Eating a tasty meal does not mean you have to slave over a hot stove.

Have you ever thought about what you eat and what it is doing to your bodies - what is the science behind our foods?

The foods we consume are made up of nutrients and the exact composition can be obtained from chemical analysis or from calculations and conversions from other known food values.

We, however, consume most of our foods after it has been processed; this process will introduce new components to the foods thus changing their composition. One such component is oil, which is used in different varieties to fry or coat our foods.

In the news lately has been trans fat. We've heard that a popular fast food outlet will cease to put it in its foods - but what exactly is it? The case of saturated and unsaturated fats has been simple enough to understand, then came trans fats, so where did they come from; well here goes. In times past, we all heard about saturated and unsaturated fatty acids and this was simple enough to understand.

Saturated fats are from animals in the form of lard or meats and are 'bad' for you, while unsaturated fats are in the form of vegetable oils and are 'good' for you.

Given these agreed facts, our major food industries decided, that unsaturated fatty acid were the way to go. However, these were later found to have a very short shelf life, meaning they went bad or became unsuitable for use in a very short time.

UnSUITABILITY

This unsuitability came about because the oils became unstable. The food industry therefore decided to modify the unsaturated fatty acids in order to extend the shelf life, by improving the stability.

The process of improving the stability is called hydrogenation, where hydrogen is added to vegetable oil, but it must be noted that this process is a partial one.

Partial hydrogenation changes the molecular structure of the oil and causes it to harden, resulting in improved shelf life and making it easier to work with. It should also be noted that this process destroys the healthy Omega 3 and Omega 6 essential fatty acids. While this may be convenient for the food industry, it does not spell well for us, the consumers of trans fat. Trans fats are used in snack foods, shortenings, fried foods and some baked products.

Effect on our health

Research has shown that the activities of trans fats alter the lipid levels of the blood, it raises the levels of low density lipoprotein LDL ('bad') cholesterol while decreasing high density lipoprotein HDL ('good') cholesterol.

Trans fats reduces the body's ability to regulate cholesterol thus resulting in blocked arteries, which can trigger heart attacks and stroke. They have also been linked to premature births as well as thousands of deaths.

There are no world-wide figures available but according to an April 2006 article in the New York Times titled 'Nuggets of Death', trans fats have resulted in (conservatively) 30,000 deaths each year. the experts agree that there is a well established link between trans fats and coronary heart disease, its effect on other aspects of our health, is continues to be the subject on numerous studies.