What's The Deal With Fats?
Dec. 12th, 2006 02:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mishalakAnother of the things I thought everyone knew.
What is or isn't healthy is always topic de jure. Broadly there are three kinds of fats. Saturated fats, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and trans-fats. All of these are found in nature. "What, what? I thought trans-fats were an unnatural evil?" Well most of the ones we eat are indeed unnatural, but they also come in very low levels in pretty much any product from a ruminant (cattle, goats, sheep, camels, llamas, giraffes, bison, buffalo, deer, wildebeest, and antelope). But what the heck is a trans-fat? Well it will take some time to get there. Think of a long chain of carbon atoms. As any chemist knows they've got four spots to bond to other atoms so a long chain of carbon, as in a fat, has two open bonding sites. To make it a fat, and not some other chemical, these sites all bond to each other or to hydrogen.
This is an example of fully saturated fat, that is that all the bonding sites along the chain are saturated with hydrogen. It will densely pack and at so room temperature it will be a solid. This is what for many years has been considered the bad boy of the fats. The one that would clog your arteries and give you a heart attack so everyone went nuts trying to avoid it and its various other saturated cousins. This particular one is found in coconut or palm oil, but I'm just using it as a convenient example of the type, don't go thinking that it is this exact molecule that you're chowing down on when you eat everything from beef to peanuts. Let's move on to a monounsaturated fat.
Now if this fun guy was fully saturated then he'd be stearic acid and not something you'd want to eat since he be mostly useful for making candles. But in this case he's got one hydrogen missing and the carbons on either side of the gap are bonded to each other. If you follow the wiki link up there you'll see in a 3-D model that this gives him a kink that makes him sort of slippery, he doesn't pack up tightly so he is going to be liquid a room temperature and a primary ingredient in olive oil and grape seed oil among others. Almost everyone agrees he and his cousins are not bad guys. So lets see the same length, but this time polyunsaturated.
Notice that the gaps that make this poly, meaning many, unsaturated are all on one side. That means that this molecule curls up in just one direction. And this particular one is one of the omega-3 fatty acids that many people go on about at length without much in the way of actual knowledge. He is found everywhere from the membranes of plant cells in leaves to walnuts. But those gaps come with a problem. See a double bond isn't as strong and so if some oxygen plus a bit of heat or light for energy gets in to where he is stored then it breaks the molecule down. And that's what we call rancid oil. The more unsaturated an oil the more chance that it will go bad in a way that is bad for you and terrible tasting. So finally we're down to the trans-fat.
This is the evil everyone has been talking about. With the alternating sides thing going on he's still a polyunsaturated fat, but because they altnerate it allows this molecule to pack tightly and be a solid a room temperature. And that helps prevent rancidity because if the fat is a solid the air can't get at most of it very easily. Better yet from a cooking point of view it means that this solid fat can be used for higher temperature cooking as well and that means he's great as part of a pie crust. But as I said earlier he's not found in nature very much. Just in the fat of animals like cows. Where most of them are coming from is a chemical trick discovered around 1900 where hydrogen can be added or moved around using heat and catalysts.
So to find out if you're getting a big dose of trans-fats, which most research indicates are bad for you the thing to look for is "partially hydrogenated" oils of any sort. Mostly they're going to be things like cotton seed oil, soybean oil, and the like. Don't bother looking for the amount of transfats in a serving because if it is less than 0.5 grams then legally, in the US, they don't have to list the content. Now if something is "fully hydrogenated" that means it has been turned into a fully saturated fat and is no worse than any other saturated fat. And how bad is that?
The Billion Dollar Question. (Executive summery and my advice)
Everyone agrees that the not found in nature trans-fats found in everything from traditional shortening to stick margarine is very, very bad. But the research on everything else, including the ones we've been told are bad for us like the saturated fats is ambiguous at best. For my part I think the correct thing to do is eat moderately of saturated fats, especially from animal sources, and moderately of everything else as well, but not worrying too much about monounsaturated fats. In general. This should not be regarded as holy writ because these broad categories might turn out to be meaningless. Remember those animal trans-fats that I talked about earlier? They might actually be good for human health in low levels. So to condemn or praise a big chemical grouping like all saturated, unsaturated, or whatever might be just plain dumb. So go enjoy a slice of pie made with shortening for a light and flaky crust. Just don't have a slice of pie every single day.
And don't forget that nearly everyone promoting mono, poly, against trans-fats, or for saturated fats has some sort of an agenda with the food industry. The greens, the farmers, and the people who hydrogenate the oils. They're all out there pushing their way of doing things because they believe in it and because it will make them buckets of money. That's why I throw up my hands and say, "Eat what you like, just don't over do it on anything." Though I am fairly sure we should all avoid partial hydrogenation.
What is or isn't healthy is always topic de jure. Broadly there are three kinds of fats. Saturated fats, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and trans-fats. All of these are found in nature. "What, what? I thought trans-fats were an unnatural evil?" Well most of the ones we eat are indeed unnatural, but they also come in very low levels in pretty much any product from a ruminant (cattle, goats, sheep, camels, llamas, giraffes, bison, buffalo, deer, wildebeest, and antelope). But what the heck is a trans-fat? Well it will take some time to get there. Think of a long chain of carbon atoms. As any chemist knows they've got four spots to bond to other atoms so a long chain of carbon, as in a fat, has two open bonding sites. To make it a fat, and not some other chemical, these sites all bond to each other or to hydrogen.
H H H H H H H H H H H
COOH-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-H
H H H H H H H H H H H (lauric acid)This is an example of fully saturated fat, that is that all the bonding sites along the chain are saturated with hydrogen. It will densely pack and at so room temperature it will be a solid. This is what for many years has been considered the bad boy of the fats. The one that would clog your arteries and give you a heart attack so everyone went nuts trying to avoid it and its various other saturated cousins. This particular one is found in coconut or palm oil, but I'm just using it as a convenient example of the type, don't go thinking that it is this exact molecule that you're chowing down on when you eat everything from beef to peanuts. Let's move on to a monounsaturated fat.
H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H
COOH-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C=C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-H
H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H (oleic acid)Now if this fun guy was fully saturated then he'd be stearic acid and not something you'd want to eat since he be mostly useful for making candles. But in this case he's got one hydrogen missing and the carbons on either side of the gap are bonded to each other. If you follow the wiki link up there you'll see in a 3-D model that this gives him a kink that makes him sort of slippery, he doesn't pack up tightly so he is going to be liquid a room temperature and a primary ingredient in olive oil and grape seed oil among others. Almost everyone agrees he and his cousins are not bad guys. So lets see the same length, but this time polyunsaturated.
H H H H H H H H H H H
COOH-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C=C-C-C=C-C-C=C-C-C-H
H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H H (alpha-linolenic acid)Notice that the gaps that make this poly, meaning many, unsaturated are all on one side. That means that this molecule curls up in just one direction. And this particular one is one of the omega-3 fatty acids that many people go on about at length without much in the way of actual knowledge. He is found everywhere from the membranes of plant cells in leaves to walnuts. But those gaps come with a problem. See a double bond isn't as strong and so if some oxygen plus a bit of heat or light for energy gets in to where he is stored then it breaks the molecule down. And that's what we call rancid oil. The more unsaturated an oil the more chance that it will go bad in a way that is bad for you and terrible tasting. So finally we're down to the trans-fat.
H H H H H H H H H H H H H H
COOH-C-C-C-C-C-C-C-C=C-C-C=C-C-C=C-C-C-H
H H H H H H H H H H H H H H (trans-9,trans-12,trans-15-octadecatrienoic acid) This is the evil everyone has been talking about. With the alternating sides thing going on he's still a polyunsaturated fat, but because they altnerate it allows this molecule to pack tightly and be a solid a room temperature. And that helps prevent rancidity because if the fat is a solid the air can't get at most of it very easily. Better yet from a cooking point of view it means that this solid fat can be used for higher temperature cooking as well and that means he's great as part of a pie crust. But as I said earlier he's not found in nature very much. Just in the fat of animals like cows. Where most of them are coming from is a chemical trick discovered around 1900 where hydrogen can be added or moved around using heat and catalysts.
So to find out if you're getting a big dose of trans-fats, which most research indicates are bad for you the thing to look for is "partially hydrogenated" oils of any sort. Mostly they're going to be things like cotton seed oil, soybean oil, and the like. Don't bother looking for the amount of transfats in a serving because if it is less than 0.5 grams then legally, in the US, they don't have to list the content. Now if something is "fully hydrogenated" that means it has been turned into a fully saturated fat and is no worse than any other saturated fat. And how bad is that?
The Billion Dollar Question. (Executive summery and my advice)
Everyone agrees that the not found in nature trans-fats found in everything from traditional shortening to stick margarine is very, very bad. But the research on everything else, including the ones we've been told are bad for us like the saturated fats is ambiguous at best. For my part I think the correct thing to do is eat moderately of saturated fats, especially from animal sources, and moderately of everything else as well, but not worrying too much about monounsaturated fats. In general. This should not be regarded as holy writ because these broad categories might turn out to be meaningless. Remember those animal trans-fats that I talked about earlier? They might actually be good for human health in low levels. So to condemn or praise a big chemical grouping like all saturated, unsaturated, or whatever might be just plain dumb. So go enjoy a slice of pie made with shortening for a light and flaky crust. Just don't have a slice of pie every single day.
And don't forget that nearly everyone promoting mono, poly, against trans-fats, or for saturated fats has some sort of an agenda with the food industry. The greens, the farmers, and the people who hydrogenate the oils. They're all out there pushing their way of doing things because they believe in it and because it will make them buckets of money. That's why I throw up my hands and say, "Eat what you like, just don't over do it on anything." Though I am fairly sure we should all avoid partial hydrogenation.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-12 11:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-13 04:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-13 07:16 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-13 02:43 am (UTC)It's all just ludicrous. First something's good, then it's bad, then it's got these benefits, then it has these other drawbacks ... bollocks. Just, like you said, don't overdo it on anything.
-- C.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-13 04:38 am (UTC)For the record I usually have one drink a day or less.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-13 06:18 pm (UTC)Meanwhile, the FDA and various food manufacturers are arguing over what should be called "natural" when I would just as soon see the term eliminated from foodstuffs altogether. Lettered conch shells, moose poop, belladonna, and Komodo dragon saliva are all "natural" too, but I'm not interested in eating any of them...
(no subject)
Date: 2006-12-13 06:24 pm (UTC)