I Can’t Believe It’s Not Atherogenic

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Atherogenic

Deciding which fats to include in the diet has a potential to drive anyone crazy. For decades, consumers were duped into believing that margarine was healthier than butter, only to find out that the trans fats they contained were at least as bad for us as the saturated butterfat it was supposed to replace. It just goes to show that when one thing replaces something that is supposedly bad for you, it doesn’t mean that the replacement is good for you. It turns out that trans fats increase the risk for atherosclerosis even more than saturated fats do.

Trans fats are used in food processing to improve shelf life or affect the texture of food. They also occur when oils are heated for frying foods. Beginning in 2006, labels will include information about trans fats along with saturated and total fats. Any amount of trans fat is probably too much. Any time the words “partially hydrogenated _____ oil” appear on the label, trans fats are inside.

Several butter substitutes are now available made with polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats. The three below have all had experimental evidence of helping to lower LDL cholesterol levels. These are widely avaliable and most can be used for cooking.

Smart Balance is my pick here. Personally, my total cholesterol came down from 299 to 240 before I lost about 40 pounds, largely after changing from margarine to Smart Balance. It tastes closest to butter, with a similar mouthfeel. It can be used in place of butter in most recipes, browns better than the others, and is the least expensive of the three, at 7 cents per ounce. A leading consumer magazine agreed that Smart Balance was tastiest of all of the trans fat free butter substitutes.

Take Control is intermediate in price and performance (taste and cooking), but is a decent second choice if Smart Balance is not stocked by your grocer. At 24 cents per ounce, it is significantly more expensive, considering one pays more for lower quality product.

At 36 cents per ounce, Benecol is the most expensive, but one cooking magazine rated it lowest in taste. Benecol was the first of the trans fat free butter substitutes that could be used for cooking. It is also softer and easiest to spread, but the taste is more chemical and artificial than either of the above substitutes. If all of the other available butter substitues have trans fats, give it a try, but don’t lump the others in with this one.

Avoiding trans and saturated fats is part of healthy living. Stay away from fried foods, hard margerine, processed snack foods, high-fat dairy products, animal fats, and commercial baked goods.

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