Fats – the good, the bad and the UGLY

Udo Erasmus wrote an excellent book called “Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill”. Fats can be divided into three categories: The good, the bad and the UGLY!

Ugly fats are fats, that can do you real harm. Why is this? Every cell in our body is like a box. And the wall of this box is made out of essential fatty acids and proteins. It is like building a house: If you don't have good building material, the house will not be of good quality.

If your diet contains “ugly” fats, your body will have to use those as cheap alternatives for essential fatty acids to build new cells. The problem with the ugly fats is, that they can make the cell walls rigid. Rigid cells cannot communicate well with other cells – they do not function well.

So what are these “ugly” fats? They were originally created as a substitute for butter in the 1800s. Margarine is made by hydrogenation of oils in the presence of a nickel catalyst. The high temperatures used in the process tend to “flip” the structure of some of the oils into the “trans” form, which results in partially hydrogenated “trans fats”.

Not only do trans fatty acids provide no known benefit to human health; there is a clear link between trans fatty acid intake and an increase in LDL cholesterol (bad cholesterol). Trans fats also lower levels of HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol), and therefore increase the risk of coronary heart disease.

The other problem is, that the oils commonly used are Omega-6 fats, which are pro-inflammatory, especially if consumed in big amounts. They also decrease the beneficial effect of the good Omega-3 fats.

According to Wikipedia there are no brands of spreads on sale in the UK which contain partially hydrogenated oils. But to my knowledge this is no guarantee that these fats are not used as ingredients in products.

The Food Authority of Australia also states that “commercially produced fats such as margarine spreads, fats used in deep frying and fats used in pastry doughs, are likely to contain some trans fats.”

When you go shopping next time, why not check the labels for words like “margarine”, “hydrogenated”, “trans fat” and “vegetable fat”. I do not touch foods with these ingredients.

Are you ready for an "oil change"? 

Have a healthy week,

Dr Oliver Frey, MD MRCGP