One packet of chips.. one packet of biscuits.. or just one packet of bhajia. You must be thinking that what have you eaten... But there is a danger of death in these packets only. The World Health Organization has recently released a status report. This report is about trans fats. According to this report, annually 5 lakh people are dying prematurely due to eating trans fats. What are trans fats? Before understanding this in detail, understand in simple language that trans fats can be present in your favorite chips, burger, cake, or biscuit or even in a packet of snacks. Every packaged thing whose age is from a few days to a few months. Understand that trans fats will be present in it.
When any oil is frozen through an industrial process i.e. through hydrogenation and it is converted into frozen fat, it takes the form of trans fat or trans fatty acids. For example, if the oil obtained from the vegetable is stored by chemical processing and made in such a way that it remains frozen at room temperature, then it will be called transfat.
Vanaspati ghee is a type of trans fat. Mustard oil with raw ghani is not trans fat but vanaspati ghee, or mayonnaise is trans fat. Desi ghee and butter are not trans fat but refined oil which has been fried more than three times becomes trans fat. Be it biscuits or snacks, trans fat is used in them so that they remain frozen for a long time, and by using trans fats, they can be sold and eaten for a long time.
Trans fat increases bad cholesterol in the body. The worse thing is that by consuming trans fats in excess, the good cholesterol i.e. the essential fat present in the body also starts converting into bad cholesterol. Trans fats have a big role in giving heart disease to Indians. Because if you have eaten samosa fried in oil many times from the market or have eaten a packet of chips, burgers, or pizza, then trans fat has reached you through all these.
According to the latest report of the World Health Organization (WHO), trans fats have reduced the lives of 5 billion people in the world. They are living at risk of heart disease. In 2018, an effort was made to reduce trans fats in food and to eliminate trans fats from foods by 2023. However, now 43 countries have moved forward in this matter. In 2022, India also joined this list.
Apart from India, Bangladesh, Argentina, and Sri Lanka also reduced the number of trans fats significantly in the last year. Although trans fat has been banned in all countries, but could not be completely banned. It has not yet been banned in Pakistan, Nepal, Korea, Bhutan, Iran, Ecuador, Egypt, Australia, and Azerbaijan. According to WHO standards, the number of trans fats should not be more than 2 grams per 100 grams. Refined oil with high hydrogen content should be banned in packaged mines. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India has implemented this rule in January 2022. But how many products sold in the market follow these standards, cannot be said.
According to doctors, there is no need for trans fats in our bodies. Therefore, if it is banned completely, it will not make any difference. But without this, the market of packaged things will have to be changed completely. Meat and dairy products contain some amount of natural trans fatty acids but they are negligible. You will not be able to calculate how much trans fat is in a piece of pastry or a pizza base.
In 2019, CSE did a reality test on trans fats. An analysis was done in the lab to detect trans fats in the packets of many famous brands of chips and bhajia. It was found that if you eat a packet of chips of 30 grams, then understand that you have eaten almost half of the total fat of the day, and that too in the form of trans fats. Nutcrackers, baked chips and bhujia were found to contain excess fat. It was also revealed in this survey that the labels of many packets are not giving correct information as to what is actually in them.
If you want to remove this bad fat from your life, then what you cannot eat and how you can reduce the damage to your health? For this, we have talked to experts and surveyed the market. From this, you will be able to understand what mistakes did you make in eating during the day, which you should not do from tomorrow.
Homemade butter, pure desi ghee, or unadulterated mustard oil are oils without trans fat. But frozen vanaspati ghee, cheese spread, mayonnaise, pizza, and burgers like junk food or creams all of them contain a lot of trans fat. In the opinion of doctors, there is no need for trans fats in our bodies. Trans fats also convert the good fats present in our bodies into bad fats. They are not only harming the heart by accumulating in the arteries, but they are also affecting the liver and brain. Experts even claim that these trans fats can be the main reason behind many lifestyle diseases.. even cancer, whose direct cause is sometimes not understood by us.
Now the question arises what is the solution? So the solution is to eat fresh. Keep your distance from freshly cooked food, fresh fruits, and fresh vegetables, and as much as possible from eating packaged food. Do walk for at least 30 minutes daily. Return to the diet of grandmother's era and live longer. If you want to eat potato tikki, make it fresh but in desi ghee or mustard oil. That too once a month only.
