Killer Fats and Oils

We have all paid at least some attention to trying to lower the fats and oils in our diet or at least thought about it. However, it turns out that some fats and oils are banter than others. Some very specific findings have recently become available.

Trans fatty acids are the deadliest component of our diet. Many of us heard abou these a year or two ago and then they dropped from the media. Some food manufacturers removed trans fatty acids from their products and many of the resr. simply re-labeled these as hydrogenated or partially hydrogenatad fats or oils. You can find these listed this way on food labels. These oils are the killer fats and oils .

Avoid partially hydrogenated oils. Recent studies showed that a 2% increase of trans fatty acid (hvdroqenated or partially hydrogenated oil) results in a 93% increase of heart attack. This compares with the 5% increase in butter fat yielding an 17% increase of heart attack and also compares with a 5% increase of olive oil (monounsaturated oil) yielding a 17% decrease in heart attack.

There are also the polyunsaturated oils and fats such as corn oil for example. A 5% increase in raw uncooked corn oil does yield a 34% decrease in heart attack so it is actually very beneficial to use some of these oils. The corn oil, however, and its other polyunsaturated relatives may be involved in increasing the risk of colon cancer or breast cancer so they cannot be fully endorsed. In patients with heart disease, however, adding a little corn oil to the diet perhaps in salad is probably quite beneficial.

Frying is generally a bad idea and even baking with oils causes problems. Heat causes oils to partially hydrogenate or fully hydrogenate. When you cook with corn oil, this partially hydrogenates it and makes it toxic. Do not cook with corn oil. Cooking with butter probably does not changes its chemical structure. olive oil is a healthv oil. Cooking with olive oil is probably relatively safe as any hydrogenation that occurs will completely saturate these two monounsaturated fats and will not result in a trans fatty acid. The one unknown is whether cooking with olive oil can create a combination of saturated and trans fatty acid. This remains to be seen. Nevertheless if you must cook with an oil, olive oil is the way to go. If you are going to fry a, piece of meat, our recommendation is to fry it without any added oil. The animal fats are already fully, saturated so there is little chance of developing trans fatty acids or partially hydrogenated oils.

What is the bottom line? Partially hvdrogenated and hvdrogenated oils are found commonly in manufactured foods and pre-prepared' foods. You have to read the labels and you should not consume any of these products. They are deadly. Our estimate is that these are responsible for somewhere between 30% and 50% of all heart attacks in the country. Just consuming a 2% increase in these products is as bad as smoking cigarettes for your heart. They are not fit for human consumption. Our recommendation is that you eliminate all these products from your pantry shelf and do not bother feeding them to your dog. Just discard them.

If you have any further questions on this subject, please feel free to ask you doctor or one of the nurses. This is now probably the largest single potential issue in prevention of heart disease in the country following cigarette smoking cessation and increasing exercise.

PS - A couple of additional unrelated tips are that eating some tree nuts regularly (almonds, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, cashews, but not peanuts) and eating 2.5 servings or more per day of whole grain products are effective in reducing the rate of stroke and heart attack and worth two years of additional longevity. The above measure of avoiding partially hvdroaenated oils is also worth two years of additional longevity.