Face The Fats

MANILA, September 15, 2004 (STAR) AN APPLE A DAY by Tyrone M. Reyes, M.D.
- I still don't know what kind of oil to buy," says Editha Senupe, of
Marikina City. "Some people recommend monos, like olive or canola oil.
Others say polys, like soybean or corn oil, are better. With advice about
fats changing so frequently, I'm confused."
Ms. Senupe isn't the only one to get that glazed look whenever
she's in the oil aisle. Who wouldn't be confused with the steady stream
of mixed messages?
Diet books range from virtually fat-free (Ornish) to high-fat
(Atkins). The media publish conflicting reports on saturated,
monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, trans, omega-3, and other fats. Ads plug
fish oil, DHA, and flaxseed oil supplements to boost immunity, memory and
healthy circulation. Here's what you need to know about fats - and what
you can ignore.

Oil In The Family
Strictly speaking, all fats are a mixture of saturated,
monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids. However, we usually call
them by the name of the fatty acid they have the most of. The bad fats
are saturated and trans. The better fats are monos and polys. And the best
fats are the omega-3s. The good oils are those with the least saturated
fats and a good mixture of mono, poly and other fats (e.g. safflower,
canola, flaxseed, sunflower, corn and olive oils).
Polys lower cholesterol, while monos only lower cholesterol if
you eat them in place of saturated fats. Linoleic acid and
alpha-linolenic acid are examples of polyunsaturated fats. Alpha-linolenic
acid is an omega-3 polyunsaturated fat that may protect the heart.
Canola, soy and flaxseed oil are good sources. Linoleic acid is
polyunsaturated omega-6 fat. Many researchers recommend a mix of
alpha-linolenic acid and linoleic acid. If you don't want the details,
just stick with canola for cooking. It's among the lowest in saturated
fat and it has a good mix of alpha-linolenic and linoleic acids.

Bad Fats : Saturated And Trans
Saturated fat occurs naturally in nearly all fatty acids, but
mostly in meats, dairy products, and tropical oils like palm kernel and
coconut. Most trans fats are created when manufacturers turn liquid oils
into more solid fats like shortening and margarine.
The evidence against both fats is strong. "It's not a question
of choosing which artery-clogging fat to avoid," says Meir Stampfer of
Harvard School of Public Health. "People should cut down on both
saturated and trans fat."
"Technically, trans is worse than saturated fat, because
saturated fat raises both LDL ("bad") cholesterol and HDL ("good")
cholesterol, while trans only raises LDL," explains Alice Lichtenstein of
the Human Nutrition Research Center at Tuft's University in Boston. "But
if you have to target one fat for modification, there's a greater
potential for change by cutting saturated fat," she adds. That's because
only 2 percent of our calories come from trans fat, while sat fat
contributes 13 percent. Avoiding sat fat is a tough job because it's in so
many popular foods, from pizza and hamburgers to steak, tacos, ice cream,
lasagna and cheese. But Lichtenstein admonishes, "The message needs to be
loud, it needs to be clear, and it needs to be unequivocal: Limit your
intake of both saturated and trans fats."

Better Fats : Monos And Polys
In the early 1970s, corn oil was king. Researchers then found
that highly polyunsaturated fats (like corn, soy and sunflower oil) could
lower cholesterol. In contrast, highly saturated fats (like butter and
beef) raised cholesterol, while highly monounsaturated fats (like canola
and olive oil) were neutral. But by the1990s, the pendulum swung towards
monos. In part, the enthusiasm was fueled by lavish conferences for
researchers and the media sponsored by the olive oil industry. The
science looked promising, too. For example, it was found that unlike
polys, monos don't lower HDL, the so-called good cholesterol.
Subsequently, however, researchers rediscovered that polys have more power
to lower cholesterol than monos.
Does this mean that people should spill out all their olive and
canola oil and rush to the store for soy oil? Not quite. First of all,
some dishes taste better with certain oil. "At home, we use olive oil for
salad dressing because the taste matters," says Stampfer. "We bake with
canola. And we also use sesame, peanut and safflower, depending on the
dish."
Taste aside, if you're like most people, the oil you buy is just
a small fraction of the fat you eat. What's in your bottled salad
dressing and mayonnaise? What's in the spaghetti sauce, muffins, cookies
or other foods in your pantry? And don't forget restaurants. What oil
does your favorite Chinese takeout use? What greases the griddle when you
order chicken or shrimp fajitas? What went into that spicy peanut sauce,
vinaigrette or clam sauce?
The odds are it's soy. A growing body of evidence suggests that
it makes sense to balance all that soy by using mostly canola at home. "I
buy about three bottles of canola for every bottle of soy," says
Lichtenstein. Why? The soy oil adds cholesterol-lowering polys. But
canola is the mainstay because it's very low in saturated fat and has a
good dose of polys (more than olive oil). What's more, canola's omega-3
fats may help protect your heart, though the evidence is stronger for
omega-3 fats that come from fish.

Best Fats : Omega 3
Unlike polyunsaturated vegetable oils, polyunsaturated fish oils
have always had a stellar reputation. And two years ago, the news got even
better. "Three new studies showed that omega-3 fats in fish oil protected
people from sudden death," says Stampfer, who co-authored two of them.
(In sudden cardiac death, which causes half of all heart disease deaths,
the heartbeat goes awry and then stops. Most victims have clogged coronary
arteries.)
Exactly how fish oils work isn't certain. The leading theory:
When the heart is under severe stress, a key fish fat stabilizes heart
cells, which allows the heart to maintain its regular beat. (The fat is
likely to be eicosapentaenoic acid, or EPA. DHA, or docosahexaenoic acid,
is the other key fish fat.) "When there's trouble, EPA is released from
the cell membrane and it suppresses the extra heartbeats," says William
Connor of the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland. At higher
doses, omega-3 fats may also protect the heart by lowering triglyceride
levels and preventing blood clots.
In any case, the take-home message is to eat more seafood. The
American Heart Association now recommends at least two servings per week,
preferably of fatty fish. But if you want to make sure you're getting
enough omega-3 fats, shoot for between 1/2 and 1 gram (500 and 1,000 mg)
a day. If you don't eat seafood, there are other options. Among them:
Alpha linolenic acid and omega-3 that's largely found in flaxseed, canola
and soy oils as well as walnuts and soybeans.
"The best alternative to seafood is to get both DHA and EPA from
fish oil pills or from fish oil that's been added to other foods," says
omega-3 expert Bruce Holub of the University of Guelph in Canada. But be
careful. Fish oil pills can cause side effects. For example, getting more
than three grams (3,000 mg) of EPA and DHA a day from foods and
supplements may raise the risk of hemorrhagic stroke.

The Bottom Line
1) Cut your intake of saturated plus trans fat to less than 10
percent of calories or about 20 grams a day of both combined.
2) At home, use canola oil as your main oil with a variety of
others for taste.
3) Shoot for between 1/2 and 1 gram (500 and 1,000 mg) a day of
omega-3 fats (DHA and EPA) from one of the following:
. Consume seafood two to five times a week.
. If you take fish oil pills, there's no reason to take more
than 2 gram a day of EPA and DHA combined. More than 3 grams may increase
the risk of bleeding or hemorrhagic stroke.
. If you're a vegetarian, you can get DHA (but not EPA) from
supplements made from algae. Or you can get alpha linolenic acid from
walnuts, soybeans, or flaxseed, canola, or soy oils, though the body
doesn't convert much of it into EPA and DHA.
. Lastly, remember this about fats: When it comes to obesity,
all fats are suspect because all are equally high in calories. When it
comes to cancer, no fat appears to be at fault. And as far as heart
disease and stroke are concerned, it's not how much fat that matters. It's
how much of which fat that is crucial!

From: "lee quesada"