THE BAD FAT.

Byline: NUTRITION By Mark Baker The Register-Guard

It's a big fat problem.

It's also become one of America's top catch words. Make that two catch words: trans fat.

It's topical. It can make food taste really, really good. It's really, really bad for you. It's been banned in New York City, at Starbucks and at Universal Studios in Hollywood, of all places. And it's the butt of late-night comedians' jokes.

David Letterman's answer to trans fat bans? "I always take along my own little bottle of trans fat," he said on a recent show.

Jay Leno thinks trans fat "sounds like an airline."

Blame Crisco for this trans fat fiasco. After all, that's where artificial trans fat began - way back in 1911, when Procter & Gamble hired chemist E.C. Kayser to develop the process of hydrogenating cottonseed oil, which created a shortening that stayed solid.

"Crisco" was short for "crystallized cottonseed oil."

If you live in Lane County, though, what does all of this talk about trans fat mean to you? And will it be banned around here anytime soon, or is that even necessary?

"I'm not too crazy about that philosophy," says Maurizio Paparo, owner and chef at Eugene's Excelsior Inn Ristorante Italiano. Consumers should be able to choose for themselves what they want to put in their bodies, Paparo says.

Not that he uses too many artificial trans fats, if any at all, when cooking some of his signature dishes, such as prosciutto prawns, spaghetti allo scoglio or agnello al porto (half rack of lamb).

Paparo says he primarily uses olive oil, which contains plenty of fat but not artificial trans fat, the man-made substance that has been tagged a killer and is a century-old process created by heating vegetable oil and adding hydrogen.

Not to worry for Paparo and other Eugene restaurant owners, at least not yet. The Eugene City Council has not discussed eliminating trans fat, Mayor Kitty Piercy says.

"We talk about that at home," Piercy says with a laugh. "We have not discussed it, but in my own personal life, I think about it a lot. It's a serious health issue."

In abundance, trans fat can increase bad cholesterol, decrease good cholesterol and dramatically raise your risk of heart disease.

One of the reasons you've heard so much about artery-clogging trans fat in the media lately is because the Food and Drug Administration a year ago required food companies to list trans fat content separately on the "Nutrition Facts" panel of all packaged foods.

"I think this is an issue ... similar to what tobacco was," says Betsy Meredith, a nursing supervisor with Lane County Public Health. "I think that's what's going to happen here."

What is it?

OK, so what the heck is trans fat? What does it look like? Would you know it if you saw it lying in the middle of the street?

Probably not, unless you're a fry cook at a fast-food restaurant.

If you didn't before, you now know that artificial trans fat is created by heating vegetable oil and adding hydrogen.

But how in the world do you do that, and where is it done? And why?

Trans fat is already in the oils some fast-food and other restaurants use (a large order of fries at McDonald's reportedly contains a whopping 8 grams of trans fat). Although trans fat occurs naturally in some meat and dairy products, artificial trans fats are created in the manufacturing process.

Adding hydrogen changes the molecular configuration and properties of vegetable oils used for baking and frying, creating partially hydrogenated oil that reduces rancidity and increases the shelf life of such goodies as Twinkies, makes fried chicken crunchier and pie crust flakier.

"Trans," which is Latin for "across," refers to the configuration of the hydrogen atoms in the process of making partially hydrogenated oil.

By the 1950s, trans fats were used more and more as an alternative to the saturated fats found in butter and some processed foods.

Trans fat became a staple of the American diet in the 1960s and 1970s with the rise of fast-food chains.

Decades of research about artificial trans fat brought in the verdict by the 1990s that it is undeniably lethal. That was followed by lawsuits and public and governmental pressure to rid foods of it.

Kraft, makers of such all-American treats as Oreo cookies, was sued in 2003 by an activist group led by public-interest lawyer Stephen Joseph, who runs a Web site called www.bantransfat.com.

Joseph wanted Kraft to stop marketing Oreos to children. He dropped the lawsuit after the company agreed to eliminate trans fat from the popular creme-filled cookies, according his Web site.

Joseph's group also sued McDonald's in 2003 after it says the fast-food chain misled customers into believing that it had switched to a cooking oil lower trans fat.

Other well-known American brand names such as Campbell's soup, Walt Disney Co., KFC, Wendy's and Taco Bell, have all agreed to eliminate or significantly reduce trans fats in their products.

This is why Dr. William Connor of Oregon Health & Science University's Lipid Clinic, a pioneering researcher in the connection between cholesterol and heart disease, believes the current worry over trans fat is somewhat blown out of proportion.

"I don't think it's that big of a thing because the American diet is changing," says Connor, who is still teaching well into his 80s. "People are intelligent enough to read labels."

Food makers, restaurants and consumers are catching on, he says, just like they did with tobacco.

``Just no reason''

It's all about education and making good choices in your life, says Jackie Lucas, a nutritionist with Lane County Public Health's Women, Infants and Children nutrition program.

Lucas says she sees a lot of lower-income families who do not get enough fruits and vegetables in their diets, and who take the whole family out for fast food because it's cheap and filling.

``I really try and push people away from labeling foods `good' or `bad' and try to steer them toward creating more of a balance,'' she says.

Stephanie Pearl Kimmel, owner of Eugene's Marche Restaurant, says she agrees with a ban on artificial trans fat that will be imposed on New York City restaurants July 1.

``I think restaurants have a responsibility to feed their patrons food that's delicious but that's not detrimental to their health,'' Kimmel says.

She hesitates at first when asked about a ban at Eugene restaurants, then says: ``That's a hard question. I think it would be OK. I do think it would be a motivator, as long as there was a delay so it's not a hardship on some businesses.''

As for Marche, Kimmel says her restaurant has never used artificial trans fats in the preparation of it dishes, although it uses butter in its desserts.

The restaurant uses rice bran oil for its French fries and fried oysters, and uses olive oil and canola oil for sauteing.

``There are many wonderful alternatives,'' Kimmel says. ``There's just no reason to use (trans fats).''

Other local restaurants, such as Cafe Yumm! and Sweet Life Patisserie, have jumped on the trans-free bandwagon.

Despite being known for having some of Eugene's most delectable desserts, Sweet Life is about 98 percent trans-free, says Catherine Reinhart, who owns the west Eugene dessert and coffee shop with her sister, Cheryl Reinhart.

Sweet Life uses butter in frostings and organic palm oil in other products.

The cafe used shortening in its pie crusts for a while and then decided palm oil "was just as tasty," Catherine Reinhart says.

FAT FOUR The four fats found in your food Saturated: Made of triglycerides, some common examples of saturated fatty acids are butyric acid (butter), lauric acid (breast milk, coconut oil, palm oil and cocoa butter), myristic acid (cow milk and dairy products), palmitic acid (meat) and stearic acid (also in meat). Foods that contain a high proportion of saturated fat are butter, ghee, suet, tallow, lard, coconut oil, cottonseed oil and palm kernel oil, dairy products (especially cream and cheese), and meat, as well as some prepared foods. Trans: Trans fatty acids are the worst kind of fat and occur naturally, in small quantities, in meat and dairy products from ruminants. Most trans fats consumed today, however, are industrially created as a side effect of partial hydrogenation of plant oils - a process developed in the early 1900s and first commercialized as Crisco in 1911. Partial hydrogenation changes a fat's molecular structure (raising its melting point and reducing rancidity). But this process also results in a proportion of the changed fat becoming trans fat. The process is used to make an oil more solid, provide a longer "shelf-life" in baked products, a longer "fry-life" for cooking oils and a certain kind of texture or "mouthfeel." Monounsaturated: One of the "good" fats, monounsaturated fatty acids include palmitoleic acid and oleic acid. They are found in natural foods such as nuts and avocados, and are the main component of olive oil. They also can be found in grapeseed oil, ground nut oil, peanut oil, flaxseed oil, sesame oil and corn oil. Canola oil is about 60 percent monounsaturated fat, and olive oil is about 75 percent monounsaturated fat. Polyunsaturated: Another healthy fat, these fatty acids are found mostly in grain products; fish and seafood; corn; soybeans; mayonnaise; soft margarine; fish oil; and safflower, sesame and sunflower seeds. Source: Wikipedia and www.bantransfat.com

TRANS-FREE Six rules to help you avoid partially hydrogenated oils 1: Do not eat any product which has the words "partially hydrogenated" or "shortening" in the ingredients list 2: If the label says zero trans fats, don't believe it. If the words "partially hydrogenated" or "shortening" are in the ingredients list, it does contain trans fat. 3: Be careful when consuming products with labels from outside the United States. Sometimes they contain partially hydrogenated oil, but it's not on the label. 4: In restaurants, bakeries and other eateries, ask whether they use partially hydrogenated oil for frying, baking or in salad dressings. If they say they use vegetable oil, ask whether it is partially hydrogenated. When you ask, you're sending a message to the seller of the food that you don't want trans fats. 5: Keep saturated fat intake low, too. 6: Remember that polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fats are good fats. Source: www.bantransfat.com