Fats are substances made up of the combination of fatty acids and glycerin . They are present in animal and plant tissues and are very important in food since they enable energy production, although excessive consumption is harmful.
It is possible to differentiate between unsaturated fats (formed with unsaturated fatty acids ) and saturated fats (formed with saturated fatty acids). Among unsaturated fats, in turn, we can find monounsaturated fats , polyunsaturated fats and trans fats .
Trans fats are usually generated from the hydrogenation of oils , although they also appear naturally - but in small quantities - in milk and lamb and pork, for example. It is a substance considered harmful to health .
Hydrogenation is a process that, by adding hydrogen , transforms an oil into a solid fat . In this way, the durability of food is increased and its texture and flavor can also be improved. This is why many industrially processed food products, such as snacks , cookies and margarines , contain trans fats.
In addition to improvements in texture and flavor, the objective of the oil hydrogenation process was for the resulting fats to be more similar to those of animal origin. Trans fats that are obtained naturally are generated in the chamber that some species of polygastric ruminants (such as cows, goats and sheep) have for fermentation, which is known as the rumen .
According to José Manuel García Almeida , one of the members of the Spanish Society for the Study of Obesity (also known by its acronym, Seedo ), trans fats fulfill several functions, such as the metabolism of cells, intervention in the inflammatory processes and the organic structuring of membranes, among others.
According to various studies, trans fats increase the level of bad cholesterol and, therefore, increase the risks of suffering from coronary heart disease or a stroke. They also increase the risk of diabetes and obesity , while minimizing the level of good cholesterol.
Nutritionists emphasize that the body does not need trans fats. Therefore, the ideal is to eradicate its consumption or limit it so that these fats represent less than 1% of the daily calories ingested. One of the reasons for their bad reputation is that the human body cannot synthesize them, although their metabolization and absorption are similar to those of unsaturated fatty acids.
At least three organizations of great international importance strongly oppose the consumption of trans fats: the Danish Nutrition Council , the American Heart Association and the World Health Organization suggest that we reduce calories of this type to less than one percent.
Having said all this, it is difficult to believe that trans fats have enjoyed such popularity, and that even today they are still valid in the market. But the reason is that at the time they became popular because they were presented as an ideal product to compensate for the damage that saturated fats caused us. In a matter of a few decades, this conception was completely reversed.
Currently, given that it is no longer possible to sustain this false benefit of trans fats, their continuity in the market is due to their advantages in terms of flavor stabilization and prolonging the consumption period of food products. For precooked foods, the use of trans fats is very convenient. In an ideal world, consumers who wish to avoid them would read labels carefully; However, the lack of regulation that forces manufacturers to indicate its presence in products means that many of them hide it.