Trans-fat definition. What do you need to
know to optimize your health coming
right up
Hey I'm doctor Ekberg with Wellness For
Life and if you like to truly master
health by understanding how the body
really works make sure that you
subscribe and hit that notification bell
so that you don't miss anything. It's
kind of interesting with all of the
diets and all of the ideas and all the
philosophies of vegetarianism and keto
and and eat this and that and the - diet
and the Mediterranean diet there's so
many different opinions but there's two
things that everyone agrees on across
the board and that is white sugar is
really bad and trans fats are really bad.
So we've gotten that far we have some
that much agreement but let's talk about
what trans fats are so a fatty acid is a
chain of carbons linked together usually
the fats we eat are anywhere from from 4
carbons up to 20 ish and each carbon can
connect with 4 different things so it
connects to another carbon and that
leaves it 3 other connections and at the
one end it connects with 3 hydrogen's
then along the way it binds with 2
carbons so it only has room to bind with
2 hydrogen's and then at the end it
binds with what's called a carboxyl
group
it's a COOH I didn't put that on here
but that is what makes it a fatty acid
the the carboxyl group is what makes it
a fatty acid and every fatty acid has
one at the end but along the way they
can look differently so if it's a
straight chain where every carbon is
only bound by a single bond to every
other carbon it makes a straight chain
and there's hydrogen's plugged in on
every position and that's called a
saturated fatty acid because it's
saturated it's jam-packed it's gonna be
straight and when you have straight
things they pack closely together like
pencils in a box
and that makes the fat solid at room
temperature so it's going to have a very
high melting point these carbons can
also make double bonds they can use two
of their connections between each other
and in nature what happens now is that
wherever it makes a double bond it puts
both the hydrogen's on the same side so
they take up space on this side and
there is less stuff on the inside which
makes this molecule bend and when
they're bent they don't pack so tightly
together and this is what makes an oil
or a liquid at room temperature so these
things have low melting temperatures and
if they have multiple double bonds so
they're polyunsaturated they can even
stay liquid in the freezer sometimes
like fish oil and flax oil so if the
hydrogens are on the same side this is
called a CIS bond now there is a strange
animal where the hydrogen's end up on
opposite sides and that's called a trans
fat so this is different because there
is a double bond but it's straight so
it's a it's an unsaturated fat that's
behaving like a saturated fat that's why
they started doing this because they can
take an oil that is liquid and they can
turn it into a solid and make margarine
so that takes it from liquid to solid
but it also improves the shelf-life
because an unsaturated fat is very
reactive but once they turn it into this
even though it has a double bond and is
strictly still unsaturated it still
behaves as a saturated so this is kind
of a hybrid most of the time these are
man-made they're synthetic there is one
unique case in nature and it's called a
conjugated linoleic acid and this is
where in nature it actually made
a CIS and a trans it makes this and
this at the same time and this is a very
very healthy thing so if you have a
healthy gut flora if you have lots and
lots of healthy bifida bacteria your
your gut will manufacture this and this
has been shown in research to have
multiple health benefits it's even sold
as a nutritional supplement so even
though it is a trans fat it is not the
man-made synthetic toxic trans fat
everyone agrees that this is one of the
worst abominations of chemistry that we
have ever produced but just because
they're a trance doesn't mean that this
is a bad one the synthetic is terrible
and the natural is healthy so if you
have good health gut bacteria you can
make this but you can also consume it
from dairy and meat if the cows were
grass-fed because if the cows are
healthy if they eat a natural diet then
they produce this healthy thing so a
grass-fed cow will make up to five times
more CLA than a corn-fed cow once again
it's fascinating to me how well Nature
has all of this stuff figured out so the
reason this one doesn't fit is because
it's a straight molecule acting like a
saturated but it's not and every place
that these molecules are different we
need a different enzyme to process it so
Nature has provided us with enzymes
through the generations for every
conceivable combination except the
man-made ones so when these find their
ways into your membranes then they
disrupt the function your brain cell
membranes your blood vessel cell
membranes their impulse
they don't act chemically they look one
way and act another so your body gets
really confused and they kind of
infiltrate your cell membranes and your
body doesn't know what to do with them
and as these accumulate then they create
damage so that's the difference man-made
trans fats are terrible trans fats in
nature are very beneficial for us so
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