trans fat question



S

Slowhand

Guest
Hi all,

I have a newbie question for you (I am an economist,
and have nothing more than a novice's knowledge of
basic nutrition, so apologies for my ignorance!). I am
hoping one of you gurus can help me out.

I am working with a database from a dietary survey.
It lists grams of food consumed by individuals and
for each food item, and also provides the total fat content
per gram of the food, total saturated fat content,
total mono and poly unsaturated fat content, etc.

Problem is, it does not provide direct information on
trans fat content per gram of the food, and I am
interested in knowing this. Would it make
sense for me to infer the trans fat content as:
total fat - (saturated fat + monounsaturated +
polyunsaturated)? Or is there some complication
that blows this out of the water?

I would much appreciate any insights.

Thanks in advance.
 
Consider this: if it were not for processed food, "trans fat" would
not be an issue. CLA is a trans fat produced by many animals and is
sold as a health supplement, yet chemically speaking, it is undeniably
a "trans fat." It's a worthless topic unless terms and phrases are
defined with scientific pre
 
montygram wrote:
:: Consider this: if it were not for processed food, "trans fat" would
:: not be an issue. CLA is a trans fat produced by many animals and is
:: sold as a health supplement, yet chemically speaking, it is
:: undeniably a "trans fat." It's a worthless topic unless terms and
:: phrases are defined with scientific pre

Actually studies have found mixed results about the health effects of CLA.
Some of them are posivite, some negative from the point of health.

--
Juhana
 
> interested in knowing this. Would it make
> sense for me to infer the trans fat content as:
> total fat - (saturated fat + monounsaturated +
> polyunsaturated)? Or is there some complication
> that blows this out of the water?
>
> I would much appreciate any insights.


It won't work like this.
"Total Fat" contains more than just triglycerides, thus, if you substract
saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (trans fats are
containing either monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fatty acids with a
trans configuration, so they might be in there already) the rest will not be
trans fats but, very probably mostly other fat soluable food components.
 
> Consider this: if it were not for processed food, "trans fat" would
> not be an issue. CLA is a trans fat produced by many animals and is
> sold as a health supplement, yet chemically speaking, it is undeniably
> a "trans fat."


As the name already says: CLA has conjugated double bonds thus it is
chemically very different from "ordinary trans fats" which have isolated
double bonds or (for most) just one at all.

But I agree in so far that the definition of trans fatty acids is not
exclusive and also does contain CLA.
 
montygram wrote:
>
> Consider this: if it were not for processed food, "trans fat" would
> not be an issue. CLA is a trans fat produced by many animals and is
> sold as a health supplement,


As a fat loss supplement sure, but not as a health promoting supplement.
For one thing, CLA increases lipid peroxidation by 50%:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15277146

so you should be ranting against it.

> yet chemically speaking, it is undeniably
> a "trans fat." It's a worthless topic unless terms and phrases are
> defined with scientific pre


Precision was that? Trans fat is a precise term when it is the presence
of a trans double bond in the fat that has the health implications.

MattLB
 
-but wasn't there a study showing reduced cancer rates with CLA?


"MattLB" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> montygram wrote:
> >
> > Consider this: if it were not for processed food, "trans fat" would
> > not be an issue. CLA is a trans fat produced by many animals and is
> > sold as a health supplement,

>
> As a fat loss supplement sure, but not as a health promoting supplement.
> For one thing, CLA increases lipid peroxidation by 50%:
>
>

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15277146
>
> so you should be ranting against it.
>
> > yet chemically speaking, it is undeniably
> > a "trans fat." It's a worthless topic unless terms and phrases are
> > defined with scientific pre

>
> Precision was that? Trans fat is a precise term when it is the presence
> of a trans double bond in the fat that has the health implications.
>
> MattLB
 
> -but wasn't there a study showing reduced cancer rates with CLA?

There were a few.. this is one of them:

Corl BA, Barbano DM, Bauman DE, Ip C.
cis-9, trans-11 CLA derived endogenously from trans-11 18:1 reduces cancer
risk in rats.
J Nutr. 2003 Sep;133(9):2893-900
 
"MMu" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> It won't work like this.
> "Total Fat" contains more than just triglycerides, thus, if you substract
> saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats (trans fats are
> containing either monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fatty acids with a
> trans configuration, so they might be in there already) the rest will not

be
> trans fats but, very probably mostly other fat soluable food components.


Thanks, that's most helpful.