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Keep away from those fatty acids!

By Virginia Lester

Have you noticed how long it takes to shop? The information overload regarding total fat, saturated fat, unsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat was complicated enough. Now the FDA is requiring food products be labeled with their transfat content.

At times this may be overwhelming and time consuming. What does all this mean? The worst fat from the standpoint of your health and longevity are transfats. They affect your lipid profile: they raise your LDL (bad cholesterol) and lower your HDL (good cholesterol).

Transfats are formed during the hydrogenation process of treating unsaturated fats to produce the solid products of margarine and vegetable shortening. Liquid or semi-liquid margarine or oil have approximately 0.5 percent transfat, while other products have a much higher content: soft margarine has 7.4 percent, shortening has 9.9 percent and stick margarine has the same as butter at 20.1 percent.

The Nurses Health Study included over 122,000 nurses who were studied over a 20 year period. The mortality rate was higher with margarine. The National Cholesterol Education Program is focusing on the high sugar and fat content in the fast food diets of the youth of today. The process of atherosclerosis (plaque deposits along the artery walls) begins in childhood and is related to coronary heart disease in adults. Although, by far, the largest portion of blood cholesterol is manufactured in the liver, it is better to try to limit our fat intake. As little as a five to ten percent transfat decrease in our diet will have an impact on our health. Start early to control your cholesterol and prevent the need for medication to lower your levels later in life.

Now that the FDA is responsible for labeling transfats, it is our responsibility to be on guard when we purchase our foods. The best defense against coronary heart disease and high cholesterol is to check the labels first before buying. Until all the labels are changed, you must be guided by the total fat content.

(Virgina Lester, MSN, ARNP is the nurse practitioner at the Aydon Wellness Clinic at the Benson Road firehall. The center is open Tuesdays through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Call 945-2580 for more information.)

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