The New England Journal of Medicine, a very serious and respected scientific journal, in the June 1999 issue summarized the mournful consequences that the use of trans fats leads: "... laboratory studies suggest that when using trans fatty acids, the risk of diseases increases dramaticallyischemic heart disease. .. ».
The same journal published in 1997 the shocking results of another study: over the course of 14 years, 80,000 nurses were monitored, their eating habits were analyzed. People who like to eat foods stuffed with trans fats, mortality from heart attack was significantly higher.
What are trans fats and in which products they contain
Trans fats are a type of unsaturated fat that are in a trans configuration. Without going into the subtleties of their chemical structure, let us just say that trans fats need to be distinguished from hydrogenated fats, which have very different structural features of molecules, but which have almost the same harmful effect on our body.
Trans fats are found in small amounts in all natural fats. So, in liquid vegetable oils they are less than 1%, in beef fat from 2 to 6%, in dairy - 2-9%.But the main source of trans fats in our diet are various oil substitutes obtained by industrial methods. So, in soft margarines of trans fats it is contained up to 17%, in solid margarines used for baking - 20-40%, and in cooking fats their share reaches 46%.
Than trans fats
You can write a lot about the details of the most complicated process of lipid metabolism, their assimilation and processing in the human body. If you do not go into the subtleties, we can say briefly - trans fats block the enzymes of the digestive tract, preventing proper metabolism.
The whole organism is exposed to the action: for example, getting inside the cell, trans fat molecules close the transfer of power through the membrane inside the cell.
Of course, in fact, not everything is so schematically simple. Our body is very hardy, it has many protective functions that are not fully understood. Therefore, we, even using various harmful products, for a long time feel good and do not feel mortal danger. But in fact, negative processes are occurring in the body, and their effects slowly but surely accumulate. ..
Misfortunes and headaches are written off on the weather or fatigue from work. If we stop using trans fats, then through a short( or not very short, depending on the degree of poisoning) time, the body is cleaned of harmful substances. However, the consequences in the form of cholesterol plaques and other disorders in the vessels still remain.
Here are just some of the consequences of this:
- elevated blood pressure;
- type 2 diabetes( which does not depend on insulin);
- atherosclerosis;
- violation of the metabolism of fats and lipids;
- ischemic heart disease, the final stage of which is myocardial infarction.
In other words: with a change in the regulation of metabolism at the cellular level( where food and trans fats penetrate), pathological changes occur that lead to the appearance of various diseases.
What should I do?
Following the method from the opposite, we draw a conclusion: once "bad" products lead to pathologies and diseases, then rejecting them and switching to a full-fledged nutrition improves our state of health and we are recovering. However, this requires a complete rejection of "synthetic" food, careful planning of your diet for about two years!
First of all, it is necessary to exclude as much as possible artificial fats from your diet:
- do not buy on obsessive advertising of "light oils" and soft margarines! It is better to make sandwiches with regular butter, its calorific value is higher than a little, and there are much less harmful substances;
- do not use cooking fats for frying, prefer refined vegetable oil;
- cooking homemade cakes, avoid recipes that use margarine, or replace it with butter( most recipes are quite acceptable);
- choosing ready-made products and convenience foods in the store, carefully study their composition. Especially be careful when buying confectionery products and baking( cakes, pastries, cookies, cakes, etc.), dough, meat semi-finished products. Discard the purchase of products containing margarine.
It's also worth noting ketchup, mayonnaise, chips and other fatty and "artificial" products.