Big Fat
Myths
Nutrition
Some fats are
better than others
When it comes to your
heart, olive oil puts the
“med” in Mediterranean.
Not only can it lower
cholesterol levels, blood
pressure, and your risk of
death from heart disease,
but in a new French study
of people 65 and over, olive-oil users slashed their risk
of stroke by 41 percent.
If only the facts about
other fats were so clear! Remember when margarine
was supposed to be better
for you than butter? Then
research showed it was
far worse. Ditto vegetable
shortening. “No wonder
consumers are confused,”
says Dawn Jackson Blatner,
R.D., a spokesperson for
the American Dietetic
Association.
CHEW ON THIS
By Brian Wansink, Ph.D.
For the record, fat is an
essential part of the diet;
among its other functions,
it helps the body absorb
nutrients from foods. But
not all fats are created
equal. Unsaturated fats
promote health, primarily
by cutting cholesterol and
Butter
Hard stick margarine
Soft tub margarine
Vegetable shortening
Plant oils (olive, canola,
safflower, corn, sunflower, soy)
Tropical oils (palm,
palm kernel, coconut)
THE SKINNY ON FAT
TYPE
OF FAT
Saturated
Trans fat
Unsaturated
Trans fat
CALORIES
PER
TABLESPOON
100
100
100
115
Unsaturated
120
Saturated
120
thus lowering heart attack
risk. The two main types of
these “good” fats are mono-unsaturated fats, including
canola and olive oils, and
polyunsaturated fats, like
corn and sunflower oils.
“Any oil that is liquid at
room temperature is heart-smart,” says Blatner.
Saturated fats such as
butter and lard have the
opposite effect, raising
blood cholesterol, particularly “bad” LDL cholesterol, and clogging arteries.
But of all the fats, the
worst for your heart are
trans fats, found in vegetable shortening and stick
margarine. Trans fats
DON’T GET
STUFFED
When we’re Thanksgiving
guests, it’s easy to overeat
because we want to show
the cook our appreciation
for the meal. A preliminary
study at my Cornell Food
and Brand Lab shows
there’s an easy solution
that doesn’t involve eating
until you can’t breathe.
We’ve found the host basi-
cally has no knowledge of
how much food you serve
yourself—she or he is too
distracted by goings-on in
the kitchen. The host does,
however, remember when
you take seconds. So start
off by serving yourself
small portions—then
announce you’re going
back for (a little) more.
FROM LEFT: TARA DONNE (FOOD S T YLIS T: ALISON AT TENBOROUGH; PROP S T YLIS T: STEPHANIE HANES); ILLUS TRATION B Y CHRISTOPH NIEMANN
result when liquid oils are
pumped with hydrogen to
make them solid. This trick
of science gives processed
foods a longer shelf life—
but may shorten your own.
The words hydrogenated oil
or partially hydrogenated
oil on food labels signal the
presence of trans fats.
Keep in mind that even
good fats are loaded with
calories, so they should not
exceed 25 to 35 percent of
daily calories. —Beth Howard
