OK, so by now you're probably aware that you should avoid trans fats. Proposed bans have been all over the news, numerous manufacturers are bragging about the lack of them in their products -- either new-and-improved, or in the same trans-fat-free formulations they've been using all along -- and trans fats have been on nutrition labels since January 2006.
Smith's, like the other stores of parent company Kroger, recently converted to a trans-fat-free oil for frying its chicken and other deli foods in part because a survey found that consumer interest in a product's trans fat content is eclipsed only by their interest in its fat content, said Marsha Gilford, Smith's vice president of public affairs.
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But do you know what trans fats are?
"Most people do not," said Laura Kruskall, chairwoman of the department of nutrition sciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "I still think people are confused. Whenever I do consultations, the majority need a clarification of what they are and why they might be bad for you."
Which, in a nutshell, is this, courtesy of Mary Wilson, registered dietitian and extension nutrition specialist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas:
"It's in the process of hydrogenation that trans fats are made," Wilson said; "when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil."
The resulting trans fats, she said, have been found to increase the "bad" cholesterol in the bloodstream, raising the risk of heart disease.
But why, pray tell, would hydrogen be added to vegetable oil? One reason is that it makes oils solidify at room temperature. Animal fats (think lard and butter) are solid at room temperature, but vegetable fats (which even sounds odd) are oils -- liquid. And vegetable oils have their limitations when it comes to food preparation.
"Lard is pure animal fat," Kruskall said. "Make pie crust out of that and it's really good." But conversely, "if you ever tried to make chocolate-chip cookies with a vegetable oil, you know they don't come out great." Make two batches of cookies, one with butter and one with hydrogenated margarine, and you'll notice that the butter cookies are crisper; the cookies with the margarine in them are softer and stay that way longer.
"What these trans fats do is if they behave like lard when you cook with them, they also behave like lard in the body," Kruskall said.
Wilson said hydrogenation also increases product shelf life.
"That's why they came up with it: better shelf life and better flavor,'" she said. The improved flavor, she said, is because fats that are more stable don't go rancid.
It was sort of a technological advance that backfired.
"We've done all this work to cut down the amount of saturated fat and not use animal fats," Wilson said. "Food companies could create fats that were from vegetable oils, for a healthier pitch to people. Our technology unfortunately gave us something else -- raising bad cholesterol in your blood, increasing your risk for heart disease."
So much so that in the end, trans fats are as bad for us as saturated fats.
"We look at it as very similar," Wilson said. "When we talk to people about saturated fats and trans fats, I group them together, as they are on the food label. I speak of them basically in one voice."
And they may even be worse than saturated fats. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health official policy is that "trans fats appear to raise blood cholesterol more than other unsaturated fats, but not as much as saturated fat," meaning that margarine still would be more healthful than butter. But, Kruskall said, "if you look at the information that we have, saturated fats (and trans fats) increase the bad cholesterol, but trans fats may decrease the good cholesterol. So maybe it is better to use the natural fat. It may not have the effect on the good stuff."
But Wilson said it all depends on your choice of margarine.
"People say butter's better because there's no trans fat," she said. "That may be true, but if you look at it in comparison to a margarine that has very little or zero trans fat, the light margarine or the tub margarine with that level would be preferable to the butter. And there are lots of them on the market now;" Wilson uses Brummel & Brown at home.
"The harder the margarine or shortening, the more likely it is to contain more trans fat," notes the NIH, which offers these tips:
• Choose liquid vegetable oils that are high in unsaturated fats -- such as canola, corn, olive, peanut, safflower, sesame, soybean and sunflower oils.
• Buy margarine made with unsaturated liquid vegetable oils as the first ingredient. Choose soft tub or liquid margarine or vegetable-oil spreads.
• Limit butter, lard, fatback and solid shortenings. They are high in saturated fat and cholesterol.
• Buy light or nonfat mayonnaise and salad dressing instead of the regular kind that are high in fat. For example, 2 tablespoons of regular Italian dressing can add as many as 14 grams of fat."
Wilson said she finds industry action like moving to frying foods in trans-fat-free oil "interesting."
"I think we're missing the boat here," she said. "The whole point is we need people to consume less fat anyway. We are consuming far too much fat. The majority of folks don't need to be eating fried chicken. I guarantee you they're eating the skin, too, and that's where a lot of the saturated fat is. It's kind of a misguided effort.
"I appreciate the effort, but buy baked chicken and take the skin off."
And she credits the public with forcing industry action.
"I think their awareness has caused the food companies to make some changes in their formulations," Wilson said. "Not that we should start eating all the potato chips because they're trans-fat free, but I think it's good for the public to be aware of these substances that can be hazardous to our health.
"Until the public said, 'We're not going to use your product because you use coconut and palm oil in it,' it didn't change. The awareness of the public is causing the change in our food supply."
