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FATS FOR LIFE by Henry Wolfe


For years, many experts argued that the only good fatty foods were the ones you did not eat. That was a big, fat mistake.

Overwhelming evidence now shows that certain fats are not only necessary for optimal health, but that the quality of the fat that you eat is probably much more important than the quantity.

Threatening Trans Fats "The biggest thing wrong with the fats Americans eat today is that they are eating too many trans fatty acids," says Fred Pescatore, MD, author of The Allergy and Asthma Cure (John Wiley). "About 42,000 foods contain trans fats. These fats are linked to a higher risk of heart disease, stroke and cancer." Trans fatty acids are fats that form when food manufacturers add hydrogen to fat molecules, a process called hydrogenation that makes fats stay fresh longer without growing rancid. Trans fats also form when foods are fried.

Hydrogenation extends the shelf life of refined foods like cakes, donuts, and crackers. Unfortunately, it also creates fats that many experts believe can compromise your health.

In a study of the health effects of trans fats, 26 people agreed to eat a diet that changed every five weeks, continually shifting the types of fats in their meals (American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2000). All of the diets in the study provided 30% of calories from fat. One fifth of the fat came from either soybean oil, semi-liquid margarine, tub margarine, shortening, stick margarine or butter.

"We were interested in assessing what would happen when we substituted one fat, for another," notes researcher Alice H. Lichtenstein, DSc, professor of human nutrition at Tufts University, Boston.

Facts on Fats

Trans Fats: Damaged fats that form when oil is hydrogenated or foods are fried. May raise your risk of cancer and heart disease.

Hydrogenated Oil: Oil that has had extra hydrogen added to keep foods like margarine firmer and longer lasting at room temperature. Hydrogenated oils are found in most supermarket margarines, cookies, donuts, cakes and many other processed foods. This type of fat has been linked to an increased risk of cancer and heart disease.

Saturated Fat: Type of fat found in abundance in butter, lard, red meat and whole milk. Saturated fat has been blamed for increasing the risk of obesity, heart disease and cancer. These fats get their name from the fact that they are saturated with hydrogen atoms.

Unsaturated Fat: Type of fat found in plant oils that are considered less harmful than saturated fats. However, experts now feel that unsaturated fats rich in omega-6 fatty acids can increase your risk of chronic disease if you don't consume enough omega-3s. They are called unsaturated because, chemically, their molecules have room for the addition of more hydrogen. Oils high in unsaturated fats that some experts recommend include olive, hemp, peanut and macadamia oils.

Omega- 3 Fatty Acids: Type of fat found in fish, hemp seed, pumpkin seed and flax oil. Experts believe we should be consuming more of these fats since they reduce inflammation and produce a wealth of health benefits.

Omega-6 Fatty Acids: Group of fatty acids abundant in the American diet. While these fats are not necessarily harmful, when Americans consume large quantities without omega-3s, they may suffer increased inflammation that may foster heart disease and other chronic illnesses. Corn oil, safflower oil and soybean oil are rich in omega-6s.

Monounsaturated Fatty Acids: The type of fatty acids found in olive oil and nuts like peanuts, macadamias, almonds and walnuts. These fats are believed to lower the risk of heart disease and cancer.

Fish Fats Can Save Your life

Eating oily fish like salmon, tuna or bluefish at least twice a week can lower your risk of sudden death. Their fats block dangerous irregular heart rhythms (Circulation 5/27/03).

While researchers have long known that eating fish lowers your risk of heart disease, research now shows that "...fatty acids from omega-3 fish oils are stored in the cell membranes of heart cells and can prevent sudden cardiac death or fatal arrhythmias," according to Alexander Leaf, MD, professor of Clinical Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Arrhythmias are irregular heart rhythms. Dr. Leaf notes that studies of individual heart cells demonstrate that omega-3 essential fatty acids specifically block excessive sodium and calcium currents in the heart. When not inhibited, these excessive electrical discharges can foment dangerous and erratic changes in heart rhythm.

According to Dr. Leaf, fresh or frozen fish are the best choices. but canned tuna can be used if it is packed in water. "Tuna packed in oil is not a good choice because the extra oil will extract the beneficial omega-3 oil from the fish," he says.

The study showed that as people ate more trans fatty acids (in the more solid margarines) and fewer polyunsaturated fats (in the liquid oils), their triglycerides increased after each meal. Triglycerides are blood fats that boost heart disease risk.

For instance, when these folks ate stick margarine, which is high in trans fats, their triglycerides climbed an average 18% higher than when they ate semi-liquid squeeze bottle margarine, a type of margarine that is softer because it is less hydrogenated.

Stick margarine raised heart disease risk by causing a drop in HDL, or "good" cholesterol. Although butter increased HDL, it also caused a significant increase in LDL, the "bad" cholesterol that raises heart disease risk. To learn about the latest government regulations concerning trans fats labeling, see "Washington Update".

Dietary Advice "The best dietary advice we can give people is to minimize their intake of animal and hydrogenated fats in order to reach the American Heart Association's target of 10% or less of total calories from saturated fat and trans fatty acids," Dr. Lichtenstein says. "That would mean consumers choosing low-fat and non-fat dairy products and lean cuts of meat, and the food industry decreasing the amount of hydrogenated fats used in their products."

According to a study at Johns Hopkins University (Amer Coll of Card, 52nd Scientific Session, 3/30/03, Chicago), people who eat saturated fat have more visceral fat, fat surrounding their internal organs. This fat around the waist is now seen as a risk factor for heart disease and other illnesses.

Another hidden problem in our fat consumption, according to Dr. Pescatore, hides within canola oil. Dr. Pescatore says that although many consumers believe canola oil is beneficial to health, the refined canola oil sold in the US has had its potential health benefits removed during processing.

"People still think canola oil is healthy and eat too much of it," he says. "The problem with canola is that it is highly processed and refined....Processors hydrogenate canola oil to keep it from getting rancid."

According to Fred Ottoboni, PhD, coauthor of The Modern Nutritional Diseases (Vincente Books), "Canola oil is lightly hydrogenated to take out the omega-3 fatty acids (the healthiest, but most unstable, fats) and then the food manufacturers filter the trans fats out. I don't worry about the trans fats in canola, but the problem is the huge ratio of omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3s."

To get more of the omega-3 fatty. acids, which are lacking in most Americans' diets, Dr. Pescatore advocates using macadamia nut oil. "Macadamia nut oil is higher in monounsaturated fats than olive oil; it is the healthiest fat with an omega-3 to - 6 ratio of one to one."

The Omega-3 Difference Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are basic forms of fat found in oils. Fish oil, hempseed and flax oil are high in what are called omega-3s. Certain plant-derived oils like corn and soy are richer in omega-6 fatty acids.

"Primitive humans ate a diet that contained a one-to-one ratio of omega-3s and omega-6s," says Dr. Pescatore. "Today we (Americans) eat 20 times more omega-6 than -3; that's why we suffer so much chronic disease and chronic inflammation. For instance, the Japanese eat a (much better) diet that contains a two-to-one ratio of omega-6 fatty acids to omega-3."

"Not all omega-6s are bad," he adds, "we just eat too many of them."

Switching to healthier fat isn't hard. Eat more fish. When cooking, stick to oils like olive oil and macadamia oil. The quality of your oil and your health may improve in a big, fat way.

ENERGY TIMES September 2003