with us his knowledge in the field of both physical and mental health, nutrition and much more.

My friends, have you ever thought that this beautiful world of ours was created only for us, for our good? That you have everything to live and create happily, to rejoice and enjoy this life?

After all, we have air to breathe, water to drink, aromatic and nutritious foods to maintain our strength, and a beautiful, functional body to explore this world and be active and active. We also have a mind that does not give us peace, is not always enough, and always needs more. A mind that needs to “find” something every second and likes to “redo” everything in its own way, “making our life easier” and “helping” us achieve our goals… But unfortunately, most of the time, fantasies and “innovations” do not lead to happiness and joy. , causing disease and suffering.

Inessa Tsarkova

A little history…

In 1813, French chemist Michel Eugene Chevrel discovered “margaric acid” (later referred to as heptadecanoic acid or C17 carboxylic acid) during his numerous experiments. And 56 years later, the emperor of the same country, Alexander III. Napoleon offered a reward to anyone who could replace butter in his budget (in those days before refrigerators it spoiled quickly, went rancid and was expensive). in the rations of soldiers and the lower classes of the population. By order of his emperor, the French chemist Hippolyte Mege-Mourier discovered “oleomargarine”, obtained by emulsifying beef fat with milk and rennet extract (isolated from the stomach of a cow). This is how the first margarine was obtained, which was patented on January 3, 1871 and started to be produced by American businessman Henry Bradley. And the first ancestor of the trans fat family appeared.

And already at the end of the 19th century, they learned to hydrogenate vegetable oils (turning liquid fats into a solid substance that solidifies at room temperature) and replace butter with them, adding them to various products to “improve” their organoleptic properties, increasing their shelf life. reducing the lifespan and of course the cost of the final product. Moreover, these modified vegetable oils were “borrowed” from the use of mechanics who lubricated parts of mechanisms and engines with technical grease. And on one fateful day, this substance made from artificially modified fats foreign to our body began to be used as food.

The championship in the creation of hydrogenated oils was awarded to French scientist Paul Sabatier. The same idea was adopted by the German chemist Wilhelm Normall and he developed the technology of converting liquid oils into solid oils and subsequently patented it.

In 1906, the hydrogenation of oils was carried out for the first time in Russia by the talented organic chemist and technologist Sergei Alekseevich Fokin, about whom world history is silent. And in 1911, the well-known company Procter & Gamble launched the world’s first industrial margarine.

Later, these cheap and “convenient” substances used for the production of consumer products were highly valued by food companies and began to bring them incredible profits. For housewives, even cookbooks were deliberately created with special recipes that include margarine (the main member of the trans fat family) for making homemade baked goods. After all, it tasted a lot like butter and was much cheaper. And products made from it were stored for a very long time.

Thus began the victory march of these chemical monsters (trans fats) on planet Earth. Eventually, numerous advertisements and large-scale industrial production filled people’s lives with them. If at first there were not so many of them, gradually this number increased to incredible volumes and could not but affect the health of the population. Therefore, ordinary consumers had to pay the price for the incredible profits of food moguls. And not only for your wallet, but also for your health and the health of your children, which is very sad.

Trans fats are obtained through the process of incomplete hydrogenation (i.e., combined heating to high temperatures and exposure to chemical catalysts) of unsaturated vegetable oils (otherwise known as oils), converting them into saturated fats. Moreover, cheap vegetable oils are mostly used.

At the same time, the double bonds of liquid vegetable oils are broken and bonded to a hydrogen atom – that is, they become “saturated”, turning them into substances that are solid at room temperature and resistant to oxidation. During this process, “other” fat molecules are formed, different in spatial configuration – trans-isomers of fatty acids (trans fats), which are foreign to our body and cause inflammatory and allergic reactions in its tissues. There are also natural trans fats, but they are completely different and do not harm our health. For example, only 1% of these can be found in vegetable oil. It is also found in very small amounts in the natural milk or meat of ruminant animals. However, in artificially hydrogenated oils their share reaches 67 percent or more.

What are the harms of trans fats?

Only 40 years after the beginning of the mass production and consumption of trans fats (or, in other words, trans isomers of fatty acids), the first data began to appear on their potential danger to our body. Numerous studies have proven that their use primarily affects the health of the cardiovascular system, greatly accelerating the development of atherosclerosis, and the harmful effect on blood viscosity significantly increases the risk of thrombosis. By integrating into cells, they disrupt the normal functioning of cell membranes, leading to the development of metabolic syndrome and its consequences (diabetes and obesity). Trans fats, which cause an imbalance in fat metabolism, contribute to weight gain and hormone imbalance, cause changes in the functioning of the central nervous system (for example, leading to Alzheimer’s disease and depression), negatively affect the health of the unborn baby, and even make it impossible to have a child.

Trans fats disrupt our main life support process, namely metabolism in cells. Thus, it causes blockage of intercellular membranes and the space inside cells, leading to cellular mutations and disruption of the immune system. This greatly increases the risk of getting cancer.

According to the Technical Regulations of the Customs Union (TR CU) from January 1, 2018, the maximum content of such substances is limited to 2% (while in the USA and Canada their quantity is limited to 0.5%), and the exact amount had to be indicated on the product label by the manufacturer. However, evidence from multiple studies shows that even consuming just 2% of your daily calorie intake from hydrogenated fat increases your risk of cardiovascular disease by up to 25%. And this is just 1-2 teaspoons of false “butter” or a piece of industrial milk chocolate (almost all of them contain the same trans fats).

And considering that these substances also accumulate in our body…

Distressing WHO statistics report that overuse of trans fats kills nearly half a million people every year. For this reason, most countries have either strictly limited their use or banned them completely.

Where are these insidious killers of our health “hiding”?

The main difficulty is that they are no longer called “trans fats” and “margarine”, they begin to hide under more “reasonable” names. After all, most people have already learned about their harmful effects. So, dear reader, the best way to stay away from these harmful products is to not buy anything man-made. After all, it is impossible to “push” artificial fats into an apple, nuts, egg or even a piece of meat. The same cannot be said for store-bought items. If you buy the latter, remember the new names of trans fats:

– trans or trans fats;

– vegetable oil;

– cooking oil;

– partially hydrogenated vegetable oil;

— partially hydrogenated fatty acids;

– vegetable, edible, combined, deep-frying, saturated fats;

– cocoa butter substitutes.

Which foods most often contain trans fat?

Margarine and other representatives of trans fats (palm oil, spreads, cocoa butter substitutes, oxidized fats in fried foods or industrial dairy products, refined vegetable oils) began to be added to almost all consumer products, since they can greatly extend the shelf life of products containing them and cost only a few pennies . Trans fats can be found not only in fast food, cheap chocolate and industrial sweets, but also in fried cutlets, chicken snacks, fish fingers, pancakes, pastries and all kinds of store-bought bread and baked goods. They are found in ready-made dough, ice cream, breakfast cereals, crackers, chips, irregular “cheeses”, lime “butter” and refined vegetable oils. Unfortunately, we do these things every day, without even realizing it, when cooking food in a pan, bringing it to a golden brown crust, or using vegetable oils with a low smoke point (this is the temperature at which the transformation of the vegetable occurs). fat molecules are formed by the formation of trans isomers).

Unfortunately, there is no way to determine the presence of trans fats at home (unless you take the food to a special laboratory). My dear readers, it is important to remember that these insidious “fat werewolves” are not familiar with our body. Therefore, he does not know how to use, neutralize or remove them. Therefore, it is only possible to eliminate them together with our own cells in which they are embedded. And that’s good news! As a result, all tissues of our body are constantly renewed (and our body can completely renew itself in approximately 7 years). So if we stop consuming them today, we can get rid of these terrible “fake” oils altogether.

Well, my dear reader, did I convince you? Are we starting to clean our cells of this garbage right now? Or have you at least become more conscious of your choices?