"process of adding a hydrogen atom to a fatty acid, thus reducing the number of double bonds to create a malleable mixture of fat that stays solid at room temperature and can not be metabolized, causing it to accrete in the tissues."
Stephen Colbert breaks down why trans fats are bad for you. Sanjay Gupta isn't a quarter of the health reporter Colbert is.
The FDA wants to ban trans fats. But people don't generally know what trans fats are or how much damage they can do.
While the argument for the FDA doing something anything that might improve people's health and their food supply, trans fats might not be the best place to start. If the FDA can ban trans fats, the agency can take on other issues.
The Heritage Foundation is defending those "judeo-Crisco values" (Colbert joke): "even if they eat so much trans fat that they in fact do have greater health risks, this is their personal and informed choice."
Well, the FDA allows products to advertise "0 grams of trans fat" and still have trans fat, as long as the product has less than ½ gram of trans fat PER SERVING. Unless you know to look for "partially hydrogenated" oils, you aren't informed.
Tucker Carlson assumes trans fats are in foods "because they're delicious." Colbert notes that "trans fats don't have any particular taste."
"That's America's favorite flavor," smiled Colbert.
To answer Carlson's theoretical question, trans fats are in foods to make them more shelf-stable so they'll last longer. As for taste, not that Carlson is correct, but we would offer up that McDonald's French fries weren't the same after switching to oils without trans fat. Not sure if the oil was the cause since we don't know the other contributing factors.
And as much as I like to avoid trans fat, I do eat fake bacon bits that has partially hydrogenated oil. But I try not to eat too much in one sitting.
Saturated, unsaturated, polyunsaturated, trans fats: most people don't pay attention. Look at what happens when you show a "fat-free" food.
We need fat to survive, good fat preferably. Trans fats? We don't need them, and they aren't good for us. I don't miss the old McDonald's French fries, and if the taste is modified in the fake bacon bits, I can live with that.
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