Trans fats: how worried should you be?

ZOE Science & Nutrition

ZOE

Nutrition, Science, Health & Fitness, Education

4.6 • 5.6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2023

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Trans fats have a bad reputation. But we now know a lot more about these fats than we did when the first horror stories about them emerged. So, based on the latest science, just how worried should we be? Listen to today’s short episode of ZOE Science & Nutrition to find out. Follow ZOE on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zoe/ Download our FREE guide — Top 10 Tips to Live Healthier: https://zoe.com/freeguide Studies referenced in the episode: Hydrogenation of Unsaturated Fats and Trans Fats Effects of dietary fatty acids and carbohydrates on the ratio of serum total to HDL cholesterol and on serum lipids and apolipoproteins: a meta-analysis of 60 controlled trials, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Association of dietary, circulating, and supplement fatty acids with coronary risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis, published in Annals of Internal Medicine Potential of trans fats policies to reduce socioeconomic inequalities in mortality from coronary heart disease in England: cost effectiveness modelling study, published in British Medical Journal WHO calls for action to totally eliminate trans fat, ‘a toxic chemical that kills’ Trans fatty acids - are the effects only marginal? - published in American Journal of Public Health Fats and oils in human nutrition A trans European Union difference in the decline in trans fatty acids in popular foods: a market basket investigation, published in British Medical Journal Countries with regulations against industrially produced trans fats tripled over the past year Episode transcripts are available here. Is there a topic you'd like us to cover on the show? Email us to let us know!

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Zoe Shorts, the Bite Size podcast where we discuss one topic
0:05.4	around science and nutrition. I'm Jonathan Wolf and today I'm joined by Dr. Sarah
0:10.0	Berry and today's subject is Transfats.
0:17.0	So Jonathan, we often talk about the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to fats.
0:22.0	And I think when people consider bad fats, trans fats are often a major area of concern
0:27.2	for a lot of people due to its reputation.
0:30.2	And to Sarah, what is a trans fat and should we all be worried about them in our diet?
0:36.2	Well, there's a really clear answer to this Jonathan and I think our listeners may be quite surprised by it.
0:41.2	Fantastic, let's get into it.
0:45.2	Alright Sarah, so for those who haven't been studying fats for the last 25 years, what is a trans fat?
0:52.2	So interestingly Jonathan, trans fats are actually a type of unsaturated fat.
0:56.2	However, there's two different types of trans fats.
0:59.2	One is produced industrially and the other is found naturally in products associated with
1:04.2	rumen and animals like cows and sheep who ferment their feed in a digestion process.
1:09.2	Okay, and so what purpose do these trans fats provide?
1:15.2	Okay, so let's start firstly with industrially produced trans fats because I think when a lot of people think about trans fats,
1:21.2	this is what will come to mind.
1:22.2	And these trans fats were originally used as a low-cost way to harden vegetable oils.
1:27.2	And thereby produced hard fats that firstly had a lower saturated fat content,
1:32.2	so were perceived at the time to be healthier.
1:34.2	And secondly, they had the advantage of being cheaper than other hard fats such as butter or tropical oil,
1:40.2	like cocoa butter for example.
	...

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