Keto Info Week 4/12

[spEEdfrEEk]

ENIG Interview #1

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CATEGORY: foods/manmade

TECHNICAL: ***

SUMMARY:

This document is one of the best works on the negative

effects of hydrogenated oils. It's an interview with Mary

Enig, who's a PhD. researcher of fats and oils. As you read

through the document, you'll see just how much work she's done

in that field. This is part one of a three part document.

The major issue this article addresses is the fact that

hydrogenated oils are far worse than natural non man-made oils.

The question has come up on the list about whether the trans

fats in natural dairy were safer than those found in margarines

and shortenings. I think this passage sheds a little light on

that question:

"the misconception that processed margarine was better than

natural butter. But the studies showed that not only was the

amount much smaller (e.g., the fat in butter might be 2-3% of

the ruminant trans), the effect on the "machinery" in the cell

membranes was not different than without the trans. Yet all

studies feeding the trans produced by partially hydrogenating the

vegetable oils showed the adverse effect on the cell "machinery."

Not only is it far less, but what is in the dairy affects

the body alot less negatively. This does reinforce the

point that humans were not designed to consume the dairy of

other animals however..

This document is the one I also allude to when issues

of trans fats contributing to heart disease and cancer come

up. When you read through it, pay close attention to the number

of times she mentions a statistically significant increase

in cancer and CVD when discussing trans-fats and hydrogenated

oils. My favorite passage for vegetarians is this one:

"correlations between the increase in per capita dietary fat

intake and total cancer mortality over a sixty-year period show

significant positive correlations for total fat and vegetable

fat, and negative correlation for animal fat."

Many of ya'll have also heard me warn against eating

deep fried foods. That was because deep frying denatures

the foods far worse than any other preparation method. In fact,

deep frying is akin to the hydrogenation process. Be sure

to catch the section where she discusses the temperatures

at which hydrogenation occurs, and remember that deep frying

can reach temps. upwards of 440 deg. F. Consider how

many toxins can be introduced in that kind of environment..

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by Richard A. Passwater, Ph.D.

Dr. Mary G. Enig, a nutritionist widely known for her research on the

nutritional aspects of fats and oils, is a consultant, clinician, and the

Director of the Nutritional Sciences Division of Enig Associates, Inc.,

Silver Spring, Maryland. She received her PhD in Nutritional Sciences from

the University of Maryland, College Park in 1984, taught a graduate course

in nutrient-drug interactions for the University's Graduate Program in

Nutritional Sciences, and held a Faculty Research Associateship from 1984

through 1991 with the Lipids Research Group in the Department of Chemistry

and Biochemistry. Dr. Enig is a Fellow of the American College of

Nutrition, and a member of the American Institute of Nutrition. Her many

years of experience as a "bench chemist" in the analysis of food fats and

oils, provides a foundation for her active roles in food labeling and

composition issues at the federal and state levels.

Dr. Enig is a Consulting Editor to the "Journal of the American

College of Nutrition" and formerly served as a Contributing Editor to

"Clinical Nutrition." She has published 14 scientific papers on the

subject of food fats and oils, several chapters on nutrition for books,

and presented over 35 scientific papers on food and nutrition topics. She

is the President of the Maryland Nutritionists Association, past President

of the Coalition of Nutritionists of Maryland and was appointed by the

Governor in 1986 to the Maryland State Advisory Council on Nutrition and

served as the Chairman of the Health Subcommittee until the Council was

disbanded in 1988.

I first learned of Dr. Mary Enig's research from a 1978 report in the

Federation Proceedings. [1] We met shortly after that, and since I had

written about trans fats several times in Supernutrition, we had common

concerns about the effect that these trans fats from processed foods were

having. [2] We were both concerned particularly about the misconception

that processed margarine was better than natural butter.

In several visits by Dr. Mary Enig to the Solgar Nutritional Research

Center I quickly learned that she was an exacting scientist who is not

afraid to speak out and who supports good nutrition, not just going along

with the establishment's party line. While studying for her Ph.D. at the

University of Maryland, often she would first respond with the "correct"

answer that was expected, and then she would explain why new research

indicated "alternatives," such as optimal vitamin and mineral nourishment,

provided a better answer. It is not easy be credentialed by the "system,"

while your own research shows other facts.

In part I of my interview with Dr. Enig, we will discuss the harm

caused by partially-hydrogenated fats that are present in processed foods.

In Part II, we will discuss how partially-hydrogenated fats increase heart

disease and cancer risks, and how the processed food industry tries to

suppress this information.

In her 1978 report, Dr. Enig challenged the speculation concerning

the relationship of dietary fat and cancer causation. She concluded that

correlations between the increase in per capita dietary fat intake and

total cancer mortality over a sixty-year period show significant positive

correlations for total fat and vegetable fat, and negative correlation for

animal fat. That is the cancer rate is higher when the amount of vegetable

fat or total fat is higher in the diet, but the cancer rate is lower when

there there is more animal fat in the diet. These findings were unpopular

then as they are today, but they are still correct. It is convenient to

blame everything on red meat and animal fat, and believe that vegetable

oil is the great dietary salvation -- even if it is partially

hydrogenated. At least that is what the vegetable oil people would like

everyone to believe.

Now, we are not saying that lots of dietary fat is good for you and

that vegetables are not good. Eating vegetables, fruits and other whole

foods is very desirable. However, that is not the same as eating

partially-hydrogenated vegetable oils. Americans eat too much fat

(especially partially hydrogenated vegetable oils) and not enough fruits

and vegetables. The problem is that the typical American is not eating

enough whole foods, but instead, is eating too much partially-hydrogenated

vegetable oil -- a fractionated food -- that has been made into "funny

foods" such as margarine or added into baked goods. Such "funny foods" are

far different than real whole foods.

Hydrogenation ruins the nutritional value of vegetable oils! Why

would anyone want to ruin the nutrition value of vegetable oils? The

purpose of hydrogenation is to solidify an oil so that it can be made to

resemble real foods such as butter. (see figure 1.) The hydrogenation

process imparts desirable features such as spreadability, texture, "mouth

feel," and increased shelf life to naturally liquid vegetable oils. In the

hydrogenation process, vegetable oil is reacted under pressure with

hydrogen gas at 250 - 400oF for several hours in the presence of a

catalyst such as nickel or platinum. However, this industrial process

cannot control where the hydrogen atoms are added to the "unsaturated"

double bonds. Randomly adding hydrogen atoms to polyunsaturated fats

converts natural food components into many compounds, some of which have

never seen before by man until partially hydrogenated fats were

manufactured.

Some of the several dozens of altered compounds created in the

manufacture of partially-hydrogenated fats are "trans" fatty acids. Fatty

acids are the building blocks of fats, much like amino acids are the

building blocks of proteins. Other new compounds accidentally synthesized

include fatty acids having double bonds translocated to new and un-natural

positions, and various molecular fragments. Many of these altered

compounds are detrimental to health.

Since "trans" fats are so detrimental to our health. permit me to

briefly review the relevance of distinguishing between "trans" and "cis"

fats before chatting with Dr. Enig. Recently, in the September issue, in

the interview with Dr. Jim Clark and Mr. Lance Schilipalius, we discussed

"trans" isomers of carotenoids. "Trans" means the same thing here. "Cis"

and "trans" isomers refer to how identical atoms are added to double

bonds. (See figure 2.) When the atoms are added to the same side of the

double bond, the compound is called "cis" and the molecule is bent because

of the crowding of the atoms on one side. When the atoms are added on

opposite sides of the double bond, the compound is called "trans" and

molecule is "space-balanced" and straightened. The shape of a molecule is

important because enzymes and their substrates -- the molecules enzymes

act upon -- must fit together like a key in a lock.

Dr. Enig will discuss this during the interview, but the important

thing to remember is that natural polyunsaturated fatty acids are "cis"

compounds and are bent. Partial hydrogenation produces many un-natural

"trans" fats which are straight and not intended for use in the human

body. Figure 3 illustrates the differences between the shapes of "trans"

and "cis" fatty acids

You don't have to understand the difference between "trans" and

"cis," but it is important that you know that there is a difference

because, as Dr. Enig will explain, it can affect your health.

Passwater: Dr. Enig, a lot of people are interested in "trans" fats

now. You have been researching them since 1977. How are trans fats harmful

to us?

Enig: More than a decade of research at the University of Maryland,

as well as research that was being done at other institutions, showed that

consumption of trans fatty acids from partially hydrogenated (a process

that adds hydrogen to solidify or harden) vegetable fats and oils had many

adverse effects in health areas such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes,

immunity, reproduction and lactation, and obesity. It is rather easy today

to come up with a long list of these adverse effects from the published

research done by many scientists around the world, as well as the

researchers at the University of Maryland.

The reason there is so much recent interest is that during the past

three years there has been a number of major research reports published in

prestigious medical journals that caught the attention of the press. These

and earlier reports had shown, for example, that consumption of trans

fatty acids lower the "good" HDL cholesterol in a dose response manner

(the higher the trans fat level in the diet, the lower the HDL level in

the blood) and raise the atherogenic lipoprotein(a) in humans as well as

raising the "bad" LDL cholesterol and total blood cholesterol levels by

20-30 milligram-percent. These studies have usually been shown in

independent non-industry studies. Perhaps the most significant event

though was the report from researchers at Harvard University, who

evaluated more than 85,000 women in a long-term prospective study and

found that there was a significantly higher intake of trans fatty acids in

those individuals who developed heart disease. [3]

As regards to the question of cancer, trans fatty acids induce

adverse alterations in the activities of the important enzyme system that

metabolizes chemical carcinogens and drugs (medications), i. e., the

mixed-function oxidase cytochromes P-448/450. The initial research in this

area was done by the Maryland group in collaboration with the U. S. Food

and Drug Administration, and was followed by the more extensive evaluation

that I did for my Ph.D. dissertation; several groups around the country

and the world also reported the same or similar results. [4-6] Several

groups around the world reported a higher intake of partially hydrogenated

fats in those individuals who have developed cancer.

Both primate and human studies have shown inappropriate handling of

blood sugar; trans fatty acids decrease the response of the red blood cell

to insulin, thus having a potentially undesirable effect in diabetics. The

primate research was initiated at Maryland in collaboration with the U. S.

Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health, and the

human research is from the University of Pittsburgh and quite recent.

[7,8]

One major concern is that trans fatty acids adversely affect immune

response by lowering efficiency of B cell response and increasing

proliferation of T cells. This was shown in research done at Maryland

using a mouse model and although there are reports from clinicians that

there are problems of immune dysfunction in humans it still needs to be

evaluated systematically in humans. [9]

Recent research from outside the U. S. has indicated that trans fatty

acids interfere with reproductive attributes and of concern is the finding

that trans fatty acids lower the amount of cream (volume) in milk from

lactating females in all species studies including humans, thus lowering

the overall quality available to the infant. [10,11] The latter research

was done at Maryland by my colleague Dr. Beverly Teter.

Basically, trans fatty acids cause alterations to numerous

physiological functions of biological membranes that are known to be

critical for cell homeostasis, e.g., appropriate membrane transport and

membrane fluidity, and these fatty acid isomers produce alterations in

adipose cell size, cell number, lipid class and fatty acid composition.

[12]

Passwater: Now that trans fats are becoming of more interest, the

term may still just be a buzz word to many of our readers. Would you

explain just what are trans fats? Where do they come from? How are they

formed?

Enig: To understand what trans fatty acids are you have to understand

what fatty acids are. Fatty acids are basically chains of carbon with a

carboxyl group (COOH) at one end that can react (e.g., combine) with

another molecule. When fatty acids are in fats or oils they are combined

with glycerol in the proportions of three fatty acid molecules to one

glycerol molecule and they form triacylglycerols or in common terminology,

triglycerides. (See figure 4.)

Fatty acids come in different chain lengths ranging from three

carbons long (propionic acid) to 24 carbons long (lignoceric acid). These

fatty acids are either "saturated" (with an adequate number of hydrogen

atoms) and chemically stable, or they are "unsaturated" (missing adequate

hydrogens) and chemically unstable. If a fatty acid is missing two

hydrogens, it is called a monounsaturated fatty acid, and in place of the

two hydrogens, the adjacent carbons "double" bond to each other. If the

fatty acid is missing four or six or more hydrogens, it is called a

polyunsaturated fatty acid, and it is even more unstable than the

monounsaturated fatty acid. Because the double bonds in naturally

occurring plant oil fatty acids are curved with a "cis" configuration, the

fatty acids cannot pack into a crystal form at normal temperatures so

their presence produces a liquid oil. Saturated fatty acids have a

straight configuration and can pack into a solid crystal at normal

temperatures.

If the unsaturated fatty acids are altered by partial hydrogenation

to straighten the chains so that they have some of the physical packing

properties of saturated fatty acids they have had their "cis" double bond

changed to a "trans" double bond and they turn a technically mostly

unsaturated oil into a solid fat. The trans fatty acids are the same

length and weight as the original "cis" fatty acid they were formed from,

and although they have the same number of carbons, hydrogens, and oxygens

they are shaped differently in space. The term that is used is that they

are "isomers." The problem arises when a large number of the trans fatty

acids are consumed from foods and they are deposited in those parts of the

cell membranes that are supposed to have either saturated fatty acids or

"cis" unsaturated fatty acids; under these circumstances the trans fatty

acids essentially foul up the "machinery."

Although the trans fatty acids are chemically "monounsaturated" or

"polyunsaturated" they are considered so different from the "cis"

monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fatty acids that they cannot be legally

designated, e.g., monounsaturated for purposes of labeling. Most of the

trans fatty acids produced by the partial hydrogenation process are

chemically monounsaturates.

There have always been small amounts of one kind of trans fatty acids

in the human diet from the ruminant fats (dairy, sheep, goat, deer,

buffalo, antelope, etc.) because the microorganisms in the rumen try to

get rid of the polyunsaturated fatty acids that are found in the plant

foods eaten by these animals. In the early days of trans fatty acid

research, the researchers assumed that the trans fatty acids found in

ruminant fats were no different than those produced by partial

hydrogenation in the factory. But the studies showed that not only was the

amount much smaller (e.g., the fat in butter might be 2-3% of the ruminant

trans), the effect on the "machinery" in the cell membranes was not

different than without the trans. Yet all studies feeding the trans

produced by partially hydrogenating the vegetable oils showed the adverse

effect on the cell "machinery."

Passwater: Why are trans fats a problem?

Enig: The various mechanisms through which the trans fatty acids

disrupt function are related in part to the ability of trans fatty acids

to inhibit the function of membrane related enzymes such as the delta-6

desaturase resulting in decreased conversion of e.g., linoleic acid to

gamma-linolenic acid or arachidonic acid; interference with the necessary

conversion of omega-3 fatty acids to their elongated tissue omega-3 fatty

acids; and escalation of the adverse effects of essential fatty acid

deficiency. This latter effect was shown especially by the work of Dr.

Holman and his colleagues at the Hormel Institute at the University of

Minnesota, the other effects have been shown by many researchers including

the University of Maryland researchers. [13,14]

Passwater: What were your early findings and what got you interested

in this area of research?

Enig: My initial published research in 1978 when I was at the

University of Maryland showed that trans fatty acids, which were

increasing in the food supply at the time and which had not been

catalogued in any of the food data tables, were the very factors that

explained the positive statistical relationship between the increase in

cancer mortality and vegetable fat consumption in the U. S. [1]

It was clear from the literature that once the trans fatty acids were

identified as products of partial hydrogenation and studies were engaged

in, there were a number of earlier researchers who questioned the

biological safety of the trans fatty acids viz a viz their relationship to

both cancer and heart disease. In fact, Dr. Ancel Keys had originally

claimed that the partially hydrogenated vegetable oils with their trans

fatty acids were the culprits in heart disease. [15] This was in 1958, and

the edible oils industry was very swift in their squelching of that

information; they shifted the emphasis to "saturated" fat and started the

phoney attack on meat and dairy fats.

Passwater: What have others added to your findings?

Enig: As you have noted in some of your writings, we at the

University of Maryland were not the first to raise the issue of trans

fatty acids and adverse health effects; Dr. Fred Kummerow from the

University of Illinois, Dr. George Mann from Vanderbilt University, and

Dr. Edward Pinckney with the American Medical Association had sounded the

alarm many years before my plunge into the foray. In fact, I had drawn

heavily on the research findings of Dr. Kummerow and the informative

writing of Dr. Mann when I first started to investigate what was known

about health effects of trans fatty acids at the time. Our research

findings have been duplicated by others, but more importantly other

independent researchers have extended and explained many of our findings

and concerns.

Passwater: I remember how the processed food industry tried to

suppress your early research. In Part II, let's discuss the techniques

used against you and how you overcame them, and then we can more fully

discuss the relationship of various fats to heart disease and cancer.

:cool: TJ :cool: