Beach Runner wrote:
> This is relationship to the comments that heating oil changes them.
>
>
> What’s a Trans Fat Anyway?

Heating vegetable oil will not change it into transfat, dumb ass.
Hydrogenation occurs in a pressurized environment in which the oil is
heated above 500-degrees Fahrenheit in the presence of metal catalysts
(e.g., nickel, zinc, copper) and hydrogen gas. Such is *VERY UNLIKELY*
to occur in one's kitchen.

The subject heading also has nothing whatsoever to do with the article
provided below.

> By Leanne Ely, C.N.C.
>
> The FDA will make another change to food labels by 2006 including
> information on trans fats so the consumer can distinguish if this is
> indeed something he’d want to buy, based on the nutrition offered (or
> not offered) and/or the potential risk involved in consuming that
> particular food.
>
> So what’s a trans fat, anyway? Trans fatty acids are created through
> a
> process called hydrogenation, which basically forces hydrogen into a
> highly heated oil creating a hard product from a liquid product--more
> commonly known as shortening or margarine.

Hydrogenation occurs in a pressurized environment in which the oil is
heated above 500-degrees Fahrenheit in the presence of metal catalysts
(e.g., nickel, zinc, copper) and hydrogen gas. Such is *VERY UNLIKELY*
to occur in one's kitchen.

> The problem with trans fats is they are just as culpable as saturated
> fats

If not more so, because saturated fats don't suppress HDL like transfats
do. HDL helps carry excess LDL from the bloodstream. More HDL is a good
thing; monounsaturated and saturated fats both increase HDL. Less HDL is
a bad thing; transfats decrease HDL. More LDL is a bad thing; saturated
and transfats increase LDL. Less LDL is a good thing; reducing saturated
fats and transfats in the diet should reduce serum LDL levels.

> for raising LDL levels (low density lipoprotein, the “bad
> cholesterol”).
> But unlike saturated fats (which also raise HDL levels) trans fats
> actually reduce HDL levels (high density lipoprotein, the “good
> cholesterol”).

Exactly, and these different types of fats play a larger role in serum
cholesterol than does dietary cholesterol. The oily fishes recommended
by cardiologists and nutritionists are fairly high in cholesterol; their
lipid profiles, though, are such that consuming them is beneficial in
elevating HDL and reducing LDL and creating a healthier ratio between
the two.

<...>