The tasty silent killers

KOCHI:  Eating junk food for every meal could get you killed in less than a decade. Sounds crazy? Well, not so much, say experts.Transfat, one of the ingredients that makes your chips crispy and tasty is actually a silent killer. Studies show that prolonged intake of transfat can lead to illnesses ranging from heart diseases to cancer!Transfats seldom occur naturally. They are formed when oil is hydrogenated, ie, the process of adding hydrogen to liquid vegetable oil under high pressure. Hydrogenated oil, also known as vegetable shortening, has a longer shelf life and is cheaper than normal vegetable oil and is hence a part of almost all processed foods. Even our home-cooked food is not free of transfat because over-heating and reheating of oil (yes, even in a microwave oven) is the ‘homely version’ of hydrogenation.“Trans fats work by blocking the ‘good cholesterol’, HDL, from doing its duty. HDL is in charge of de-clogging our arteries and thus preventing heart diseases,” said Jaison Paulson, a nutritionist.“People think it is okay to skip a meal and have a pack of biscuits instead. They seldom realise the damage it does to their health,” he said. Biscuit, bread, confectioneries, fast food, fried food, pastry, ready-to-eat foods and microwave food, all fare in the list of trans fat-rich food. In today’s fast-paced life, it is next-to-impossible to avoid all of these. “Eating a small amount of fried or baked stuff once in a while will not do much harm,” opined Bulbin Jose, a dietician.“Although the best thing to do is to reduce the intake of fried and baked food, it is not practical to completely neglect the use of oil in Indian cooking. Hence, virgin coconut oil or olive oil can be used in place of vanaspathi and hydrogenated vegetable oil. Even these should not be over-heated and are best taken in the raw form,” noted Jaison.So the next time you are about to open that biscuit packet, do yourself a favour; check the ‘nutritional value’ label for transfat.