Trans fats - Articles - Zimbio

Health Tips & Facts-Fat Types & Fat Burning Foods Type

Thu, 7 Nov 2008 09:06:00 GMT

posted by paavanj

There are five types of fat.

(1) Artificial trans fat

(2) Trans fat

(3) Saturated fat

(4) Polyunsaturated fat

(5) Monounsaturated fat

Artificial trans fat increases the Risk for Coronary Heart Disease.

The most conservative estimates show that the replacement of these fats.

In fact, the women with low blood levels of trans fat.

Trans fat :-

There are two types of Trans Fat.

The kind that occurs naturally in small amounts in animal products, and the artificial kind produced by adding hydrogen to liquid oils so they remain solid at room temperature, which helps extend a food’s shelf life.

So far no studies have examined how natural trans fat

Most commercially produced fried foods, baked goods, and stick margarines are made with artificial trans fat.

Natural trans fat :-

A product must contain less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving in order to bear a “no trans fat” label. However, such products may still contain up to 0.49 grams of trans fat.

To keep your intake low, stick to recommended serving sizes and read ingredients lists; they’re arranged in order, so the presence of partially hydrogenated oil can provide a clue as to the presence of artificial trans fat in a “trans fat-free” product.

Saturated fat

Animal products like whole milk, cream, butter, lard, and fatty cuts of meat.

Also a component of cocoa butter and tropical oils (palm, palm kernel, and coconut).

Less than 10 percent of your total calories per day (20 grams if you eat 2,000 calories) is a good starting point. For optimal heart health, the AHA recommends seven percent (16 grams).

Polyunsaturated fat :-

Vegetable oils like safflower, sunflower, sesame, corn, and soy, and nuts and seeds. Omega-3s are found in fatty fish, such as salmon and mackerel, flaxseed, and walnuts.

The AHA puts omega-3s in a separate category and suggests two to three meals of fatty fish a week. Two components of omega-3 fatty acid molecules have different benefits: EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) helps alleviate arterial inflammation and prevent blood platelets from clumping together, while DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) is valuable to the retina and brain.

Monounsaturated fat :-

Monounsaturated fat helps lower blood cholesterol levels when substituted for saturated fat in the diet.

Fat burning foods refer to specific type of foods that either burn fats accumulated in the body or improve metabolism. Adding these types of foods in your regular diet, you can easily wash out the fat from your body and keep yourself fit and healthy. In practice, foods function like fuel where metabolism as an engine.

You put foods like a fuel to your metabolism engine, and it uses some of the foods to make energy that is required to keep us moving and alive. However, not all parts of the foods we take are used to produce energy, simply because it is beyond the actual demand for producing energy. These foods, which are not absorbed during the energy production, are then stored as fat and the rest of the amount is excreted from the body as waste products.

Individuals become fatty due to several reasons. It can be due to the reason of taking too much food than actually required by the body. The excess amount is then stored for future use. An individual can accumulate fat due to slow metabolic process as well. In a slow metabolic process, foods are not burnt up in sufficient amount.

The result is inevitable accumulation of fat. Third reason may include inactivity. If you are not active enough, you body does not get the chance to burn up foods. Although, there are few medical conditions that contribute to obesity, but they are beyond the scope of this discussion.

This article sheds light on various fat burning foods and their various forms. It also suggests different ways to include them in your daily diet.

Citrus Fruits :-

Citrus fruits contain vitamin C and vitamin C possesses fat burning property. It trims down the efficacy of fat. Additionally, it can also liquefy the solid fat into diluted one. When fat gets diluted, it loses its ability to stay within the system; rather it washes out from the body effectively.

Vitamin C functions on cholesterol accumulation as well. Hence it reduces the possibility of cholesterol deposits in the blood vessels.

To enjoy the flavor of these fat burning foods rich in vitamin C, you can add oranges, limes, tangerines, and grape fruits in your daily diet. It will definitely enhance your metabolism as well as help you to regulate your cholesterol level.

Soybean :-

Lecithin is a chemical property of soybean. It helps in making sheath to your body cell, hence protects cells from accumulating fat. It is also capable of breaking fat contents that are already deposited in your body.

You can eat soy products several times a week in order to get rid off the problem of being obese.

Fresh Fruit :-

Pectin is an essential element that creates a natural limitation on the body cell regarding the amount of fat consumption. Pectin can be found in apples and in most of the berries and other fresh fruits. Pectin can absorb watery substances due to its water binding property. It helps releasing fats from cells. Hence fresh fruits can be an ideal choice for fat burning foods.

Garlic Oil :-

Garlic oil is found to be effective to reduce the amount of fatty acids.

from the body cells. If you take this as a part of fat burning foods, it can lower down the level of fat deposits. Garlic including garlic oil offers antibiotic solution. Therefore, you can use it for many bacterial infections .

Liquid Fats :-

It is not true that all fats are bad for your heath. Rather you can consider liquid fats as one of the most essential fat burning foods. It helps your system to eliminate hard fatty substances from the body. Corn oil, Peanut oil, Safflower oil and Sunflower seed oil are great sources of liquid fats.

The liquid fats actually break down the hard fat content by releasing phospholipids fatty acids. Liquid fats functions in two ways. First of all, they provide you the required fats that are needed by your body. Secondly, they help your system to remove the hard fats from the body itself.

The Food Industry Delivers the Most Damning Indictment of Health Check Yet

Sun, 3 Nov 2008 10:30:00 GMT

posted by drmendel
So just how deep in the sand does your head have to be in order for Big Food to come in and generate a far more robust front-of-package labeling program than your non-profit, supposedly for health, organization's?

Why not ask the Heart and Stroke Foundation's Health Check folks?

Rolling out in 2009 is Big Food's Smart Choices Program (example above) the stated aim of which is to,

"help shoppers make more nutritious food and beverage choices, at-a-glance, throughout the supermarket"

Companies who are signing on?

Coca-Cola, ConAgra Foods, General Mills, Kellogg Company, Kraft Foods, PepsiCo, Unilever, and Wal-Mart (and Nestle's reported as considering it as well).

Nutritional criteria will include limiting:

Total fat
Trans fat
Saturated fat
Cholesterol
Added sugars
Sodium

while at the same time encouraging consumption of:

Fruits and Vegetables
Whole Grains
Fat Free/Low Fat Dairy
Calcium
Potassium
Fiber
Magnesium
Vitamin A
Vitamin C
Vitamin E

The front-of-package label will also highlight calories per serving and servings per package.

Looking closer at the Smart Choices' criteria and then comparing them with the newly updated Health Check's (posted just over a month ago and not slated to be implemented until 2010) you can quickly see that aside from the fact that even Big Food recognizes there are more than 3 nutritional determinants of health, amazingly the Smart Choices Program is far stricter than the Heart and Stroke Foundation's on Health Check's 3 primary nutrient categories:

On Sodium

The 2010 Health Check allows for 17% more sodium per entree or mixed dish

The 2010 Health Check allows for 50% more sodium per slice of bread

The 2010 Health Check allows for 100% more sodium per glass of vegetable juice

The 2010 Health Check allows for 160% more sodium per meat, fish and poultry item

On Fats

The 2010 Health Check allows for 70% more fat in ground meats

The 2010 Health Check limits the amount of fat from fatty fish despite the fact that fats from fish have been shown to decrease the risk of heart disease (a limitation that is so far beyond the realm of comprehension that it may be worthy of a blog post all its own)

The 2010 Health Check allows for 100% more saturated fat in dairy products

The 2010 Health Check allows for infinitely more trans fat in all products (as the Food Industry's endeavor forbids them outright while Health Check's happy with heart-disease promoting trans fats making up to 5% of an item's total fat - an allowance all the more confusing given Heart and Stroke Foundation's own CEO Sally Brown's belief that, "there is no safe amount of trans consumption" and her statement, "trans fats are a "toxic" killer that need to be removed from the food chain as soon as possible")

On Sugar

The 2010 Health Check allows for infinitely more sugar per dairy product (Health Check puts no limits on adding sugar to dairy thereby allowing flavoured milks and yogurts to contain more sugar and calories than Coca-Cola or ice cream and yes still sport their blessing)

What this means of course is that once the Smart Choices Program rolls out, misinformed Canadian consumers who continue to choose Health Check options over Smart Choice Program ones thinking they're,

"shopping with the Heart and Stroke Foundation's dietitians"

will at times consume orders of magnitude more salt, sugar and fat.

To give you some perspective on all of this, a comparable analogy would be Exxon coming up with a stricter set of environmental regulations than Greenpeace!

This of course brings me back to the notion that if this is the best that the Heart and Stroke Foundation's dietitians and Health Check's Technical Advisory Committee have to offer, perhaps it's time to hire some new blood (and frankly, fire some or all of the old).

Appalled?

Click here to send the Health Check's Technical Advisory Committee an email and included on the email will be Sally Brown (CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation), Stephen Samis (Scientific Director of the Heart and Stroke Foundation), and Terry Dean (General Manager of Health Check).

[Disclaimer: The Smart Choices Program, while certainly superior to Health Check, is still overly minimalist and lax in its inclusionary and exclusionary nutritional criteria so please don't consider this post to be an endorsement.]

Good Fat vs. Bad Fat -Which is Which?

Thu, 10 Oct 2008 09:21:00 GMT

posted by instantfeelgood

When it comes to eating healthily, there's a lot of misinformation and confusion out there and sometimes, it's easy for people to get an idea into their head abut how 'bad for them' and 'full of fat' something is. Take avocados. They get such a bad press because everyone thinks they're fattening. We all need fats - some of it is essential to help regulate hormonal production, improve our immune function, lower total cholesterol, lubricate the joints, and provide us with the basics for healthy hair, nails and skin. So here is a simple guide to what to look out for so you know your fats.
And remember, as a rule of thumb, the fats that go solid and white at room temperature are bad and the fats that stay runny are good.

THE GOOD
Monounsaturated Fats
Monounsaturated fats lower total cholesterol. They can be found in:nutspeanutswalnutsalmondspistachiosavocadocanola oilolive oil
These fats also help with weight loss, particularly with reducing body fat.

Polyunsaturated Fats
Polyunsaturated fats also lower total cholesterol levels. You can find these in:seafoodsalmonfish oilcornsoysunflower oils
They are also a good source of omega-3 fatty acids. Some people get a little picky about Polyunsaturated Fats as they think that they can sometimes reduce the levels of good cholesterol but I don't think you will be consuming enough to reach that stage.

THE BAD
Saturated Fats
Saturated fats raise your total blood cholesterol and can lead to heart disease. Saturated fats are mainly found in:animal products such as meatdairyeggsInterestingly, the palm tree is guilty of creating saturated fats too which is why you should limit the amount of coconut oil, palm oil and palm kernel oil you have.

If you are on a diet and actually want to lose weight, never, ever have deep-fried food. It has absolutely no nutritional value and is the equivalent of eating rubbish. Loaded with saturated fat, it's very fattening and bad for your heart and arteries. Foods to avoid - fries, potato chips, breaded chicken dippers and onion rings.

THE UGLY
Trans Fats
Trans fats are created in labs as a by-product of adding hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them more solid. This is done to extend the shelf life of the food. Another name for trans fats is “partially hydrogenated oils." The trans fatty acids are found in:packaged foodsfried foods from some fast food restaurantssome brands of microwave popcorn
You don't ever want to consume the stuff if you can help it as it clogs the arteries and raise cholesterol levels dangerously.

photograph by joshbousel (flickr)

Copyright 2008 | Jeff Archer http://instantfeelgood.blogspot.com Credit to the author must be given if this post is re-published.

Lower Cholesterol Naturally

Mon, 24 Jun 2008 23:59:47 GMT

posted by aikihealing

Lower Cholesterol: Eliminate Unhealthy Fats

To maintain healthy cholesterol levels, limit saturated fats found in red meat, butter and other animal products.Replace these fats with canola oil, olive oil, and small amount of nuts such as walnuts or almonds.

Also, eliminate trans-fatty acids from your diet completely.Look at labels and you will find that many baked goods, non-dairy creamers, trail nut mixes, crackers, and even some breads contain hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils–these are trans-fatty acids.

These type of oils play a significant role in raising lipid levels perhaps even more so than butter, red meat and other sources of animal fat.

From a Chinese medicine perspective, hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils create excessive dampness in the body which can aggravate inflammation and pain.

One of my clients with fibromyalgia (chronic fatigue syndrome) shares that since she eliminated these type of oils from her diet, her pain is almost non-existent.

Lower Lipids with Fiber

You’ve heard that oatmeal naturally lowers cholesterol because of its high fiber content.Other high fiber foods that help to lower cholesterol include brown rice (try the varieties at Asian stores that include Chinese yam and beans–very good for lowering sugar levels in diabetics), whole wheat and flax seeds.

High fiber foods also help to slow down the absorption of simple and complex sugars in the diet to help promote more even blood sugar level and reduce fatigue.

So eat more fiber and improve your cholesterol and energy levels.

Natural Statins and Plant Sterols

You’ve probably heard of statins in relation to chemical drugs such as Lipitor. Statins lower cholesterol.

Plant statins also lower cholesterol but occur naturally in foods such soy products and almonds. However, it is often challenging to get enough of plant statins in the diet to benefit cholesterol levels.

Also, like synthetic statins, natural statins may have an impact on the liver. As a result, clients should check with the medical doctors about the appropriateness of having regular liver enzyme monitoring when on chemical or natural statins.

Red yeast rice is a food that is high in statins and has had some clinical success in lowering cholesterol levels naturally.

However, it is difficult to get a standardized dosage and this food may also create side effects for certain individuals similar to synthetic statins.There has also been concern that during the fermentation process, of red yeast rice, a toxic chemical called citrinin may produced. So natural is not always necessarily better.

The ideal candidate for using red yeast rice to control cholesterol is a person with no other health concerns, no aterial blockages, and very mildly elevated cholesterol levels.Individuals with moderate to high levels of cholesterol or those with mild elevations but who also have been diagnosed with blocked arteries or heart disease, diabetes, kidney or liver disease are not ideal candidates for using red yeast rice successfully.

Benecol makes a line of food products that contain natural plant sterols, also associated with lowering cholesterol. Their products include margarine spreads and carmel chews with high concentration of natural plant sterols.

The safety and efficacy of these plant sterol products have been well researched in Europe and also recently reported by the New England Journal of Medicine.For an informative video on plant sterols, visit Web Md link below.Web MD video on plant sterols

Flax Seed Oil

Flax seed can provide a rich source of Omega 3 fatty acids, associated not only with lowering cholesterol but also with promoting brain health.Unlike fish oil capsules which may contain toxins such as mercury, flax seed oils come in organic and cold pressed forms which are free of toxins, pesticides and other chemicals.

Exercise Lowers Cholesterol

Healthy diet plays a tremendous role in controlling exercise, but the role of exercise and stress management are equally important.Thirty to forty minutes of daily aerobic exercise such as walking, swimming or performing qi gong quickly can benefit cholesterol levels significantly.

Tai Chi and qi gong in particular can stimulate the internal organs to promote healthier lipid levels.

The Tao Five liver move is particularly helpful when people have been diagnosed with “fatty liver” associated with higher triglyceride and cholesterol levels.

Please note that information in this article is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical condition. Please consult with your medical physician regarding guidance on implementing holistic methods for healing.

Health Care-About Fats Details For your Health

Wed, 31 Jul 2008 06:00:12 GMT

posted by paavanj

Health Care-About Fats Details For your Health

Artificial trans fat increases the Risk for Coronary Heart Disease.

The most conservative estimates show that the replacement of these fats with heart-healthy alternatives can decrease coronary artery disease risk by 6 percent, and it is likely even higher.

In fact, the women with low blood levels of trans fat are three times less likely to develop heart disease.

Trans fat :-

There are two types of Trans Fat.

So far no studies have examined how natural trans fat impacts health, but the artificial kind raises levels of LDL (”bad”) cholesterol and lowers HDL (”good”) cholesterol, raising the risk of heart disease.

Most commercially produced fried foods, baked goods, and stick margarines are made with artificial trans fat. Natural trans fat can be found in red meat, milk, butter, and cheese.

How much you have to eat?

As little as possible.

The American Heart Association (AHA) suggests limiting trans fat to less than one percent of your daily calories, about two grams if you follow a 2,000-calorie-per-day plan. That figure includes artificial trans fat as well as natural, since natural trans fat sources are often high in another type of fat linked to heart-disease risk factors-saturated fat.

A product must contain less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving in order to bear a “no trans fat” label. However, such products may still contain up to 0.49 grams of trans fat.
To keep your intake low, stick to recommended serving sizes and read ingredients lists; they’re arranged in order, so the presence of partially hydrogenated oil can provide a clue as to the presence of artificial trans fat in a “trans fat-free” product.

Saturated fat :-

This type of fat raises LDL cholesterol and sets the stage for heart disease by encouraging the formation of plaque in arteries.

Animal products like whole milk, cream, butter, lard, and fatty cuts of meat.

Also a component of cocoa butter and tropical oils (palm, palm kernel, and coconut).

Less than 10 percent of your total calories per day (20 grams if you eat 2,000 calories) is a good starting point. For optimal heart health, the AHA recommends seven percent (16 grams).

Polyunsaturated fat :-

This type of fat helps reduce blood cholesterol levels when substituted for saturated fats. One variety, omega-3 fatty acids, also helps lower blood pressure, control inflammation, and protect against irregular heartbeats.

Vegetable oils like safflower, sunflower, sesame, corn, and soy, and nuts and seeds. Omega-3s are found in fatty fish, such as salmon and mackerel, flaxseed, and walnuts.

Authorities say 40 to 78 grams in a 2,000-calorie diet should come from fat, with polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats comprising the bulk. However, there is no specific recommended amount for either.

Monounsaturated fat :-

Monounsaturated fat helps lower blood cholesterol levels when substituted for saturated fat in the diet.

Olives, avocados, and olive, canola, and peanut oils.

Again, roughly two-thirds of the fat you eat should be unsaturated, either monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fat.