Read the
magazine
story to find out more.
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![Photo: Part of a food label showing trans fat.](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20090509201842im_/http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2009/label090415.jpg)
It does not appear that palm oil would be a good
substitute for trans fats, according to new research. Label courtesy of
FDA.
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![For further reading](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20090509201842im_/http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/graphics/For-further-reading.gif)
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Palm Oil Not a Healthy Substitute for Trans Fats
By Rosalie Marion
Bliss
April 15, 2009 Manufacturers are now required to
state on food labels the amount of trans fatty acids, also called hydrogenated
fats, in packaged foods. Both trans fatty acids and saturated fatty acids are
associated with elevated heart disease risk factors.
Now, authors of an Agricultural Research
Service (ARS)-supported study have addressed the question of whether palm
oil, whose functional characteristics are similar to trans fats, would be a
good substitute for partially hydrogenated fat.
Trans fatty acids (trans fats) are created during a hardening process called
hydrogenation, which serves to make oils suitable for use in products that
require solid fats, such as baked goods and breakfast bars. The clinical trial
was designed to compareon heart disease riskthe effect of four
different oils as they are commonly consumed.
Lead scientist
Alice
H. Lichtenstein and colleagues conducted the study. She is with the
Jean
Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at
Tufts University in Boston, Mass.
Fifteen adults, both male and female, volunteered for the study. Their
levels of LDL "bad" cholesterol were moderately high at 130
milligrams per deciliter of blood or above, and all were aged 50 or older. They
each consumed each of four 35-day experimental diets. The fats tested were
partially hydrogenated soybean oil (moderately high in trans fat), palm oil
(high in saturated fat), canola oil (high in monounsaturated fat), and soybean
oil (high in polyunsaturated fat).
The findings suggest that consuming either of the diets enriched with
equivalent high amounts of palm oil or partially hydrogenated soybean oil would
result in similar unfavorable levels of LDL cholesterol and apolipoprotein B (a
protein, attached to fat particles, that carries bad cholesterol throughout the
bloodstream). That's when compared to consuming either of the diets enriched
with canola and soybean oils high in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats,
respectively.
The results suggest that palm oil would not be a good substitute for trans
fats by the food industry, the authors wrote.
Read
more about this research in the April 2009 issue of Agricultural Research
magazine.
ARS is the principal intramural scientific research agency of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture.