Alzheimer’s Risk May be 75% Higher for People Who Eat Trans Fats
Posted: October 24, 2019 Filed under: Food and it's Impact on Our Health 10 CommentsIf you eat out often, eat fast foods, eat purchased baked goods, if you eat anything with partially hydrogenated oils, canned frosting, margarines you are eating trans fats. I have worked in many high end restaurants and I can tell you that most restaurants do not use real butter, they use an oil blend, because of the cost. And those are vegetable oils that mostly contain soy, canola and other vegetable oils. Many products, such as popcorn or pizza still contain trans fat.
People with higher levels of trans fats in their blood may be 50% to 75% more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease or dementia from any cause, according to a new study published Wednesday in the journal Neurology.
“This study demonstrates that there are negative ‘brain/cognitive’ outcomes, in addition to the known cardiovascular outcomes, that are related to a diet that has (a) high content of trans fats,” said neurologist Dr. Neelum T. Aggarwal, who was not involved in the study. Aggarwal, a member of the American Academy of Neurology, is co-leader of the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Chicago.
Over 1,600 Japanese men and women without dementia were followed over a 10-year period. A blood test for trans fat levels was done at the start of the study and their diets were analyzed.
Researchers then adjusted for other factors that could affect the risk of dementia, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking. They found that people with the two highest levels of trans fats were 52% and 74% more likely to develop dementia than those with the lowest levels.
“The study used blood marker levels of trans fats, rather than more traditionally used dietary questionnaires, which increases the scientific validity of the results,” said neurologist Dr. Richard Isaacson, director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.
“This study is important as it builds upon prior evidence that dietary intake of trans fats can increase risk of Alzheimer’s dementia,” said Isaacson, who was also not involved in the study.
Trans fats can occur naturally in small amounts in certain meat and dairy foods, but by far the greatest exposure comes from the man-made version.
Also called trans fatty acids, artificial trans fats are created by an industrialized process that adds hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them more solid (think of semi-soft margarine and shortening).
The food industry loves trans fats because they are cheap to produce, last a long time and give foods a great taste and texture.
Besides fried foods, trans fats are found in coffee creamer, cakes, pie crusts, frozen pizza, cookies, crackers, biscuits and dozens of other processed foods.
In the Japanese study, researchers found sweet pastries were the strongest contributor to higher trans fats levels. Margarine was next, followed by candies, caramels, croissants, non-dairy creamers, ice cream and rice crackers.
After extensive research revealed the connection between trans fats and the increase of bad cholesterol (LDL), combined with a reduction of good cholesterol (HDL), the US Food and Drug Administration banned trans fats in 2015.
Companies were given three years to stop using them; then the FDA began granting extensions to various parts of the industry. The latest extension runs out January 1.
But even if every manufacturer complies by the first of the year, that doesn’t mean trans fats are gone from the grocery shelves. According to the FDA, if one serving of the food contains less than 0.5 grams, companies can label the food as “0 grams” of trans fats.
Even in small doses, artificial trans fats will still be around to contribute to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other conditions, such as dementia.
“In the United States, the small amounts still allowed in foods can really add up if people eat multiple servings of these foods, and trans fats are still allowed in many other countries,” said study author Dr. Toshiharu Ninomiya, a professor at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, in a statement.
“People at risk still need to pay careful attention to nutrition labels,” Isaacson said. “When it comes to nutrition labels, the fewer ingredients, the better! Focus on natural whole food, and minimize or avoid those that are highly processed.”
Aggarwal added: “This message must be delivered in countries where the ban of trans fats has not been enacted or difficult to enforce.”
Meal Delivery Service by Millie Barnes 
I was on vacation with family. We ate out a lot and so I couldn’t control what they were using to cook with. But I noticed that in almost every restaurant, when I asked for ‘butter’, they almost always brought out margarine.
Then when I told them I wanted real butter, they’d usually have it and bring it out. Still, why would they not bring me butter when I asked for butter explicitly by name? Only in one case, Denny’s, did they not even have butter.
Are you familiar with Dr. Catherine Shanahan? She has a book out that is worth reading. But you can find lots of talks by her online. You should check out her views on seed oils.https://benjamindavidsteele.wordpress.com/2019/09/09/dr-catherine-shanahan-on-dietary-epigenetics-and-mutations/
LikeLike
I worked in Jacksonville’s highest rated restaurant for several years and they would not let me cook with butter. Because of the cost. They use that awful blend of soil and other cheap vegetable oils to cook in. Most places do.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’d think cost would not be an issue in a high end restaurant. Would they skimp on costs in buying low quality of other food items and ingredients? Would they save money by hiring unqualified chefs and wait staff?
LikeLike
Even though I am one of Jacksonville’s best chef and have been cooking professionally here for 40 years they were such jerks about the money that they offered me $9 an hour to work there. Now I hadn’t worked for that amount in years but working at The Wine Cellar means that once that is on your resume you can walk into any place and get a job. I sucked it up and work there for a year-and-a-half. No air conditioner in the kitchen oh, and I kept getting heat exhaustion and they had to assign me a dishwasher to walk me through the orders because of heat exhaustion. It would take me a half an hour of sitting in my car at the end of the shift before I was clear-headed enough to drive home. They also told me they never paid anybody overtime. And that’s true they didn’t. But I kept records in at the end of working there I told him I’d sue them for everything they had if I didn’t get my overtime on my final check. I got it cuz they knew I was serious. I never looked back. At that point I went back to doing my meal delivery service and I’ve been doing that ever since.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So, with cutting corners on everything, from ingredients to staffing, how did they manage to become the highest rated in town?
LikeLike
Cuz their food is freaking amazing. Unfortunately they closed during covid. Although the work conditions were brutal my executive chef was an absolute genius and a joy to work with. It was only the owner that was a total a******. We didn’t use butter but we used very high quality ingredients and made everything from scratch. They imported duck from Australia, the meat was very high quality and although there were only three chefs in the kitchen we were all amazing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That is amusing. They’d import presumably expensive duck from a distant country. Yet they wouldn’t spend a tiny fraction of that cost to use butter, not even cheap factory-farmed butter from the US.
By the way, there is a bakery her in this town, Iowa City, that makes everything with butter. I haven’t yet tried it, though, because it’s neither paleo or low-carb. But I’m thinking I’ll have to make an exception one of these days.
Sadly, it’s otherwise near impossible to find anything locally made with butter, lard, etc. Even the Amish use seed oils in their baked goods that they sell at the farmers market.
LikeLike
For the majority of the years in the last 36 years I’ve ran a meal delivery service. I cook with did I make from organic butter
LikeLike
Posted that too soon. I cook with ghee that I make from organic butter I make everything from scratch. I make my own Worcestershire sauce. Everything I use is organic. You can’t make great food with poor ingredients. And you can’t be nourished with poor quality food.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The poor quality of oils and fats that cook within restaurants are primarily what makes that food so unhealthy. Same food cooked with butter would be way healthier. I have a life threatening allergy to Soy so eating out for me hardly ever happens. The only food I eat out is Sushi and I ate it without the soy sauce.
LikeLiked by 1 person