What do you know about trans fats?

Mandakini Gupta

New Delhi: Have you ever wondered why that sinful chocolate cake melts in your mouth or why home made French fries taste as good as those from McDonald's?

It is because of the secret ingredient called trans fats, which adds a 'great mouth feel' to most food.

Known as killer oil, trans fats have no nutritional benefits. Several countries across the world have banned or regulated it with several fast food giants facing million dollar lawsuits for selling trans fats-rich food.

Eating deep fried food at roadside joints can also be lethal for that matter. The same oil boils for hours at very high temperature and is used and reused for days, a process that transforms even the best oils into trans fats.

Cooking at home can also be dangerous for that matter. We usually store the oil that we use to fry pooris and reuse it a few times more so that it doesn't go to waste. It could be very harmful to so this.

Trans fats are formed by a process called partial hydrogenation of oils that turns liquid oil to a semi solid form and increases it's shelf life miraculously.

A chocolate bar made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oil should taste fresh for 18 months as compared with 30 days for one made with natural fat.

The dangers posed by trans fats are:

• Risk of heart disease by clogging the arteries.

• It not only reduces the levels of good cholesterol in the body but also increases the amount of bad cholesterol or high density lipoprotein (HDL).

• It is also believed to cause type 2 diabetes and liver dysfunction.

"You should a oils that has partially hydrogenated written on the label. The oil that you heat and reheat at home for coking also produces more trans fats," says head of Dept of diabetes, Fortis, Dr Anoop Mishra.

It is impossible for our bodies to break down trans fats in the same way that our bodies are not equipped to digest this iron nail.

So the next time you gorge on those crunchy French fries think about how much harm that is causing your body.

Source: CNN-IBN