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Trans fats?

C

chocoholic

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I'm confused. I've just received a free booklet in the post from Flora and there is an article about trans fats in there. I changed to butter and olive oil, thinking they were totally natural and also thinking they were free of trans fats. I have obviously misunderstood. If I have to change from those, please, in simple terms, can someone tell me what cooking fat and spreads I can use that ARE free from trans fats? Thank you.
 
Carefix was the expert on these but I think it is the case that any fats/oils that have been raised to a certain temp will change to transfats.Therefore you should go for cold pressed oils rather than the cheaper ones which have been processed by heat.I am sure someone will be along with the correct info.Dennis perhaps?
 
Hmmm

I would like to know whether supplementing our diets by using virgin coconut oil to cook with and replacing butter or margarine with is good for us???

Apparently, coconut oil is said to be fairly good for losing weight and good for type 2 diabetics as it helps stabilise bg levels.
 
Hi chocoholic,

Most margarines actually contain more trans fat than butter does. Also, the trans fats
found in margarine are nearly always synthetic, whereas the trans fats in butter, other
dairy products and beef etc. are naturally occuring.

:arrow: Naturally occurring trans fats

Regards,
timo.
 
Bloomin' 'eck, it's confusing, isn't it? So from reading further, the hydrogenated fats which I'm now avoiding, are the harmful ones but the trans fats naturally occurrring in meat and dairy produce are okay. Is that right? I'm quite happy doing whatever is best for my body, once I'm clear on what's what.
 
chocoholic said:
I'm confused. I've just received a free booklet in the post from Flora and there is an article about trans fats in there. I changed to butter and olive oil, thinking they were totally natural and also thinking they were free of trans fats. I have obviously misunderstood. If I have to change from those, please, in simple terms, can someone tell me what cooking fat and spreads I can use that ARE free from trans fats? Thank you.
Click to expand...
Hi Twiggy,
What exactly are Flora saying about butter and olive oil? I just looked at the Flora website and they claim their product to be virtually trans fat free, which means by their own admission that Flora does contain some trans fats. By contrast butter also contains a trace of trans fats, but these are naturally occurring ones, that are also present in cheese and animal fat. The naturally occurring variety of trans fat is believed to be nowhere near as bad for you as trans fat that comes from hydrogenation of oil.

Olive oil is regarded as being best for us because it contains mostly mono-unsaturates, which are the type of fats that protect the heart. Most other oils contain poly-unsaturates which are not so good for you. All the spreads that use poly-unsaturated oil (like Flora) are nowhere near as heart-protective as those that use olive oil.
 
Hi Dennis,
Well, although the article in places seems balanced in its reporting, several sentences jump out at me. I quote: "Flora spreads are all virtually trans fat free (less than 0.5%) - butter, however, has almost 3%"......... Trans-fat top-tips: "Keep away from fatty meat and full-fat dairy foods"........"Avoid butter"......"Most major supermarkets have now voluntarily reduced hydrogenated oils from products on their shelves but these are still not necessarily trans fat free as they may contain trans fats from other sources such as fatty meats or full-fat dairy products like butter.There is some discussion amongst experts as to whether trans fats from dairy and meat sources are as harmful as those from industrial sources. Current opinion, though, suggests a trans fat is a trans fat,no matter what the source."
On reading the article again, I think it might be clever, selective wording, to steer folk into buying their own products by lumping things like butter into "bad" food category.
Think I'm going to stick with using butter and olive oil. I use so little anyway that I reckon any trans fats occurring naturally will be miniscule.
 
Interesting, I googled it and found on the American Heart organisation site.
Small amounts of trans fats occur naturally in some meat and dairy products, including beef, lamb and butterfat. It isn’t clear; though, whether these naturally occurring trans fats have the same bad effects on cholesterol levels as trans fats that have been industrially manufactured.......
The American Heart Association recommends limiting the amount of trans fats you eat to less than 1 percent of your total daily calories. That means if you need 2,000 calories a day, no more than 20 of those calories should come from trans fats. That’s less than 2 grams of trans fats a day. Given the amount of naturally occurring trans fats you probably eat every day, this leaves virtually no room at all for industrially manufactured trans fats.
Click to expand...
 
Hi Twiggy,
You're right about the clever wording.
100g butter contains 2.75g natural trans fats.
100g Flora contains 0.5g manufactured (hydrogenated oil) trans fats.
Sounds like a no-brainer, eh?

But then consider that the research into hydrogenated trans fats undertaken in Sweden (as a result of which Sweden became the first European country to ban trans fats) showed that manufactured trans fats are 6 times worse for us than natural ones, i.e. 1g of hydrogenated oil is equivalent to 6g of natural trans fat.

Now re-do those figures and you have
100g butter contains 2.75g natural trans fats.
100g Flora contains contains the equivalent of 3g of butter (0.5gx6).
Which one is worse for you now!!

Just goes to show that you can prove practically anything with figures, especially when, like Flora, you only tell half the facts!
 
mm of course flora want to make butter look bad so you will buy it.

At the mo it is difficult in the Uk as they do not have to put the amounts of trans fats on the nutrition info .

Margarines also have a lot of colourings etc - you may be suprised to find that I use butter and sometimes bertolli - as I like the taste. I think the biggest problem is really in the junk - biscuits, cakes etc!

the labelling on food might also bend the truth - because the analysis is based on raw ingredients and not an actual analysis in a lab!
 
Basically, butter comes from a dairy and margarine from a chem lab. that's all I care about. I eat butter, but not much as I don't have anything to spread it on.
incidentally, my farmer Grandmother used to colour winter butter with juice from grated carrots.
Winter butter tends to be pale when the cows aren't getting fresh grass.
 
Hana,
I'd never heard of that before, but I guess it also explains why the northern European butters (like Lurpak) tend to have a paler colour - shorter fresh grass season?
 
ally5555 said:
you may be suprised to find that I use butter and sometimes bertolli
Click to expand...
Not at all Ally - I imagine that dietitians eat what is good for us, same as we do. And I also quite like the taste of Bertolli, but then I also love the Greece/southern Italy idea of dipping bread in a bowl of fresh olive oil (or oil + balsamic vinegar) rather than spreading something on it.
 
Dennis tastes yummy in balsamic?
I'd like to get some of that.

Wiflib
 
I guess the secret's out now - and we tried so hard to keep it quiet. :wink: :D :wink:
 
Well, Dennis must be low-carb (human tends to be I think) so a bit of balsamic added would fit into my daily limit nicely, thank you.

Wiflib
 
iHs said:
Hmmm

I would like to know whether supplementing our diets by using virgin coconut oil to cook with and replacing butter or margarine with is good for us???

Apparently, coconut oil is said to be fairly good for losing weight and good for type 2 diabetics as it helps stabilise bg levels.
Click to expand...

I quote from Wikipedia:

"Coconut oil is a fat consisting of about 90% saturated fat. The oil contains predominantly medium chain triglycerides, with roughly 92% saturated fatty acids, 6% monounsaturated fatty acids, and 2% polyunsaturated fatty acids. Of the saturated fatty acids, coconut oil is primarily 44.6% lauric acid, 16.8% myristic acid a 8.2% palmitic acid and 8% caprylic acid, although it contains seven different saturated fatty acids in total. Its only monounsaturated fatty acid is oleic acid while its only polyunsaturated fatty acid is linoleic acid."

It's wonderful to cook with (the flavour! - I love satay!), but the quantity you need and the quantity of saturated fat makes it an infrequent treat. Incidentaly, don't be fooled by tins of coconut milk light sold by some supermarkets for a price 10 or 20p more than the regular stuff. The only the difference is that they put more water into the light...

On the other hand coconut oil is supposed to be very good for the skin...

Steve
 
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