Say Goodbye to Trans-fats
by Clark Zimmerman, LAc.
I remember spreading margarine across toast when I was a kid. Unlike butter, which was hard and difficult to spread, margarine covered the toast with seemingly magical ease. Mom told me that it was much better for me as well because it was made with a different sort of fat that the food scientist assured us was much healthier than the butter that humans had eaten for millennia. I marveled at the thought that the scientists were busy in their labs creating healthy new foods and food additives to make the world a more enjoyable place. Being a kid, I didn’t give the “healthy” part of margarine much thought, but I did appreciate that mom let me use as much as I wanted on my toast.
That was 30 years ago and now science has proven that trans-fats in all of their forms are pretty toxic to the human body. Though they are found in trace amounts in certain meat and dairy products, trans-fats are most commonly a processed ingredient that is added to foods as a way to extend their shelf-life, flavor and consistency. They gained popularity in the 50’s with the increase in food processing, and then really took off in the 1970‘s when it was assumed that high fat diets were causing an increase in cardiac related diseases. At this time the medical community recommended low fat, low cholesterol based diets which paved the way for trans-fats to be introduced into the food supply in large amounts. This was primarily seen in baked goods and certain vegetable based shortening or margarines. So butter and eggs were out; chemically altered vegetable based fats were the new greatest thing.
