Trans fat is never good news, no matter how good the food may taste. Everybody likes the taste of fried food, of pizza and even coffee creamer. Plus, they can last days, even weeks on shelves or in your fridge. However, all these treats contain loads of trans fats that ate extremely harmful to your body.
A new study looked deeper into the matter and revealed that the risk of dying from any cause is 34 percent higher for people who consume trans fats than for the ones who don’t.
While the fact that trans fat is bad for our heart and blood is not necessarily breaking news, until now, an association was not found between various diseases and saturated fats. Most health experts would warn us that trans fat increases the level of our LDL, also known as the “bad cholesterol”.
A team of researchers from the McMaster University showed that saturated fats are not necessarily dangerous, but trans fats are.
“For years, everyone has been advised to cut out fats. Trans fats have no health benefits and pose a significant risk for heart disease, but the case for saturated fat is less clear. said lead study author Russell de Souza, who is an assistant professor at the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics from the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine.
He also added that the aim of his study was not to promote a higher intake of saturated fats but only that his team of researchers didn’t find any connection evidence that it might lead to various health problems.
Souza and the other researchers involved in the study looked at the data collected by 50 other papers that analyzed the link between trans fat or saturated fat and poor health. While saturated fat posed no health risks, trans fat was associated with higher likelihood to develop heart disease, type 2 diabetes and suffer from stroke.
Moreover, if a person consumes trans fats in excess, he or she is 34 percent more exposed to premature death for any reason and has 21 percent higher chance of suffering from heart disease.
The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) has already informed food producers that artificial trans fat must be removed from their products by 2018.
The American Heart Association recommends we don’t consume more than 13 grams saturated fats every day, to avoid having high cholesterol. In spite of that, after reading this study, they might change their minds.
The results of the study were published in the British Medical Journal, on Wednesday, August 12.
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