By Dinna Louise C. Dayao
WHAT are you having for lunch today? If you’re like four in every 10 Filipino adults, you will eat lunch out. Will you eat a burger and fries in a fastfood restaurant, fried fish in a canteen, or fried chicken in a convenience store? Maybe you’ll have a donut or a cup of 3-in-1 coffee for dessert.
But before ordering your lunch, and buying that donut or sachet of coffee consider this — those goodies could be laden with artificial trans fats.
TRANS FATS
There are two kinds of trans fatty acids, or trans fats for short. Naturally occurring trans fats are found in beef, pork, lamb, butter, and milk. Studies show that, in moderation, these trans fats do not seem to be as harmful as the manmade variety. It is the latter that are more concerning.
Artificial trans fats are made when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil. This process, called “hydrogenation,” produces partially hydrogenated oil, essentially turning liquid oil into solid form. This oil stays fresh longer than other fats. It is also much cheaper than butter, lard, or other fats like palm oil.
These characteristics make partially hydrogenated oil a favorite frying oil of restaurants ranging from fastfoods to turo-turo (a road-side diner). So, the fried food for lunch could be dripping with artificial trans fats.
Partially hydrogenated oil is also added to processed food as it enhances taste and texture at a low cost. The trans fats in this oil prolong the shelf life of packaged foods like baked goods, corn and potato chips, nondairy coffee creamer, margarine, and microwaveable popcorn.
HOW TRANS FATS HURT YOU
Artificial trans fats have “no known health benefits,” said the World Health Organization. Globally, these fats contributed to more than half a million deaths in 2010.
Research has been done since the 1990s on the health effects of artificial trans fats and here are some of them.
1. Trans fats clog your arteries. Eating foods that contain these fats raises the low-density lipoprotein (LDL or “bad”) cholesterol in the blood. At the same time, trans fats lower the high-density lipoprotein (HDL or “good”) cholesterol. This is a double whammy for one’s heart.
When a person has a lot of LDL, it tends to “stick to the lining of the blood vessels,” said Dr. Ranulfo B. Javelosa, Jr., the division chief of preventive cardiology at the Philippine Heart Center. Over time, the LDL — combined with other substances found in the blood — hardens and clogs the arteries. This results in the inability of oxygen-rich blood to freely flow to the organs and other parts of the body. As a result, one is in danger of having a heart attack or a stroke.
On the other hand, heart-heathy HDL “scours the walls of blood vessels and removes excess cholesterol,” said Dr. Javelosa. The higher one’s HDL levels are, “the more cholesterol is being removed from where it might otherwise cause damage,” he said.
Eating a lot of trans fats, though, decreases your HDL.
Even a small amount of trans fats is bad. For every 2% of calories from artificial trans fats consumed daily, the risk of heart disease rises by 23%, reports Harvard Health Publishing.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death of both men and women in the Philippines, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. In 2013, the disease claimed the lives of 118,740 Filipinos. This means that, every hour, 13 people die due to heart disease.
2. Trans fats can cause weight gain. Consuming foods rich in these fats may increase a person’s body mass index or BMI. BMI is a measure of body fat based on height and weight, and the higher the BMI — meaning the heavier a person is — the higher the risk of developing diabetes.
Diabetes is among the top killer diseases in the Philippines. It is number five on the list. In 2013, 27,064 people died due to the disease, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. That’s three people every hour.
3. Trans fats shrink the brain and impairs memory. “Trans fats were most strongly linked to worse memory, in young and middle-aged men, during their working and career-building years,” said Beatrice A. Golomb, MD, PhD, in a press release from the American Heart Association. Dr. Golomb is a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego.
GETTING RID OF TRANS FATS
The World Health Organization (WHO) aims to get rid of harmful trans fats from global food supplies by 2023. The move could potentially save some 10 million lives, according to the health agency. It is a move that is good for the heart, as the success stories of Denmark and New York show.
In 2003, Denmark passed a law “limiting the amount of trans fats to 2 grams per 100 grams of fat or oil,” reports the WHO. The law set up a system of fines and penalties for violators.
Denmark’s law did save lives. Between 2003 and 2012, deaths due to heart disease in the country dropped from 359.9 to 210.9 per 100,000 people. This is one of the key findings of a study by Brandon Restrepo, a postdoctoral researcher with the European University Institute, and his research partner.
The Big Apple followed suit in 2007. “New York City was the first large metropolitan area in the United States to restrict trans fats in eateries, starting July 2007,” wrote Dr. Eric Brandt and his fellow researchers in their report. The municipal ban covered eateries ranging from bakeries to street-fair food booths.
Did it make a difference to the health of New Yorkers? The researchers checked medical records and compared counties covered by the ban to counties that were not. And they found that the ban is a win. The people living in counties that banned trans fats had 6.2% fewer heart attacks and strokes than those living in countries without bans.
Here’s another finding that shows the city’s ban works. A 2019 study shows that the levels of trans fats in the blood of New Yorkers who ate out four or more times weekly after the ban dropped by 61.6%. In comparison, blood trans fatty acid levels declined by more than 54% nationally between 2000 and 2010.
The bottom line is that the less trans fats a person consumes, the better for their health. Banning the toxic fats is good for the heart, as the success stories of Denmark and New York show.
There is no ban on trans fats in the Philippines. Still, one need not wait for such a ban to shift to healthier eating. Right now, one can take steps to avoid or lessen their consumption of these dangerous fats.
This story was produced under the “(Un)Covering Trans Fats Media Training and Fellowship Program” by Probe Media Foundation Inc. (PMFI) and ImagineLaw (IL). The views and opinions expressed in this piece are not necessarily those of PMFI and IL.

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