Trans Fats, Cholesterol, Fiber, Nutrition ~ More Questions

What’s a trans fat?

I read that trans fats lower HDL, but what are they exactly?

Here’s what this website says…
http://www.personalbest.com/yourhealth/library/trans_fat.html

Trans fatty acids are formed during hydrogenation, a process that turns liquid oil into a solid product such as margarine. Hydrogenation helps stabilize fat, and improves the texture and shelf life of processed foods.
Hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fat, which produces trans fatty acids, is widely used in deep-fried foods, such as French fries, as well as many commercial, packaged chips, cookies and crackers.
Full hydrogenation produces more saturated fat, but does not create trans fat. Note: The term hydrogenated oil can refer to either process on ingredients labels.
Very tricky…It looks as though if it says hydrogenated oil, I don’t really know if that means trans fats…

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/trans-fat-free-food-whats-the-truth

This website explains that not all trans fat foods are healthy. They also say that it’s the artificially created trans fats that are a problem not the naturally occurring ones. Meats and dairy contain natural trans fats.

Both websites say that if a product has up to .5g of trans fats, it can be labeled as trans fat free.

More Articles
http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=52186
http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/1031002327.html
http://nutrition.about.com/od/askyournutritionist/f/cholesterol.htm


Why does fiber increase HDL?

http://bodyecology.com/07/05/31/too_much_fiber.php
Although this article doesn’t specifically tell us why fiber increases HDL, it does indicate that fiber cleanses the digestive tract. HDL’s are little cholesterol cleaners, so maybe some component of fiber is an HDL.

I have to give up. I can't find specific answers to this question.

More Articles about Fat and Cholesterol

OH! I like this one. Every wonder why we get conflicting data about what is good for us.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0854/is_3_24/ai_n18611910/pg_2

Here’s a good overall nutrition article.
http://www.healthynfit.com/HealthyHeart.shtml

Back to does eating foods with cholesterol increase your cholesterol…

I don’t know why they can’t write these articles in plain English. If you can manage to get through the article, it indicates that someone who eats foods with cholesterol probably also eats other fats that increase LDL and lower HDL.
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/80/4/855

Here’s another good article on fat and cholesterol. It gives some concise answers to questions I had earlier about cholesterol, fat and weight loss.
http://www.torrancememorial.org/dietary.fat.and.cholesterol_134.tmmc?PHPSESSID=0e95bfb.

More well-known inspiring woman over 40…

Oprah Winfrey
Mary Engelbreit