By Dr Taddeo Rusoke

Did you know that over 500,000 persons lose their lives annually across the globe due to consuming trans fats? What are trans fats? What are the sources of trans fats? Is consumption of trans fats (TF) detrimental to our health and wellbeing? What are the strategic actions put across by World Health Organisation (WHO) to replace trans fats? Is the REPLACE package as suggested by WHO providing a leeway on how to deal with TFAs?

Trans fats or Trans Fatty Acids can be described as processed fats produced through hydrogenation. Hydrogenation is the chemical addition of hydrogen to turn liquid trans fats into solid forms. Trans fats are mainly saturated fats and when consumed in large quantities can increase our vulnerability to cardiovascular diseases especially coronary heart diseases and type 2 diabetes. 

Literally, trans fats can be described as ‘bad fats’ which replace the ‘good’ cholesterol HDL with ‘bad’ cholesterol LDL with bad cholesterol. HDL carries cholesterol to your liver, where it can be removed from your blood stream before it enters the arteries, whereas LDL does the opposite. 

TFA can be packaged in solid, semi-solid or liquid fats and oils. TFs are used in food preparation processes such as deep frying. Common examples of foods rich in trans fats include margarine, some oils and fats used in pastry production. Almost all fast foods which we consume contain trans fats. Baked foods such as cakes, cookies, meat pies, pizzas, chips, doughnuts, fried chicken, potato fries contain trans fats and almost all hydrogenated vegetable oils are major sources of trans fats. 

Trans fats are cheap to manufacture and have the ability to extend shelf-life of processed foods. Trans fats also occur naturally in small quantities in foods such as meat and its byproducts (beef, pork, mutton, milk etc), but the most harmful trans fats are industrially-produced trans fats. 

Which are the healthier foods we can consume that contain minute trans fats? Whole foods – such as fruits, vegetables – dodo, nakatti, lettuce, avocados, cabbages, Whole grains – majorly cereals, Plant proteins such as beans, soya beans, Lean meats with low fat content such as skinless chicken, Fish, nuts and poultry are healthier foods that contain less trans fats. 

The major adverse health effects of trans fats are increased vulnerability to cardiovascular diseases such as coronary heart disease. World Health Organisation (2020) noted that globally, consumption of industrially-produced trans fats causes about 500,000 deaths per annum which are linked to cardiovascular diseases. 

WHO (2019) further observed that 5billion of 7.9billion people in the world face health risks due to industrial trans fats exposure. By (2018) WHO reported that trans fats increased heart-related diseases by 21%, trans fats (TFs) are associated with weight gain and obesity escalating vulnerability to NCDs, TFs alone account for 28% of coronary heart disease deaths globally, TFs increases chances of suffering from stroke by 21% and are linked to Type 2 diabetes.

To achieve a Trans Free Society by 2023, the WHO came up with strategic actions to guide management of trans fats. The strategic actions are summarized in form of a package known as REPLACE which is fully elaborated as follows. 

Review dietary sources of industrially-produced TF & the landscape for required policy change. 

Promote the replacement of industrially- produced trans-fat with healthier oils and fats. 

Legislate or enact regulatory actions to eliminate industrially-produced Trans Fatty Acids. 

Assess and monitor trans-fat content in the food supply and changes in trans-fat consumption in the population at least for every 100g of fat, it should contain 2g of TFs. 

Create awareness on the negative health impact of trans fat among policy-makers, producers, suppliers, and the public, and 

Enforce compliance with policies and regulation. The REPLACE approach is aimed at trans fat free society by 2023.

Dr. Taddeo Rusoke (Ph.D.) is a lecturer in the School of Sciences at Nkumba University.