Dangers of Trans Fat

High cholesterol, on its own, does not cause heart disease

(See this video and learn more...)

Before the last century, people throughout the world ate large amounts of saturated fats as their main form of cooking fat – lard in China, butter in Europe, ghee in India, coconut oil in the tropics. And some of these people do have high cholesterol levels.

Yet, before the last century, heart disease was extremely rare. Heart disease started to become common in the US only after the 1920s and 1930s – when margarine consumption rose during the Great Depression (1929 through most of the 1930s) because many people were poor and could not afford butter.

In some other parts of the world, heart disease became common only as recently as the 1970s and 1980s. Till today, there traditional societies countries with low rates of heart disease even though the population consume large amounts of saturated fat.

The dangers of trans fats in causing heart disease thus do not simply lie with the fact that trans fats raise cholesterol. Other dangers of trans fats are involved as well, including:

Trans fats (as well as rancid oils) damage artery walls, causing abnormal plaque build-up that eventually blocks the flow of blood.

Trans fats promote inflammation which, again, can damage artery walls and result in abnormal plaque build up.

Another of the dangers of trans fats is that inflammation can cause artery walls to rupture. This could result in massive blood clots that obstruct the flow of blood, causing either a heart attack or a stroke. It could also result in massive loss of blood through internal bleeding, leading to death.