TTC - Eating Trans Fats (Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils) can REDUCE female fertility A LOT

[SofiaAmes]

Has anyone seen this article about a recent scientific study about trans fats (hydrogenated vegetable oils). It seems that even a few grams (what you might get in a serving of breakfast cereal or a donut) of trans fats can increase a woman's INfertility by a HUGE amount. I would highly recommend reading the ingredients of all prepackaged foods. When my father (scientist) started warning me about hydrogenated vegetable oils, I was amazed by how many things contained them. eg Most store bought baked goods, cookies, crackers, margarine, dips, spreads, breakfast cereals, preprepared dinners, fried foods at most fast food places, soups, drinks....

Good luck to all of you. (I have told my story here before, but in a nutshell....miracles do happen....my dh had a vasectomy reversal which he was told was completely unsuccessful...no sperm at all. However despite his SUPPOSED lack of sperm, a few months later I became pregnant with our son and then two years later after only 1 month of trying, pregnant with our daughter.) Doctors do make mistakes.

I think hydrogenated veg oil is banned in some EU countries- Norway or somewhere [? Honeyapple needs to get facts straight] anyway I imagine they will soon be banned here. Lets hope so.

If a product contains hydrogenated vegetable oil (hydrogenation causes the really harmful kind of trans fats) it MUST say so on the label.

London..very good rules of thumb.

That's exactly it Ready.You are getting the hang of it.

Here's a link to my father's website. I haven't actually inspected the website, so I don't know how good it is...get most of my info on the phone in between promising my mother that I will go to bed earlier and take better care of myself (who would thought I was 43!).

There are two different schools of thought in the nutrition world...those who believe in vitamins even with a healthy diet and those who don't. There seems to be some good scientific arguments for both camps. I'm in the take the vitamins camp, because it's my dad afterall! There are vitamins that can be harmful if you take too much of them, so if you take more than a normal multi-vitamin, do some research on what you are taking.

I too cook with olive oil, but put butter on my bread and insist on my baked goods having butter (not a baker myself, so can't claim to cook with it .

Blimey SA!

I bake only w/real butter, sugar, eggs, etc.

Also in the take vitamins camp, although only a multivit.

I sort of class trans-fats in the same league as artificial sweetners - yuk.

crikey... doesn't anyboday eat chocolate every now and then?? I mean, I don't have it very often... but I'd be lying if I said I never had it.

I eat lots.

I just don't buy the ones w/trans-fats.

So which chocolate should I allow myself and which is out of bounds?? I am relying on you all now, cos you know so much more than me!

I thought Flora was good... it said "no hydrogenated oils, low in saturates, high in folic acid"... I was duped

Chocolate is fine and so is Flora. Neither have hydrogenated fats. Neither will actively make you thin though!

I don't have choc very often at all. When I do have choc it's usually milk chocolate though.

Phew... glad someone said Flora is ok!

ok I am no fan of trans fats.

Has anyone pointed out though that they occur "naturally" in dairy?

To put it into context milk is about 4-5% trans fats while margarine is more like 60%

however this does suggest that our bodies are really not designed to process trans fats. They CAN process them, but it does apparently take longer.

as for chocolate...its a very highly saturated fat, thats why it tastes so good...it has a melting point close to the temperature in your mouth so...melts in the mouth...

what i am trying to work out is why trans fats are worse for you than saturated fats. I cannot get my head round why this should be.

The kind of transfats formed by the hydrogenation process are very different to naturally occurring trans fats. Those are probably no worse than other saturated fats. The synthetic trans fats are, however, very bad for you.

a lot of cheap chocolate contains trans fats, btw, or certainly used to...

also-they are dairy so contain some trans fats.

oh and if you heat polyunsaturated oil you produce trans fats.

ah its a problem isn't it?

eh?

how are they different?

Chocolate bars often do, if they contain biscuit or praline filling (picnic, twix), but decent quality chocolate should be ok. I think the big chocolate companies are working to eliminate chemical trans fats completely.

The main source of these synthetic trans fatty acids is hydrogenation - an industrial process in which oil is heated to a high temperature (typically 260-270ºC) under pressure and in the presence of a metal catalyst such as nickel, Rayner's nickel (a nickel / aluminium alloy) platinum, palladium or cobalt, then hydrogen is introduced. The catalyst is normally present in the form of a fine powder and one health concern is that a small quantity of it must remain in the oil. The hydrogen is absorbed into the fat molecules, changing its molecular structure and its chemical composition as it converts the unsaturated oil to a more saturated form.

However hydrogenation, as well as making fats more saturated, also causes geometric isomerisation in unsaturated vegetable oils such as soy, corn or canola / rapeseed oils - that is, the fat molecules to change from one shape to another, such as from the cis to the trans configuration. This is partly the result of high temperature, but also the result of direct molecular excitation during hydrogenation, for example when ALA is hydrogenated to linoleic acid, or when linoleic acid is hydrogenated to oleic / elaidic acid.

Must say, that is not written by me!!

we were told back in 1991 in NZ that hydrogentated fats and a poor diet prior to age 23 caused my fathers fatal heart attack, due to hardened arteries and massive MI
Was only news I needed to radically change how I ate...

this is all absolutely true, yes...

still occurs in the stomachs of cows though! becuase of the high temperatures there, IIRC.

I am using the dairy stuff to substantiate the idea that we are not designed to process trans fats, btw. We have only been eating dairy (as adults) for around 4000 years.

I am struggling to find evidence that "naturally" occuring trans fats are better than hydrogenated ones. A lot of people are certianly saying it, including various dairy farming organisations . Am not finding much in the way of links to actual studies though. Will perhaps hit books later.

I do know that there is an arguement that no appreciable effect is seen simply because we eat far far less transfat through dairy consumption.

Two problems with the conversion to ALA arguement. 1. just cos it can be converted doesn't mean it is especially easy to do so

1. so, theoretically, surely, can any fatty acid with 18 carbons, including the most common one, elaidic acid

All this should not distract from the fact that trans fats are a bloody bad idea and the reason they are used so widely is to maximise the profits of food giants at the expense of our health.

(should be most common trans fat, eladic acid.)

Ok, I am thoroughly depressed now. Does anyone know what oil I should use when baking bread? I currently use vegetable oil I can't use olive oil as the taste is wrong, can I use butter in a breadmachine.

Can I just say I love biscuits, and all this talk of how bad they are is making me sad.