Good Trans Fats vs. Bad Trans Fats
Artificial polyunsaturated fats are among the most prevalent poisons in our food supply; but many do not understand that healthy natural trans fats DO exist.
by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer
Writer – The Truth about Six Pack Abs
I’m going to discuss something today that the majority of you’ve probably never heard… that there’s a distinction between good trans fats and bad trans fats. There’s some evidence that the fantastic trans fats can help you with fat loss, muscle building, and even cancer prevention, whereas the poor trans fats have been proven to cause cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and the overall”blubbering” of your body.
I am sure most of you have heard all the ruckus from the news during the last couple of years about how bad man-made polyunsaturated fats are to your health. If you have been a reader of my newsletter and my Truth about Six Pack Abs e-book program, then you know my view that these chemicals are some of the most bad food additives of all and are located in the huge majority of all processed foods and fast foods in the marketplace today.
In my view, artificial trans fats are right up there with smoking concerning their level of risk to your health. After all, they’re among the principal variables for the explosion of heart disease since roughly the 1950’s.
With all the talk about trans fats in the news nowadays, I wanted to explain a few things, especially regarding bad trans fats vs. good trans fats. If you have never heard of great trans fats before, allow me to explain in a little.
The Bad Trans Fats
The bad trans fats I am referring to are the artificial kind. These are represented by any artificially hydrogenated oils. The primary offenders are margarine, shortening, and partially hydrogenated oils which are in most processed foods, junk foods, and foods that are fried.
These hydrogenated oils are processed with harsh chemical solvents such as hexane (a part of gasoline), higher heat, pressure, have a metallic catalyst included, and are then deodorized and bleached. A small percent of the solvent is permitted to stay in the finished oil. This has become more of an industrial oil as opposed to a food oil, but the FDA still allows the food makers to put this crap in our meals at huge quantities, in spite of the well documented health hazards.
These hydrogenated oils cause inflammation inside your body, which suggests that the deposition of cholesterol as a recovery agent on artery walls. Hence, hydrogenated oil inflammation clogged arteries. You can see why heart disease has exploded because this crap was loaded into our food supply during the past 5 to 6 decades.
As time continues, and science continues to unveil how deadly these oils really are, I believe that eventually they’ll be illegal and prohibited from use. The labeling laws were only the first step. In actuality, certain countries around the globe have already prohibited the use of hydrogenated oils in food production or set dates to phase them out once and for all.
However, bear in mind that as companies have started to phase out the use of hydrogenated oils in processed foods, they’re replacing them, in most cases, with highly refined polyunsaturated oils like soybean oil, cottonseed oil, corn oil, etc, etc.. All these are still heavily processed oils with high heat, solvents, deodorizers, and bleaching agents. Even refined oils are proven to produce inflammation in the human body…a far cry from organic sources of healthy fats.
Do not be fooled by the new onslaught of foods claiming”trans fat free”… should they use heavily processed oils (even if they are non-hydrogenated), it is still pure bad for your body, and very inflammatory.
Once more, for the best results, your best choice is avoiding highly processed foods completely and select whole, natural, minimally processed foods . Your body will thank you!
The Good Trans Fats
Ok, after having crap talked the man-made trans fats, allow me to clearly state that there’s such a thing as healthy natural trans fats. Natural trans fats are created from the stomachs of ruminant animals such as cows, sheep, goats, etc. and also make their way to the fat stores of their critters.
Hence, the milk fat and the fat within the meat of those animals can offer natural healthy trans fats (best in grass-fed organic versions only).
Natural trans fats in your diet are thought to have some possible benefit to help in both muscle building and fat loss efforts. However, bear in mind that the amount of healthy trans fats in the milk and meat of ruminant animals is significantly decreased by mass-production methods of farming and their soy and grain heavy diets. Meat and dairy from grass-fed, free-range creatures always have much greater levels of these beneficial fats.
1 such natural trans fat which you might have heard of is known as conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and has been promoted by many weight loss companies. Bear in mind that these man-made CLA pills you see in the stores might not be the best way to get CLA on your daily diet. They are made from plant oils in a fashion similar to hydrogenation, rather than the natural process that occurs in ruminant animals. Once more, man-made just does not compare to the benefits of organic sources.
Here’s a fantastic website I found that I use to purchase all my healthy grass-fed beef and other free range meats . The service is impeccable and they deliver right to your doorstep in a sealed cooler. It’s worthwhile to know that you and your family are in fact eating meat that’s great for you rather than the standard grocery store junk.
Now that all of your labels should be list g of trans fat, bear in mind that if a quantity of trans fat is listed on a meat or dairy product, it is probably the natural great trans fats which we have discussed here (*I only urge grass-fed meat or dairy). Otherwise, if the amount of trans fat is listed on any processed foods, it is probably the harmful unhealthy crap from artificially hydrogenated oils, so stay away!
Another important note about food labels and trans fat listings … bear in mind that food makers are permitted to label a food”trans fat free” if 1 serving size contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat. So you could see some products with hydrogenated oils as one of the most important ingredients, but if they make the serving size small enough so that it contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving, they can tag it as trans fat free… now that is BS! Another example of our broken system!
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