Before you got to the supermarket to shop for groceries, you should read this little chemistry lesson because you are the victim of marketing fraud (deception) in the packaging and marketing of prepared foods, even products you have bought and trusted for years.

Fat molecules are made of carbon chains with hydrogen atoms attached. They have empty spaces (called double bonds) on one side so they curve. The molecule has a fatty head and an acid tail. When these molecules are missing hydrogen atoms on one side they are called "unsaturated".

Essential fats
Essential fats are unsaturated (some hydrogen missing) and are curved, some examples include:

• Omega 3
• Omega 6

Essential fats can't clump to form clots - they remain liquid but can combine with saturated fats to make the phospholipids that make up cell membranes and allow the flow of nutrients to and from cells.

These essential fats help transport oxygen to lungs to make the hemoglobin of red cells and help suck oxygen into cells. Essential fats reduce body fat, enhance metabolism, regulate body functions and increase insulin efficiency.

Your body does not make essential fats and must get them from food or by supplement. There is plenty of Omega 6 in our food but Omega 3 is in short supply.

Saturated fat
When a molecule has hydrogen atoms filling the empty spaces it is saturated and straight. Saturated fat is a stearic acid.

Trans fats
Trans fats are made by hydrogenation, a chemical process with heat that fills the double bond gaps with hydrogen atoms to create a straight saturated fat. When the body tries to use these stiff molecules they cause membranes to leak and allow toxins to enter, thus allowing the development of cardio and cancer diseases.

Natural saturated fats
Natural saturated fats such as those from animals and dairy contain other nutrients the body can use. Artificial saturated fats (trans fats) do not have these nutrients unless added as a token for marketing purposes.

• Margarines can contain up to 60% trans fats
• Salad oils can contain up to 20% trans fats
• Vegetable cooking oils can contain up to 40% trans fats
• Baked goods can contain up to 30% trans fats.

Holland and Denmark and Switzerland have banned trans fats.

Trans Fats in Canada

Canada is in the process of restricting trans fats to 2% of total fat content in vegetable oils and soft margarines and to 5% of total fat content of all other foods. The deadline for this is Dec. 2009. If the food industry does not comply by that time, Health Canada will develop regulations (for the latest information, search the Health Canada website for "trans fats"). Canada has mandatory nutrition labeling began December 2005 which requires calories and content of 13 nutrients including trans fat. However the names have been changed to protect the guilty.

Look to avoid:

• refined oils
• hydrogenated
• modified
• fractionated and
• partially hydrogenated.

The Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation estimates that consumption of trans fats accounts for 3,000 - 5,000 deaths from heart disease annually. Trans fats decrease HDL (good) cholesterol and increase LDL (bad) cholesterol.

Warnings about TFA's began in 1955.

Hydrogenation was discovered in 1900 and hard vegetable oil (shortening) and margarine were invented. Most oils in the supermarket are heat-refined.

Food manufacturers use unpalitable inexpensive oils (cotton seed, palm, canola, or soy) that are usually genetically engineered. They are then refined (heated). This makes more money for the manufacturers and keeps the price down for the consumer.

When shopping, avoid refined:

• safflower
• peanut
• cottonseed
• soya
• grapeseed
• canola (rapeseed) and
• light olive oils*.

*Light olive oil is refined (heated) and has significant trans fat content. Light does not mean fewer calories. "Olivera" is not olive oil but is refined canola oil. Do not use margarine or vegetable shortening.

Choose unrefined cold-pressed oils.
This is not easy to do because there is no legislation to force companies to disclose that their product has been refined so they list "cold-pressed" or "expeller-pressed" but leave out "refined after extraction".

Butter
Butter is good for you. It is an excreted fat from a cow, not a meat fat. It has been in use for 1000's of years and used generously by me all my life. I am 5'3" and weigh 120 lbs so butter does not make a person fat, in my opinion.

Butter:
Consists of saturated fats, good mono-unsaturated fatty acids and traces of essential fatty acids. It is easily digested and puts no stress on the liver which can metabolize 2 heaping tablespoons (60 grams) of butter daily.

You can use butter in baking, frying and cooking, but keep the heat low! If it turns brown throw it out and start again. You can fry eggs in butter at low temperature. One way to keep temperature low is by using onions, vegetables or potatoes in a pan.

Recently I ate a commercial shortbread. One bite and I noted a coating of grease on the roof of my mouth - very unpleasant. I had bought these cookies for years so I took another bite. Ugh! Unhappy to say the least, I threw away the last half and reached for another kind of cookie. Oh no! It gave me the same effect. I then read the packages' ingredients - vegetable shortening. Then my daughter made some brownies with butter. The roof of my mouth was clear. Good old butter!

Olive oil
The other fat I use is olive oil. Usually olive oil comes from Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece. Some organic olive oils from California are good. French oils are light in taste - less sunny. Spain and Portugal's oils are yellow and heavy. Greek oil has a pronounced green color and is medium in weight. Italy's oils have the most variety in flavor and tend to be more green. When cold-pressed, the first press yields "extra virgin oil". The 2nd press gets "virgin oil". When heat is applied it increases acidity and is called "pure oil". The remainder is treated chemically and must be refined. It is called "light oil".

Olive oil is composed mainly of mono-unsaturated fatty acids (78%). It has some saturated fatty acids (11%) and poly-unsaturated fatty acids (11% - Omega 6) and has 0.5% poly-unsaturated Omega 3. To cook with it, keep temperature low because it smokes (or burns) at 210oC or 350oF. I use olive oil for baking, frying, salad dressings, in pasta's boiling water and as a bread dip, etc.

Flax oil
Flax oil is made entirely of poly-unsaturated and essential fatty acids and is oxygen-hungry so it goes rancid quickly. Do not heat. This is second to fish oil as a source of Omega 3. This oil has only been commercially produced since 1984. I haven't used it yet. It must be properly packaged to exclude light and oxygen. It can stay fresh for 6 months only. So check that it is cold pressed, unrefined and has a processing date. Do not buy it 6 months passed its processing date. Buy a small bottle so you can use it up readily. It smokes at 112oC. Use in cold dishes only. Not a universally liked taste.

Pumpkin seed oil
Pumpkin seed oil, cold-pressed and unrefined, makes a gourmet salad oil but is expensive and often mixed with lower priced oils. The genuine pure oil will not disperse when a drop is placed on lettuce leaves. It has a healing benefit for bladder weakness and urinary tract and preventing prostate enlargement. Use it cold.

Walnut oil
Walnut oil - use cold, on salads. It smokes at 112oC.

Coconut oil
Coconut oil used for 100's of years in natural state - unrefined. It is one of the best cooking oils. It kills germs. Coconut oil is stable and has a long shelf life. Available in Health Food Stores. It is easily digested and not stored in the body as fat. Coconut butter can be used as shortening in baking. Adds a nice flavor to stir frys and sauteed vegetables.

Canola oil
Canola oil is a product of genetically engineered rape seeds. Rapeseed contains erucic acid and is not fit for human consumption because it causes fibrotic heart lesions. Processed with high heat it is turned into trans fat and is called refined. It then causes a deficiency of Vitamin E and still has traces of erucic acid.

Unrefined oils that can be used for cooking baking and stir frying are:

Do not heat:

Fats Bibliography

I'm still reading and learning from:

• Dr. Julian Whitaker
• Dr. Udo Erasmus
• Dr. Michael Cogan
• Dr. Oz, "You Manual"
• Dr. Stoll "The Omega 3 Connection"
• "Prevention Magazine",
  July 1986
• Gursche, "Good Fats and Oils"
• Dr. Williams, "Alternatives"
• Dr. Andrew Weil
• Daily newspapers