Why Are Trans Fats Bad For You? The Disturbing Truth

There is a lot of disagreement in nutrition. But one of the few things people actually agreeon is the unhealthy nature of trans fats.

Fortunately, consumption of these horrible fats has gone down in recent years and decades. But we are still eating way too much of them, which has various detrimental effects on health.

This article takes a detailed look at trans fats… what they are, why they’re so bad for you and how to avoid them.
What Are Trans Fats?

Trans fats, or trans fatty acids, are a form of unsaturated fat. Unlike saturated fats, which have no double bonds, unsaturated fats have at least one double bond in their chemical structure.

This double bond can be either in the “cis” or “trans” configuration, which relates to the position of hydrogen atoms around the double bond.

Basically… “cis” means “same side,” which is the most common structure. But trans fats have the hydrogen atoms on opposite sides, which can be a problem.

Natural vs Artificial Trans Fats
Natural trans fats have been part of the human diet ever since we began eating the meat and dairy from ruminant animals (such as cattle, sheep and goats).

Also known as ruminant trans fats, they are completely natural, formed when bacteria in the animal’s stomach digest grass.

These trans fats typically make up 2-5% of the fat in dairy products and 3-9% of the fat in beef and lamb.

However, dairy and meat eaters do not need to be concerned.

Several review studies have concluded that a moderate intake of ruminant trans fats does not appear to be harmful.

The most well-known ruminant trans fat is conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), which is believed to be beneficial by many and often consumed as a supplement.

It is found in relatively large amounts in dairy fat from grass-fed cows, which is extremely healthy and linked to a reduced risk of heart disease.

However… the same positive things can NOT be said about artificial trans fats, otherwise known as industrial trans fats or hydrogenated fats.

These fats are created by pumping hydrogen molecules into vegetable oils. This changes the chemical structure of the oil, turning it from a liquid into a solid.

This process involves high pressure, hydrogen gas, a metal catalyst and is highly disgusting… the fact that anyone would consider them suitable for human consumption is baffling.

After they have been hydrogenated, the vegetable oils have a much longer shelf life and are solid at room temperature, with a consistency similar to saturated fats.

Although humans have been consuming natural (ruminant) trans fats for a very long time, the same is NOT true for artificial trans fats… which are seriously harmful.

How to Avoid Trans Fats
Big improvements have been made in recent years, although trans fats are still present in many processed foods.

In the US, manufacturers can label their products “trans fat free” as long as there is less than 0.5 grams of trans fats per serving.

You can see how a few a “trans fat free” cookies could quickly add up to harmful amounts.

To make sure you’re avoiding trans fats, read labels. Don’t eat foods that have the words “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated” on the ingredients list.

Unfortunately, reading labels isn’t enough in all cases. Some processed foods (like regular vegetable oils) can contain trans fats, without any indication on the label or ingredients list.

One US study that analyzed store-bought soybean and canola oils found that 0.56% to 4.2% of the fats were trans fats, without any indication on the packaging.

In order to avoid trans fats, the best thing you can do is eliminate processed foods from your diet.Choose real butter instead of margarine, and olive oil or coconut oil instead of harmful vegetable oils… and make time for home-cooked meals instead of fast food.

Why You Need More Vitamin D

A few years ago, vitamin D was nothing more than calcium's wingman, a secondary nutrient that helped the bone-building mineral make its move from the belly to the bloodstream and eventually plant itself in the skeleton. Well, no offense to C, but new research suggests that vitamin D may be one of the best vitamins of all for your body. The lab guys have uncovered up to 2,000 different genes—roughly one-sixth of the human genome—that are regulated by the nutrient. That means almost everything your body does relies on it.

"It affects cell death and proliferation, insulin production, and even the immune system," says Michael F. Holick, Ph.D., M.D., director of the vitamin D, skin, and bone research laboratory at the Boston University Medical Center.

Translation: Low vitamin D will result in your body working far below its potential. And you're probably not getting anywhere near the right amount. Here's why you'll be hearing a lot more about it and how you can score what you need to avoid a vitaimin D deficiency and make your body function at its absolute max.

Nutrition's New MVP
What's most remarkable about vitamin D is the sheer number of health issues it's been linked to. In the past few years, studies have shown that a lack of the vitamin may be the primary culprit in depression, heart disease, pregnancy problems, birth defects, skin and other cancers, and multiple sclerosis.

Even if you don't suffer from any of these conditions, getting more D may still be what the doctor ordered. "Many of my patients report a dramatic improvement in their feeling of overall well-being after they increase their vitamin D levels," Holick says. And a number of experts, including those from the Harvard School of Public Health, have urged the government to raise its recommended daily amount of vitamin D for adults from 200 IU to at least 1,000 IU, possibly more.

Why We're D-ficient
According to a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine, experts believe that up to 77 percent of Americans are vitamin D deficient (defined as having blood levels of less than 30 nanograms per milliliter).

So why do we come up so short, especially since vitamin D is one of the few vitamins our bodies can actually make? Sunlight converts a cholesterol-like substance naturally found in the skin into D. Problem is, thanks to UV rays and skin cancer, soaking up sun to make more D would do you more harm than good. For your skin to make enough, you'd need direct midday summer sunlight on a huge portion of your body for 15 minutes a day—risking serious sun damage.

Besides, it wouldn't help much, Holick says. If you live north of Atlanta, it's impossible to get enough D from sunlight between October and March, no matter how exposed you are. And it's tougher for people of color to make D—the melanin in dark skin decreases vitamin D production by up to 90 percent.

To make matters worse, D is missing from the food we eat, says Beth Kitchin, M.S., R.D., assistant professor of nutrition sciences and patient educator in the Osteoporosis Treatment and Prevention Clinic at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Only certain kinds of fish and fortified dairy have enough D to brag about, and it would be hard to consume enough of both in one day to get 1,000-plus IU.

Easy to Swallow
There's a simple way to get your D up without baking in the sun. It's not often that nutrition experts say it's better to get a vitamin from a pill than from food, but D is an exception. "In this case, supplements are the easiest, cheapest, and safest way to make sure you're covered," says Laura Armas, M.D., assistant professor of endocrinology and a researcher in the Osteoporosis Research Center at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

Can you OD on it? It's possible, but extremely unlikely. Vitamin D is fat-soluble, which means you won't pee out the excess as you would a water-soluble vitamin like C. This used to worry experts, who thought that D could easily build up to toxic levels. But further study has found that our bodies can handle a lot more than previously understood. "You'd have to ingest 10,000 IU every day for six months before you'd even begin to approach problem levels," Holick says. It's much more likely you're not getting enough, he says. A few ways to get your D intake up to par:

• Take a daily multivitamin or a vitamin D supplement that provides at least 1,000 IU. In addition, Holick says, drink two glasses of skim milk per day.

• When buying supplements or fortified foods, make sure the label reads "D3." This is the same type the skin makes, but some companies still use D2, a plant-based form of the vitamin that the body doesn't metabolize as easily.

• Get your blood levels measured, especially if you have a family history of heart disease, cancer, or depression. If you are extremely low, your doctor might recommend higher doses of D.

Essential Glutathione: The Mother of All Antioxidants

IT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT MOLECULE you need to stay healthy and prevent disease — yet you’ve probably never heard of it. It’s the secret to prevent aging, cancer, heart disease, dementia and more, and necessary to treat everything from autism to Alzheimer’s disease. There are more than 89,000 medical articles about it — but your doctor doesn’t know how address the epidemic deficiency of this critical life-giving molecule …

What is it? I’m talking about the mother of all antioxidants, the master detoxifier and maestro of the immune system: GLUTATHIONE (pronounced “gloota-thigh-own”).

The good news is that your body produces its own glutathione. The bad news is that poor diet, pollution, toxins, medications, stress, trauma, aging, infections and radiation all deplete your glutathione.

This leaves you susceptible to unrestrained cell disintegration from oxidative stress, free radicals, infections and cancer. And your liver gets overloaded and damaged, making it unable to do its job ofdetoxification.

In treating chronically ill patients with Functional Medicine for more than 10 years, I have discovered that glutathione deficiency is found in nearly all very ill patients. These include people with chronic fatigue syndrome, heart disease, cancer, chronic infections, autoimmune disease, diabetes, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, arthritis, asthma, kidney problems, liver disease and more.

At first I thought that this was just a coincidental finding, but over the years I have come to realize that our ability to produce and maintain a high level of glutathione is critical to recovery from nearly all chronic illness — and to preventing disease and maintaining optimal health and performance. The authors of those 76,000 medical articles on glutathione I mentioned earlier have found the same thing!

So in today’s blog I want to explain what glutathione is, why it’s important and give you 9 tips that will help you optimize your glutathione levels, improve your detoxification system and protect help yourself from chronic illness.

What is Glutathione?

Glutathione is a very simple molecule that is produced naturally all the time in your body. It is a combination of three simple building blocks of protein or amino acids — cysteine, glycine and glutamine.

The secret of its power is the sulfur (SH) chemical groups it contains. Sulfur is a sticky, smelly molecule. It acts like fly paper and all the bad things in the body stick onto it, including free radicals and toxins like mercury and other heavy metals.

Normally glutathione is recycled in the body — except when the toxic load becomes too great. And that explains why we are in such trouble …

In my practice, I test the genes involved in glutathione metabolism. These are the genes involved in producing enzymes that allow the body to create and recycle glutathione in the body. These genes have many names, such as GSTM1, GSTP1 and more.

These genes impaired in some people for a variety of important reasons. We humans evolved in a time before the 80,000 toxic industrial chemicals found in our environment today were introduced into our world, before electromagnetic radiation was everywhere and before we polluted our skies, lakes, rivers, oceans and teeth with mercury and lead.

That is why most people survived with the basic version of the genetic detoxification software encoded in our DNA, which is mediocre at ridding the body of toxins. At the time humans evolved we just didn’t need more. Who knew we would be poisoning ourselves and eating a processed, nutrient-depleted diet thousands of years later?

Because most of us didn’t require additional detoxification software, almost of half of the population now has a limited capacity to get rid of toxins. These people are missing GSTM1 function — one of the most important genes needed in the process of creating and recycling glutathione in the body.

Nearly all my very sick patients are missing this function. The one-third of our population that suffers from chronic disease is missing this essential gene. That includes me. Twenty years ago I became mercury poisoned and suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome due to this very problem. My GSTM1 function was inadequate and I didn’t produce enough glutathione as a result. Eventually, my body broke down and I became extremely ill …

This is the same problem I see in so many of my patients. They are missing this critical gene and they descend into disease as a result. Let me explain how this happens …

The Importance of Glutathione in Protecting Against Chronic Illness

Glutathione is critical for one simple reason: It recycles antioxidants. You see, dealing with free radicals is like handing off a hot potato. They get passed around from vitamin C to vitamin E to lipoic acid and then finally to glutathione which cools off the free radicals and recycles other antioxidants. After this happens, the body can “reduce” or regenerate another protective glutathione molecule and we are back in business.

However, problems occur when we are overwhelmed with too much oxidative stress or too many toxins. Then the glutathione becomes depleted and we can no longer protect ourselves against free radicals, infections, or cancer and we can’t get rid of toxins. This leads to further sickness and soon we are in the downward spiral of chronic illness.

But that’s not all. Glutathione is also critical in helping your immune system do its job of fighting infections and preventing cancer. That’s why studies show that it can help in the treatment of AIDS.

Glutathione is also the most critical and integral part of your detoxification system. All the toxins stick onto glutathione, which then carries them into the bile and the stool — and out of your body.

And lastly, it also helps us reach peak mental and physical function. Research has shown that raised glutathione levels decrease muscle damage, reduce recovery time, increase strength and endurance and shift metabolism from fat production to muscle development.

If you are sick or old or are just not in peak shape, you likely have glutathione deficiency.
In fact, the top British medical journal, the Lancet, found the highest glutathione levels in healthy young people, lower levels in healthy elderly, lower still in sick elderly and the lowest of all in the hospitalized elderly.

Keeping yourself healthy, boosting your performance, preventing disease and aging well depends on keeping your glutathione levels high. I’ll say it again … Glutathione is so important because it is responsible for keeping so many of the keys to UltraWellness optimized.

It is critical for immune function and controlling inflammation. It is the master detoxifier and the body’s main antioxidant, protecting our cells and making our energy metabolism run well.

And the good news is that you can do many things to increase this natural and critical molecule in your body. You can eat glutathione-boosting foods. You can exercise. And you can take glutathione-boosting supplements. Let’s review more specifics about each.