Trans fatty acids are created when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil – a process that makes the oil last longer. Food fried in oil containing trans fat or baked with shortening or other ingredients containing trans fat stay fresh longer. Trans fats are what gave the Oreo cookie filling its smooth, creamy texture and make French fries crisp. But trans fats have been found to raise bad cholesterol while lowering good cholesterol. Here’s a look at what’s replacing trans fats:

Canola oil: This is the market name for “rapeseed oil,” which comes from rapeseed plants. It is low in saturated fat (a bad fat) and high in monounsaturated fat (a good fat).

High oleic canola oil: A strain of canola oil high in oleic acid, a monounsaturated fatty acid that contributes to increased shelf life. Canola and other oils high in oleic acid…

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By JULIE JARGON
November 6, 2007

Food companies are scrambling to replace trans fat in everything from french fries to cookies, but health experts worry that what’s good for the nation’s heart might be bad for its waistline.

Trans fat is created when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil. The resulting ingredient, known as partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, is what makes french fries crispy and croissants flaky. But trans fat’s effect on cholesterol — it raises the bad kind and lowers the good — has made it a food-industry villain.

Ever since the Food and Drug Administration required food companies to disclose the amount of trans fat in their products last year, the industry has been searching for replacement ingredients. Kraft Foods Inc., the world’s second-largest food manufacturer by revenue, has removed trans fat from numerous products, including Oreo cookies, Wheat Thins…

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By Sangeeta Tiwari
Palm oil is a form of edible vegetable oil obtained from the fruit of the oil palm tree. It is the second-most widely produced edible oil, after soybean oil.

However, it may have now surpassed soybean oil as the most widely produced vegetable oil in the world. The palm fruit is the source of both palm oil (extracted from palm fruit) and palm kernel oil (extracted from the fruit seeds).

Palm oil is one of the few vegetable oils relatively high in saturated fats (such as coconut oil) and thus semi-solid at room temperature. There are several commercial variants of palm oil available viz., Crude Palm oil, Crude Palmolein, RBD (Refined Bleached Deodorized) Palmoil, RBD Palmolien and Palm Kernel Oil. Crude Palm oil when subjected to refining results in the other factions.

Palm oil with an annual production of 25-27 million tons…

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Rhett A. Butler, San Francisco

Environmentalists and palm-oil producers are increasingly at odds. Greens groups say palm oil is driving the conversion of tens of thousands of hectares of peatlands and lowland forest in Indonesia, putting wildlife at risk, increasing the vulnerability of forests to fires, and triggering large emissions of greenhouse gases.

Palm-oil producers say their industry plays a crucial role in Indonesia’s economic growth and provides employment to tens of thousands of Indonesians. Going further, some plantation owners suggest that campaigners are merely trying to hurt the industry, while others accuse the West of hypocrisy for criticizing palm-oil production while overlooking environmental harm caused by biofuels in other parts of the world, including the Amazon (soy biodiesel and sugar-cane ethanol), Europe (rapeseed), and the United States (corn ethanol).

Nevertheless, pressure from environmentalists is beginning…

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By Stephen Daniells

9/24/2007 - Tocotrienols, the less studied form of vitamin E, may reduce DNA damage, considered an important trigger in cancer development, by about 50 per cent, new research suggests.

Researchers from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and tocotrienol-supplier, Golden Hope Bioganic, report that daily supplementation with a tocotrienol-rich supplement (Tri E Tocotrienol) showed greater effects in the older subjects, a sub-population with higher rates of DNA damage.

“The effect of Tri E Tocotrienol is more obvious in older age, possibly reflecting a greater need for supplementation or a greater profound effect due to the larger amount of damage present,” wrote the authors, led by Siok-Fong Chin, in the journal Nutrition.

There are eight forms of vitamin E: four tocopherols (alpha, beta, gamma, delta) and four tocotrienols (alpha, beta, gamma, delta). Alpha-tocopherol (alpha-Toc) is the main source found in supplements and in the European diet, while gamma-tocopherol…

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