How do trans fats actually harm my health?
Scientific research has shown that trans fats are 2 to 10 times worse than saturated fats in their overall impact on heart health. TFAs in trans fats cause havoc to your circulating blood lipids and lipoproteins, impair the function of the inner wall ("endothelium") of the arteries, and help white blood cells called "monocytes" cross the endothelium to become nasty devouring "phagocytes"- key players in the forming of fatty streaks which subsequently mature into ugly artery-clogging fatty plaques!
Scientists explain that a daily intake of a few grams of TFAs can lead to an incorpoartion of these nasty fatty acid species in the cells involved in heart rhythm regulation, with a subsequent decrease in the threshold for irregular heart rhythms ("cardiac arrhythmias")- a major cause of sudden cardiac death!
As if that's not bad enough, large population-based prospective studies have implicated TFAs to play a role in chronic diseases such as cancers of the breast and colon, and type 2 diabetes!
Beware pregnant and lactating women out there; TFAs can interfere with essential fatty acid metabolism, impairing the formation of the respective omega-6 and omega-3 long-chain PUFA derivatives. As a result, at least two "bad" things can happen: i) the foetus does not get enough of these essential long-chain PUFA from the maternal blood and may be born with a smaller head circumference! and ii) the quality of breastmilk is adversely affected, depriving the breastfed infant of adequate long-chain PUFA nutrition.
