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More About Bad Fats & Oils + Interesterification By Mary G. Enig, PhD

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More About Bad Fats & Oils

_http://www.healingnaturallybybee.com/articles/fats7.php_

(http://www.healingnaturallybybee.com/articles/fats7.php)

Source: Interesterification by Mary Enig, PhD.

 

The process of partial hydrogenation produces trans fats by straightening

out the unsaturated molecules through rearrangement of the hydrogen atoms at

the position of the double bond. These altered fats are solid at room

temperature and so can be used in baked goods and for frying.

 

But trans fatty acids have been increasingly implicated as contributing to

cancer, heart disease, auto-immune disease, tendon and bone degeneration and

problems with fwertility and growth.

 

Trans fatty acids in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are the main

cause of type 2 diabetes, characterized by high levels of both insulin and

glucose in the blood, because they inhibit the insulin receptors in the cell

membranes.

 

The obvious solution for the food industry is to use natural saturated fats

such as coconut oil, palm oil and tallow (from ruminant animals such as cows

and sheep) for frying and for baked goods, as they used to do. But this would

involve admitting that the demonization of saturated fats that has been

going on for the last fifty years is completely unscientific. And a return to a

sensible policy of using natural, traditional fats would bring down the huge

and powerful seed oil industry, which is the lynch pin of the American

commodity agriculture system.

 

 

Interesterification

By Mary G. Enig, PhD

_http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/interesterification.html_

(http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/interesterification.html)

 

The word is out on the dangers of trans fatty acids and with new laws

calling for trans fat labeling, food processors are scrambling for trans-free

alternatives. Trans-free liquid vegetable oils burn at too low a temperature

and

are too unstable to be used for frying and they are not solid enough to use as

a shortening in baked goods.

 

Polyunsaturated oils are liquid because the fat molecules—called fatty

acids—

contain a bend or twist wherever they are missing hydrogen atoms, which is

at the position of the double bonds. Hence, they do not pack together easily

and so are liquid, even when chilled. Saturated fats are not missing any

hydrogen atoms; they are straight molecules which pack together easily and

hence

are solid at room temperatures. Monounsaturated fatty acids, which are missing

only two hydrogen atoms at the position of the single double bond, are

liquid at room temperature but solid when chilled.

 

The process of partial hydrogenation produces trans fats by straightening

out the unsaturated molecules through rearrangement of the hydrogen atoms at

the position of the double bond. These altered fats are solid at room

temperature and so can be used in baked goods and for frying. But trans fatty

acids

have been increasingly implicated as contributing to cancer, heart disease,

auto-immune disease, tendon and bone degeneration and problems with fertility

and growth. trans fatty acids in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are the

main cause of type 2 diabetes, characterized by high levels of both insulin

and glucose in the blood, because they inhibit the insulin receptors in the

cell membranes.

 

The obvious solution for the food industry is to use natural saturated fats

such as coconut oil, palm oil and tallow (from ruminant animals such as cows

and sheep) for frying and for baked goods, as they used to do. But this would

involve admitting that the demonization of saturated fats that has been

going on for the last fifty years is completely unscientific. And a return to a

sensible policy of using natural, traditional fats would bring down the huge

and powerful seed oil industry, which is the lynch pin of the American

commodity agriculture system.

 

The **Solution**

 

The solution is a highly industrial process called interesterification,

which rearranges the fatty acids in the triglycerides.

 

In nature, fatty acids usually are configured as triglycerides, which

contain three fatty acids joined to a glycerol molecule. Interesterification

moves

these fatty acids around with the result that the interesterified fat has

different melting and baking qualities.

 

Interesterification was first applied to natural fats like palm oil and

lard. For example, in natural lard, about 2 percent of the triglycerides have

three saturated fatty acids and about 24 percent have three unsaturated fatty

acids. The remaining triglycerides have a combination of unsaturated and

saturated fatty acids. After interesterification, the numbers of triglycerides

with

three saturates or three unsaturates are increased while the numbers of

triglycerides with a combination of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids are

decreased. The result is a higher melting temperature and " improved " baking

qualities, such as more volume in cakes.

 

Interesterification of palm kernel oil yields fats with very specific

melting properties for candies, such as fats that **melt in your mouth, but not

in

your hand.**

 

To make low-trans or trans-free margarines and shortenings, manufacturers

interesterify a blend of liquid oil with fully hydrogenated oil. Oil that is

fully hydrogenated, as opposed to partially hydrogenated, contains 100 percent

saturated fatty acids because the unsaturated fatty acids in the liquid oil

have been completely saturated with hydrogen. The resulting fatty acids are

mostly 18-carbon stearic acid, the same as the demonized fats found in beef and

butter! Fully hydrogenated oil is very hard, so only a small amount is needed

—about 10 percent—to blend and interesterify with the liquid oil to produce

a spreadable fat. Recently in Canada, manufacturers have come up with an

interesterified blend of palm oil and/or palm kernel oil and canola oil.

 

Production

 

There are two basic methods for producing interesterfied oil blends. The

most common uses a chemical catalyst, such as sodium methoxide or ethoxide

(dangerous and highly toxic industrial solvents), or hazardous metallic sodium

or

sodium-potassium alloy. The first three require heat of 80o C to 120oC to

produce interesterified fatty acids. The product must then be neutralized (to

remove the caustic catalyst), bleached (to get rid of the resultant dark brown

color) and deodorized (a process which can actually introduce trans fats into

the mix).

 

Another method uses enzymes to produce the interesterified fats. It is more

expensive but results in less loss of oil through the formation of soaps,

esters and mono- and di-glycerides.

 

Whichever method is used, rest assured that this is a highly industrialized

process involving heat that begins with oils that have already been subjected

to a highly industrialized process. The resulting product may be trans-free,

but it will still contain chemical residues, hexanes and many dangerous

breakdown products full of free radicals.

 

Health Effects

 

Of course, the industry is hoping that these new interesterified blends will

not have the negative health effects of trans fats. But a recent study,

published in Nutrition and Metabolism, (2007, 4:3) gives great cause for

concern.

The researchers compared trans-rich and interesterified fats with saturated

fat for their relative impact on blood lipids and plasma glucose. Thirty

human volunteers participated in the study, which strictly controlled total fat

and fatty acid composition in the subjects* diet. Each subject consumed all

three diets in random rotation during the four-week diet periods.

 

HDL-cholesterol dropped slightly with both the trans fat and interesterified

blends but the real problem concerned blood glucose and insulin levels.

Insulin levels dropped 10 percent on the partially hydrogenated soybean oil

diet

but dropped more than twice as much on the interesterified fat diet, causing

blood sugar to rise by an alarming 20 percent. Thus it seems that these

interesterified blends affected the production of insulin by the pancreas rather

than the receptors for insulin in the cell membranes.

 

The trade-off of type 2 diabetes for type 1 diabetes does not seem like a

good one.

 

Demonizing the Competition

 

The uproar over trans fats presents the perfect opportunity to bring natural

saturated fats back into our diets, but the vegetable oil industry has been

working overtime behind the scenes to make sure that doesn*t happen. They

have hired PR firms to get articles published in journals and the popular media

warning the public against the evils of saturated fats. A good example is the

following, published at healthscience.org: **But palm oil is a horrible

alternative... all these tropical oils are highly saturated fats. Like butter,

cheese and meat, tropical oils raise LDL-cholesterol and clog arteries with

plaque, increasing your risk of a heart attack... . We're trading one

artery-clogger for another?**

 

Another victim is butter, which contains a small percentage of natural trans

fats that are not harmful; in fact the body transforms some of the natural

trans in butter into CLA, a compound that has anti-cancer properties. In

Europe, government agencies have been careful to distinguish between the natural

trans fats in butter and meat fat from the artificial trans in partially

hydrogenated vegetable oil; the natural trans have not been singled out for

pejorative labeling. But according to the US Food and Drug Administration, there

is

no difference between natural and artificial trans fats. As a result,

retailers like Starbucks are banning butter in baked goods in order to claim

that

their baked goods are 100 percent trans-free. Thus, once again, natural fats

are being tarred with the black brush of their artificial substitutes.

 

Other Solutions

 

TALLOW BLENDS:

A company called Source Food Technologies, based in North Carolina, is

making a patented proprietary blend of corn oil and tallow. Tacitly admitting

to

the virtues of tallow, the company notes that the blend reduces cholesterol

(yes, the main fatty acid in tallow reduces cholesterol!), has decreased levels

of trans fats (implying that at least some of the corn oil has been

partially hydrogenated) and results in less oil absorption in fried foods. This

begs

the question of just using a blend that is mostly tallow!

 

RICE SYRUP SOLIDS:

A company called California Natural products has developed **an all-natural

rice syrup solid that provides the functionality of trans fats and can

replace 100 percent of the shortening in baked goods** as well as the fat in

ice

cream. The compound is similar in size to fat globules and has **unique

carbohydrate structures due to the structure of the rice starch molecule. So

it's a

carbohydrate that acts like a fat.**

 

LOW-LINOLENIC OILS:

Biotech companies have begun commercializing low-linolenic soybeans

(soybeans low in the very unstable omega-3 fatty acids) produced either through

genetic modification or conventional breeding in order to reduce or eliminate

trans fats in processed soybean oil. (During processing, it is the omega-3

fatty

acids that are preferentially converted to trans fats.)

 

TROPICAL OILS:

In Europe, companies are using more of the tropical oils, such as palm oils,

which " provide the body and texture to products such that no further

modification of the oil is necessary, resulting in a natural trans-free

choice. "

Unfortunately, in the US, this sensible move has met vehement resistance from

the soybean industry and their agents, such as Center for Science in the Public

Interest.

 

Source: Todd Runestad. How to live without trans fats. Functional Foods &

Neutraceuticals, December 2004.

 

Good Reasons to Avoid Potato Chips... .

 

.... whether the oil they're fried in is liquid, partially hydrogenated or

interesterified. The following letter from Dennis Meizys of Maryland Green

Power Co. is posted at mercola.com/blogs/ :

 

My company is researching the production of biodiesel from used vegetable

oil, and has contacted manufacturers which we suspected would produce the most

waste oil. What comes to mind? Well, greasy potato chips (just look at your

fingers after you eat them!) and donuts came to mind, after contacting the

obvious home-run hitters, McDonald's and KFC. Contrary to what you might think,

it seems the worst abusers of vegetable oils were not McDonald*s, but potato

chip and donut manufacturers.

 

One manufacturer replied to my offer to purchase their used oil with the

explanation that they hardly have any used oil left-over after the process.

Tens

of thousands of gallons come in, barely hundreds come out. The reason? This

manufacturer recycles the oil until it is entirely absorbed by the food. All

that dirty oil eventually ends up in the potato chips themselves.

 

One problem that occurs after re-using vegetable oils is that FFAs (free

fatty acids) concentrate. The manufacturer volunteered this fact and noted that

their solution is to chemically treat the oil to reduce the FFA's, after

which it is sent back to produce more potato chips. Mmmm—re-used vegetable

oil

treated with chemicals to reduce free fatty acids!

 

It turns out that these oils are so bad that biodiesel manufacturers shun

them! In other words, they are difficult to catalyze into methyl-esters

(biodiesel) and producers are reluctant to use them for engine fuel, yet people

still eat the potato chips!

 

That brings us to the last time I ate a donut, those nicely-colored sweet

confections. If you only saw the waste products. My offer to pick up one donut

shop*s used oil for free was met by much enthusiasm by the management, and

they told me that I could pick up a 55-gallon drum once every 6 months. Did you

ever go inside the donut shop and look at how much oil they have in those

vats? Now consider the fact that they only dispose of 55 gallons every six

months!

 

One closed-down shop asked me to pick up their barrel of used vegetable oil

from their parking lot because it was leaking and causing environmental

damage. I tried to drain the oil out, but it was so thick and sludgy that it

clogged my pump. I was considering using a heavy-duty sewage pump to drain it,

but

decided not to, because the thick, smelly contents of that barrel were not

usable as an ingredient for fuel, and refining it would be too expensive. The

material had an uncanny resemblance to sewage. The only reason I knew it

wasn*t, was that it had a sweet, donut-like smell to it, but entirely

unpleasant.

 

Scientific facts like knowing the carcinogen content of these **foods** is

interesting, but if you want real motivation to avoid junk foods, go to the

back of the **restaurant** were they dispose of their environmentally-harmful

by-product and take a look. Also, you can ask them why they have to keep the

stuff in barrels and wait for an expensive disposal service instead of just

sending it down the drain? The reason: the Environmental Protection Agency does

not allow it!

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Mary G. Enig, PhD is an expert of international renown in the field of lipid

biochemistry. She has headed a number of studies on the content and effects

of trans fatty acids in America and Israel, and has successfully challenged

government assertions that dietary animal fat causes cancer and heart disease.

Recent scientific and media attention on the possible adverse health effects

of trans fatty acids has brought increased attention to her work. She is a

licensed nutritionist, certified by the Certification Board for Nutrition

Specialists, a qualified expert witness, nutrition consultant to individuals,

industry and state and federal governments, contributing editor to a number of

scientific publications, Fellow of the American College of Nutrition and

President of the Maryland Nutritionists Association. She is the author of over

60

technical papers and presentations, as well as a popular lecturer. Dr. Enig

is currently working on the exploratory development of an adjunct therapy for

AIDS using complete medium chain saturated fatty acids from whole foods. She

is Vice-President of the Weston A Price Foundation and Scientific Editor of

Wise Traditions as well as the author of Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer

for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils, and Cholesterol, Bethesda Press,

May 2000. She is the mother of three healthy children brought up on whole

foods including butter, cream, eggs and meat.

 

 

 

 

 

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