What are fats?
- Fats are essentially chains of carbons.
- There are good fats and bad fats.
Saturated and unsaturated fats
- When we say that fats are saturated, it’s because they are saturated of H atoms.
- If you remove 2 H atom, you have a double bond between 2 C atoms and it becomes a monounsaturated fat.
- If you have several double bonds, you have polyunsaturated fat.
- Saturated fats are solid at room temperature.
- Unsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature.
- Usually, fats in its liquid form (e.g. vegetal oil) are good fats.
- Usually, fats in its solid form (e.g. butter, shortening) are bad fats.
What are trans fats?
- trans fats are unsaturated fat (but still bad).
- they are called ‘trans’ because the 2 H atoms of the double bond are in a ‘trans’ position, or in opposition.
- We find trans fats mostly in hydrogenated oils (which is found in a large quantity of food products).
- artificial trans fats have good conservation properties (they remain stable when heat goes up, as opposed to liquid fats)
- the food industry liked it because they were unsaturated (thus thought to be not harmful) and had good conservation properties
- there are also trans fats of a natural origin, e.g. in dairy products, red meats.
- Trans fats do not change the total amount of cholesterol: they increase the bad cholesterol and decrease the good cholesterol. That makes them really bad because there is strong evidence that bad cholesterol increases heart disease risks.
- Chocolate and butter are sources of trans fats.
Food industry
- Unilever was the first to eliminate trans fats from all their products and acted as a leader and convinced other companies to do the same, in order to avoid bad press on their business sector.
- 2006: Canada is the first country to force the labeling of trans fats on all food products (an initiative of the NPD)
The Stampler 
