Posted by kathryn in A Balanced Diet and Fat

Before Christmas I was blogging about trans fatty acids – why they’re bad for us and what foods contain them.

However, in all this concern about trans fats, it’s important we don’t lose sight of the overall picture. Yes, trans fats are bad for us, but so are saturated fats. Trans fats are worse, but we still have to watch and limit our intake of saturates.

How much trans fats do we eat?

Why am I saying this? The NSW Food Authority is currently studying the level of trans fatty acids in the Australian diet. The study isn’t complete, but early figures are showing our intake is pretty low. About 0.6 percent of our total kilojoule intake comes from trans fats. This is below the World Health Organisation’s maximum recommended level of 1% and it’s definitely lower than the average US intake.

Trans vs saturated fat

In Australia we still eat a lot more saturated fat. The average intake is 13 percent of total kilojoules, higher than the maximum recommended level of 10 percent.

In the rush to rid their products of all traces of trans, manufacturers are starting to use fats higher in saturates.

We need better food

There’s a lot of concern and concentration on trans fats at the moment, but it isn’t resulting in better food. As Michelle at Appetite for Profit says

we continue to focus on ingredients instead of the entire food

Yes, we need to avoid trans fats to reduce cardiovascular risk. However, to be healthy and truly improve our chances of living long and good lives, we also need to keep our saturated fat levels under control.

Instead of obsessing about trans fats we should be eating plent of vegetables and a couple of pieces of fruit each day. Plus we need to move more.

Don’t be fooled by the marketing. Just because products are now marketed as trans fat free, doesn’t mean they’re healthy. They’re still junk.

17 January, 2007