12/03/2008 (Express Hospitality) - Despite overwhelming scientific evidence that trans fats are worse than saturated fats for cardiovascular health, most food manufacturers worldwide are reluctant to replace trans fat with natural semi-solid fats.

According to a study conducted by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board and the University of Alberta, Canada, it was reinstated that trans fats are bad for the heart and as such, it would be wiser to use the healthier alternative, palm fat, in food formulations.
 
As part of the study, 10 healthy normolipidaemic volunteers were randomly assigned to either a high saturated fat diet (palm fat-diet) or partially hydrogenated fat-diet (transdiet) for 30 days with subsequent crossover after a washout period of four weeks. Both test fats contributed to about two-thirds of the total fat which approximated 30 per cent of energy. While the palm fat-diet contained 11.5 per cent energy as 12-16 carbon saturated fatty acids (SFA, mainly as palmitic acid), 3.80 per cent energy polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA, mainly as linoleic acid) and no TFA, the trans-diet contained 5.9 per cent energy as 12-16 carbon SFA, 5.6 per cent energy as TFA (mainly elaidic acid) but a much higher content of PUFA (6.5 per cent energy).The trans diet is seen to exchange 5.6 per cent energy TFA for palmitic acid from palm olein.

Despite the much lower content of PUFA, the palm fat-diet performed better compared with the trans-diet as far as serum lipids and lipoproteins are concerned. This is consistent with results obtained in several other studies that compared palmitic acid-rich diets with TFA-rich diets. What is interesting is that the high trans-diet induced greater cholesterol fractional synthesis rates (FSR) - representing greater turn-over of the free cholesterol pool synthesised per day, compared to the palm fat-diet. This simply means that with the trans-diet, circulating lipoproteins have a heavier load of cholesterol.

Thus, it is advised to protect one's heart by being careful to avoid harmful hydrogenated fats when choosing processed foods and reach out for a palm-fat food product.