February 10, 2005
Extremely Cranky Language Question
Just what the hell are the "trans fats" that Wheat Thins aren't supposed to have? What word was "trans" before it was debased into popular dietary slang?*
Transalpine? Perhaps this means they only contain Italian fat.
Transubstantiation? I never supposed that Christ really had all that much extra body fat to spare anyway.
Transcendental? Nabisco pledges that no sneaky fats will beam their astral bodies into your mouth from Delhi.
The World wonders.
(* As long time readers know, I hate this sort of thing. In a perfect world, for example, use of the term "carbs" would be a flogging offense.)
UPDATE: The O.F. provides the solution -
To answer your cranky question, "trans fats" are transmonounsaturated fatty acids (TFA's) produced through the hydrogenization of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA's), converting them from liquid oils into semisolid fats for use in commercially prepared foods. TFA's increase LDL (bad cholesterol) but also decrease HDL (good cholesterol). They have been associated with an increase in coronary heart disease. You would have known all this if you had taken organic/biochemistry!
Okay, so call 'em TFA's. Simple enough. By the bye, I did take organic, at least for a semester. Got a D and only managed that by promising to drop the course for the second semester.
UPDATE DEUX: Hey! It's a Chem Geek-Fest in the comments!
Posted by Robert at February 10, 2005 10:19 AMPoor Robbo. Do I need to do some LLama photoshopping to cheer you up?
Posted by: Sadie at February 10, 2005 10:57 AMTo answer your cranky question, "trans fats" are transmonounsaturated fatty acids (TFA's) produced through the hydrogenization of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA's), converting them from liquid oils into semisolid fats for use in commercially prepared foods. TFA's increase LDL (bad cholesterol) but also decrease HDL (good cholesterol). They have been associated with an increase in coronary heart disease. You would have known all this if you had taken organic/biochemistry!
Posted by: O.F. at February 10, 2005 11:01 AMtrans fats - the fats which are solid at room temp have hydrogens on all available spaces. that is, a carbon can handle four bonds, and if you have a string of them -C-C-C-C-C-C-C- then with-all-hydrogens it is -CH2-CH2-CH2-CH2-CH2-CH2-CH2-. And that's called 'saturated' fat, saturated with hydrogen. Lard is like that, and your own body fat, and the nice marbling in a steak. And 'unsaturated' fat means some of the carbons are multiply bonded to each other -CH2-CH=CH-CH=CH-CH2-. This tends to be liquid at room temp (safflower oil, corn oil, etc). And the way the bond in a natural product, synthesized in a plant, is configured is called 'cis' - it's asymmetrical. And 'cis' bonds are pretty clearly better for you than 'trans'.
But you can't use the vegetable oils (liquid at room temp) to make margarine, for example, which you can spread on your toast unless you add some more hydrogen to it. Or more to the point, Crisco, which is the kind of 'partially hydrogenated vegetable oil' which, when it shows up on an ingredient list, is how you can tell there is trans fat in a product.
When you add hydrogen to vegetable oils to make a Crisco-like product, you dont want to fully hydrogenate it, you want to partially hydrogenate it. Makes it smoother, less stiff at room temp (think about the difference between 60-degree butter and margarine - the margarine is easier to spread). BUT when you partially hydrogenate it, some of the existing 'cis' bonds get reconfigured to 'trans'. Hence, 'trans fat'.
Posted by: dave s at February 10, 2005 11:04 AM"Trans" is a word from chemistry (generally translated as "across from or opposite", denoting position of atoms in a molecule. "Cis" is it's "antonym" (generally meaning "next to, or close to").
Hey, it's greek to non-chemists, but it's better than the German equivalent of "zuzammen" and "entgegen"!
Posted by: G. Snedecor at February 10, 2005 11:08 AMOr, to quote Bug-eyed Earl from the RedMeat comics...
My girlfriend keeps tryin' to get me to eat more fish so's I can get me some of them mega-fatty acids in my system.
She says if you put fat and acid together like they do in fish, it's real good for your cholesterols.
Anyways, I hate fish... so for the time bein', I'm gonna stick to drinkin' me a daily glass of buttered lemonade.
Posted by: GekkoBear at February 10, 2005 02:29 PMI believe your helpful chem geeks have covered the mechanics. What also bears mentioning is that your body revolts against the unnatural addition of hydrogen - long term, it's like sprinkling your food with drain cleaner - and it's in about every frozen, preserved food there is.
Posted by: Bill from INDC at February 10, 2005 02:38 PMtodays NYT has covered this ground in great detail
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/13/business/13transfat.html?ei=5070&en=654372379b502542&ex=1108616400&pagewanted=print&position=
