The Darth Wader of Food

- Dr. Neeru Bali

Nutritionists all over the world, till very recently, have been focusing primarily on fats and cholesterol to prevent heart disease. Right from early age, everyone was advised to cut on dietary intake of saturated fats and cholesterol. This was based on numerous epidemiological studies and clinical research which established a close relationship between circulating cholesterol and LDL cholesterol with Coronary artery and peripheral vascular diseases. We believed, rather naively, that circulating cholesterol is directly related to dietary cholesterol and saturated fats. However,newer studies have proved,beyond a reasonable doubt,that most of the circulatory cholesterol is produced in liver. Dietary fat influence it to about twenty percent only. That is precisely the reason why different members of family or social groups may have varied blood cholesterol levels despite having similar diet.American Nutritional Agency has also come up with new guidelines putting less emphasis on dietary fat intake.

Despite this new and compelling data, there is uniformity of opinion that one specific type of fats is universally harmful and injurious to blood vessels, namely “transfats”. TransFats are a type of partially hydrogenated oils which help food to last longer and give them extra texture and taste. Some restaurants use partially hydrogenated vegetable oil in their deep fryers because it does not have to be changed as often as ot