Know Your Fats:
The Complete Primer for
Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils and Cholesterol
by Mary G. Enig
Know Your Fats: The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats,
Oils, and Cholesterol by Mary G. Enig, Ph.D. provides the reader with a very
broad but also in-depth discussion of the many aspects of dietary fats and oils
in our foods and in our bodies. The reader will gain an understanding of the
relationship between dietary fat intake and health and between dietary fat
intake and disease. The reader will also be able to determine why some
information in other books or articles may not be correct.
The book is written broad enough to appeal to the general public and with
sufficient detail to serve as excellent reference to the nutritionist, dietician
and physician. The food/health journalist, who often serves as the intermediary
between the researcher and the consumer, should find this book particularly
useful. They all should find this book a useful and valuable source of factual
information written by an internationally acknowledged expert in the subject.
During the writing and editing of this book, individuals in all of the above
categories were consulted for ideas, questions, and criticism.
An effort has been made to keep the terminology understandable and in
accordance with that terminology used in the numerous reports written for
consumers by government agencies. Occasionally, it has been necessary to use
technical terms in order to avoid simplistic wording that would sacrifice
accuracy. A General Glossary of those terms, common to fats and oils in
foods and lipids in biological systems, is included at the end of this book for
the reader.
Other popular books about fats
Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill: Udo Erasmus: Alive Books ‘93: 0-920470-38-6.
This book about an important technical topic is creatively written by a non-scientist;
has numerous errors and embellishments in basic nutrition and fats and oils information.
The Complete Fats and Oils Book: How to Buy, Use, and Control Fats & Oils:
Lewis Harrison: Avery Publishing Group ‘96: Written by a non-scientist;
gives an overview that combines some useful information and at times the
author’s erroneous understanding of fats and oils.
About the Author
Dr. Mary G. Enig, a nutritionist/biochemist of international renown 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. Dr. Enig, a consultant on nutrition to
individuals, industry, and state and federal governments, is a licensed
practitioner in Maryland and the District of Columbia. She has served as a
Contributing Editor of the scientific journal Clinical Nutrition and a
Consulting Editor of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.
Dr. Enig has authored numerous journal publications, mainly on fats and oils research and
nutrient/drug interactions, and is a well-known invited lecturer at
scientific meetings and a popular interviewee on TV and radio shows about
nutrition. She was an early and articulate critic of the use of trans
fatty acids and advocated their inclusion in nutritional labeling; the
scientific mainstream is now challenging the food product industry's use
of trans-containing partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. She received
her Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Maryland, College
Park, and is a Fellow of The American College of Nutrition, a member of
The American Society for Nutritional Sciences, and President of the
Maryland Nutritionists Association.
Questions? Call us at (301)680-8600 or contact our Order Department or Customer Service
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Reviews
Sally W Fallon "President, The Weston A. Price Foundation"
(Washington, DC USA)For years Americans have been fed a diet of misinformation on the
important subject of dietary fats and oils. This misinformation encourages
the consumption of imitation foods based on highly processed vegetable oils
and mitigates against the consumption of healthy traditional fats like
butter, tallow and coconut oil. Although this misinformation often
originates with the very food companies that profit from such misguidance,
it also permeates the vast majority of scholarly and popular books on the
subject, books that may seem objective and factual but which in fact bolster
the trend towards processed foods.
Mary Enig's book is the exception. Both scholarly and readable, Know Your
Fats sorts out fact from fiction in this controversial field. Enig is a
highly qualified specialist in the subject of lipids, trained at the
University of Maryland under pioneering researchers. She is a Fellow of the
American College of Nutrition and President of the Maryland Nutritionists'
Association. Most importantly, Enig was the first to speak out about the
dangers of trans fatty acids in the food supply. She held her ground in
spite of industry blackballing and the professional cold-shoulder that
ensued. Today she enjoys the satisfaction of having been right.
Readers of Know Your Fats should be prepared for some surprises. They'll
learn about the health benefits of saturated fats, the importance of
cholesterol, dangers of polyunsaturates, flaws in the lipid theory of heart
disease, what's left out of nutrition labeling, errors in the official data
bases (used in many research projects) and the dangerous substitute
ingredients that have quietly permeated the American food supply. Anyone
interested in the subject of diet and health needs to obtain this book, read
it thoroughly and refer to it often.
Jon Norris (Oregon, USA)
This is quite simply the best book available on lipid chemistry in
nutrition that is accessible to non-scientists. It lists and describes the
actions of fats in our diet, and the role fats play in our body chemistry
and health. Dr. Enig takes us all the way from chemical formulas and
molecular diagrams to descriptions of various kinds of oils and fats used in
cooking, as well as the sources and makeup of different types of oils and
fats.
Dr. Enig pulls no punches in discussing misunderstood or misused
research, and this honesty is welcome and refreshing, not to mention
possibly life saving. It is so tiresome trying to wade through the hype and
PR noise around nutrition. Like medical research, the food business is about
Big Money, and truth seems to be a stranger to that part of our society.
More and more, one must become an informed advocate for one's own health and
welfare. This book is an important tool for the enlightened consumer.
The book is well written in a very clear style with no extraneous
scientific jargon. It is well referenced and cited, which I like in a book
that discusses scientific research. These days people have much more access
to original research papers than ever before.
If you get only one book on fats in your diet, this should be it. The
research and information is solid, free of fads and commercial influence.
Order the book
Health Risks from Processed Foods and The Dangers of Trans Fats
Dr. Mary Enig Interviewed By Richard A. Passwater, Ph.D.
Mary G. Enig, Ph.D., 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. 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. 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 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 to baked
goods. Such "funny foods" are far differentthan 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. 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. 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. 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.
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. 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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 vis-à-vis 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. 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.
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