As a custodian of global health, the WHO has over the years embarked on various initiatives not only to find solution to such infectious and communicable diseases, but also to educate the world on preventive measures for chronic diseases including heart ailments, cancer, diabetes and the like. Many studies have shown that diets do play an important role in the development of such chronic diseases. So every few years, the WHO has come out with recommendations on a healthy lifestyle to ward off such diseases including proper dietary guidelines. Such recommendations are often always used by member countries as policy instruments on health. In April, the WHO came out with one such report. An earlier report released in 1989 was not well received especially from the tobacco and sugar business.

The report then came out with strong recommendations against smoking and high intake of sugar. Fat is the other category of food products which has always been singled out for mention. This is because excessive intake of fats have been found to give rise to cardiovascular diseases. However, while in the 1989 report the focus was on saturated fats, this time around the WHO has produced disturbing evidence on the deleterious nature of trans fats. These are fats produced when soft oils like soyabean and sunflower are partially hydrogenated in the manufacture of products like margarine, bakery fats and allied products.

In this latest report which was prepared by a fairly extensive expert consultation comprising 30 international high caliber nutritionists, the WHO has come out with serious warning on the dangers of trans fats. For the first time, this world body has concluded that trans fatty acids are injurious to the heart. In fact, the report has produced convincing evidence on the fact that trans fat is much worse than saturated fats. While saturated fats raises both the bad and the good cholesterol, trans fats raises the bad Low Density Lipo-protein (LDL) and suppress the good High Density Lipo-protein (HDL) cholesterol, making it even worse. They have now recommended that the intake of trans fats in the diet should be restricted to less than 1 per cent of the energy consumed by the body which works out to be less than 2 to 3 grams a day.

Earlier, the Institute of Medicine, US Food and Nutrition Board came out with an even stricter intake limit for trans fat. They called for "zero tolerance" of trans meaning trans fats should be avoided at all costs.

Such conclusions by the WHO will obviously have implications on the international trade in oils and fats. In countries like the US and Brazil where soyabean and sunflower oils are available in large quantities, it is common practice for makers of margarine and shortening to use such partially hydrogenated oils as the hard fat ingredient.

Now that trans fat is hailed as a dangerous precursor of heart ailments, such practice is hard pressed for change. In fact lately many food manufacturers have started to look at alternatives to circumvent the trans route.

Of course, for those in the palm oil industry, such development should come as a pleasant surprise. This is because in the manufacture of such solid fats products like margarine and shortening, the only way to produce zero trans products is to use palm oil as the source of hard fats, in place of partially hydrogenated soyabean or sunflower oils. This is basically the reason why in countries like the EU, China, Pakistan, Egypt and India where palm oil is widely consumed, their solid fat items are virtually free of trans.

There is no doubt that this latest announcement on the dangers of trans fats by such international body as the WHO will have far reaching implications on the fate of partially hydrogenated oils. Palm oil is set to reap tremendous commercial benefits from such finding. If all these years, palm oil has been at the receiving end of much ill advised ridiculing by the soft oils, it looks like this new revelation has put palm oil in a truly envious position. Palm oil may well be having the last laugh!

The writer is Director of Marketing and Promotion, Malaysian Palm oil promotion council, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Trans fatty acids and risk of coronary heart diseasew

Trans fatty acids are either manufactured or found naturally in products from ruminant animals. As it became known that saturated fats cause increased levels of blood cholesterol, the food industry was pressured to replace saturated fats in foods. However, polyunsaturated fats are unstable and go rancid at room temperature, so a process called hydrogenation is used to prevent this, which produces trans fatty acids.

Current trans fatty acid intake contributes between 0.5 per cent and 2.1 per cent to total energy intake in Western Europe.

Studies show a two per cent increase in trans fatty acid intake increases the risk of coronary heart disease by approximately 25 per cent. It is therefore advisable to follow the current recommendation that trans fatty acids contribute no more than 2 per cent of energy (about 5 g a day).

Trans fatty acids are found in natural foods such as milk, cheese, eggs and meat; in manufactured products such as oils, margarine and baked goods; and in deep-fried foods. Although studies found that the effect of trans fatty acids from manufactured and natural sources to be similar, the majority of trans fatty acids are consumed from either manufactured or deep fried foods. It would therefore be prudent to reduce consumption of these to decrease the risk of coronary heart disease. Trans fatty acids are not listed on food ingredient labels, but hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated oils are, and so these are the ingredients to look for and either avoid or use sparingly.

Source: http://www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/booth/hliving/tfachd.html