| | Interviews with Nutritional Experts: Health Risks from Processed Foods and Trans Fats: Part I | |
Interview with Dr. Mary Enig
as interviewed by Richard A. Passwater PhD
Mary G. Enig, Ph.D., a nutritionist widely known for her research on the
nutritional aspects of fats and oils, is a consultant, clinician, and the
Director of the Nutritional Sciences Division of Enig Associates, Inc.,
Silver Spring, Maryland. She received her PhD in Nutritional Sciences from
the University of Maryland, College Park in 1984, taught a graduate course
in nutrient-drug interactions for the University's Graduate Program in Nutritional
Sciences, and held a Faculty Research Associateship from 1984 through 1991
with the Lipids Research Group in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Dr. Enig is a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition, and a member
of the American Institute of Nutrition. Her many years of experience as
a "bench chemist" in the analysis of food fats and oils, provides
a foundation for her active roles in food labeling and composition issues
at the federal and state levels.
Dr. Enig is a Consulting Editor to the "Journal of the American College
of Nutrition" and formerly served as a Contributing Editor to "Clinical
Nutrition." She has published 14 scientific papers on the subject of
food fats and oils, several chapters on nutrition for books, and presented
over 35 scientific papers on food and nutrition topics. She is the President
of the Maryland Nutritionists Association, past President of the Coalition
of Nutritionists of Maryland and was appointed by the Governor in 1986 to
the Maryland State Advisory Council on Nutrition and served as the Chairman
of the Health Subcommittee until the Council was disbanded in 1988.
I first learned of Dr. Mary Enig's research from a 1978 report in the Federation
Proceedings. We met shortly after that, and since I had written about
trans fats several times in Supernutrition, we had common concerns
about the effect that these trans fats from processed foods were
having. We were both concerned particularly about the misconception
that processed margarine was better than natural butter.
In several visits by Dr. Mary Enig to the Solgar Nutritional Research Center
I quickly learned that she was an exacting scientist who is not afraid to
speak out and who supports good nutrition, not just going along with the
establishment's party line. While studying for her Ph.D. at the University
of Maryland, often she would first respond with the "correct"
answer that was expected, and then she would explain why new research indicated
"alternatives," such as optimal vitamin and mineral nourishment,
provided a better answer. It is not easy be credentialed by the "system,"
while your own research shows other facts.
In part I of my interview with Dr. Enig, we will discuss the harm caused
by partially-hydrogenated fats that are present in processed foods. In Part
II, we will discuss how partially-hydrogenated fats increase heart disease
and cancer risks, and how the processed food industry tries to suppress
this information.
In her 1978 report, Dr. Enig challenged the speculation concerning the relationship
of dietary fat and cancer causation. She concluded that correlations between
the increase in per capita dietary fat intake and total cancer mortality
over a sixty-year period show significant positive correlations for total
fat and vegetable fat, and negative correlation for animal fat. That
is the cancer rate is higher when the amount of vegetable fat or total fat
is higher in the diet, but the cancer rate is lower when there there is
more animal fat in the diet. These findings were unpopular then as they
are today, but they are still correct. It is convenient to blame everything
on red meat and animal fat, and believe that vegetable oil is the great
dietary salvation -- even if it is partially hydrogenated. At least that
is what the vegetable oil people would like everyone to believe.
Now, we are not saying that lots of dietary fat is good for you and that
vegetables are not good. Eating vegetables, fruits and other whole foods
is very desirable. However, that is not the same as eating partially-hydrogenated
vegetable oils. Americans eat too much fat (especially partially hydrogenated
vegetable oils) and not enough fruits and vegetables. The problem is that
the typical American is not eating enough whole foods, but instead,
is eating too much partially-hydrogenated vegetable oil -- a fractionated
food -- that has been made into "funny foods" such as margarine
or added to baked goods. Such "funny foods" are far differentthan
real whole foods.
Hydrogenation ruins the nutritional value of vegetable oils! Why would anyone
want to ruin the nutrition value of vegetable oils? The purpose of hydrogenation
is to solidify an oil so that it can be made to resemble real foods such
as butter. The hydrogenation process imparts desirable features
such as spreadability, texture, "mouth feel," and increased shelf
life to naturally liquid vegetable oils. In the hydrogenation process, vegetable
oil is reacted under pressure with hydrogen gas at 250 - 400oF
for several hours in the presence of a catalyst such as nickel or platinum.
However, this industrial process cannot control where the hydrogen atoms
are added to the "unsaturated" double bonds. Randomly adding hydrogen
atoms to polyunsaturated fats converts natural food components into many
compounds, some of which have never seen before by man until partially hydrogenated
fats were manufactured.
Some of the several dozens of altered compounds created in the manufacture
of partially-hydrogenated fats are "trans" fatty acids.
Fatty acids are the building blocks of fats, much like amino acids are the
building blocks of proteins. Other new compounds accidentally synthesized
include fatty acids having double bonds translocated to new and un-natural
positions, and various molecular fragments. Many of these altered compounds
are detrimental to health.
Since "trans" fats are so detrimental to our health. permit
me to briefly review the relevance of distinguishing between "trans"
and "cis" fats before chatting with Dr. Enig. Recently,
in the September issue, in the interview with Dr. Jim Clark and Mr. Lance
Schilipalius, we discussed "trans" isomers of carotenoids.
"Trans" means the same thing here. "Cis" and "trans"
isomers refer to how identical atoms are added to double bonds. When the atoms are added to the same side of the double bond, the compound
is called "cis" and the molecule is bent because of the
crowding of the atoms on one side. When the atoms are added on opposite
sides of the double
bond, the compound is called "trans" and molecule is "space-balanced"
and straightened. The shape of a molecule is important because enzymes and
their substrates -- the molecules enzymes act upon -- must
fit together like a key in a lock.
Dr. Enig will discuss this during the interview, but the important thing
to remember is that natural polyunsaturated fatty acids are "cis"
compounds and are bent. Partial hydrogenation produces many un-natural "trans"
fats which are straight and not intended for use in the human body.
You don't have to understand the difference between "trans"
and "cis," but it is important that you know that there
is a difference because, as Dr. Enig will explain, it can affect your health.
Passwater: Dr. Enig, a lot of people are interested in "trans"
fats now. You have been researching them since 1977. How are trans
fats harmful to us?
Enig: More than a decade of research at the University of Maryland,
as well as research that was being done at other institutions, showed that
consumption of trans fatty acids from partially hydrogenated (a process
that adds hydrogen to solidify or harden) vegetable fats and oils had many
adverse effects in health areas such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes,
immunity, reproduction and lactation, and obesity. It is rather easy today
to come up with a long list of these adverse effects from the published
research done by many scientists around the world, as well as the researchers
at the University of Maryland.
The reason there is so much recent interest is that during the past three
years there has been a number of major research reports published in prestigious
medical journals that caught the attention of the press. These and earlier
reports had shown, for example, that consumption of trans fatty acids
lower the "good" HDL cholesterol in a dose response manner (the
higher the trans fat level in the diet, the lower the HDL level in
the blood) and raise the atherogenic lipoprotein(a) in humans as well as
raising the "bad" LDL cholesterol and total blood cholesterol
levels by 20-30 milligram-percent. These studies have usually been shown
in independent non-industry studies. Perhaps the most significant event
though was the report from researchers at Harvard University, who evaluated
more than 85,000 women in a long-term prospective study and found that there
was a significantly higher intake of trans fatty acids in those individuals
who developed heart disease.
As regards to the question of cancer, trans fatty acids induce adverse
alterations in the activities of the important enzyme system that metabolizes
chemical carcinogens and drugs (medications), i. e., the mixed-function
oxidase cytochromes P-448/450. The initial research in this area was done
by the Maryland group in collaboration with the U. S. Food and Drug Administration,
and was followed by the more extensive evaluation that I did for my Ph.D.
dissertation; several groups around the country and the world also reported
the same or similar results. Several groups around the world reported
a higher intake of partially hydrogenated fats in those individuals who
have developed cancer.
Both primate and human studies have shown inappropriate handling of blood
sugar; trans fatty acids decrease the response of the red blood cell
to insulin, thus having a potentially undesirable effect in diabetics. The
primate research was initiated at Maryland in collaboration with the U.
S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health, and
the human research is from the University of Pittsburgh and quite recent.
One major concern is that trans fatty acids adversely affect immune
response by lowering efficiency of B cell response and increasing proliferation
of T cells. This was shown in research done at Maryland using a mouse model
and although there are reports from clinicians that there are problems of
immune dysfunction in humans it still needs to be evaluated systematically
in humans.
Recent research from outside the U. S. has indicated that trans fatty
acids interfere with reproductive attributes and of concern is the finding
that trans fatty acids lower the amount of cream (volume) in milk
from lactating females in all species studies including humans, thus lowering
the overall quality available to the infant. The latter research
was done at Maryland by my colleague Dr. Beverly Teter.
Basically, trans fatty acids cause alterations to numerous physiological
functions of biological membranes that are known to be critical for cell
homeostasis, e.g., appropriate membrane transport and membrane fluidity,
and these fatty acid isomers produce alterations in adipose cell size, cell
number, lipid class and fatty acid composition.
Passwater: Now that trans fats are becoming of more interest,
the term may still just be a buzz word to many of our readers. Would you
explain just what are trans fats? Where do they come from? How are
they formed?
Enig: To understand what trans fatty acids are you have to
understand what fatty acids are. Fatty acids are basically chains of carbon
with a carboxyl group (COOH) at one end that can react (e.g., combine) with
another molecule. When fatty acids are in fats or oils they are combined
with glycerol in the proportions of three fatty acid molecules to one glycerol
molecule and they form triacylglycerols or in common terminology, triglycerides.
Fatty acids come in different chain lengths ranging from three carbons long
(propionic acid) to 24 carbons long (lignoceric acid). These fatty acids
are either "saturated" (with an adequate number of hydrogen atoms)
and chemically stable, or they are "unsaturated" (missing adequate
hydrogens) and chemically unstable. If a fatty acid is missing two hydrogens,
it is called a monounsaturated fatty acid, and in place of the two hydrogens,
the adjacent carbons "double" bond to each other. If the fatty
acid is missing four or six or more hydrogens, it is called a polyunsaturated
fatty acid, and it is even more unstable than the monounsaturated fatty
acid. Because the double bonds in naturally occurring plant oil fatty acids
are curved with a "cis" configuration, the fatty acids cannot
pack into a crystal form at normal temperatures so their presence produces
a liquid oil. Saturated fatty acids have a straight configuration and can
pack into a solid crystal at normal temperatures.
If the unsaturated fatty acids are altered by partial hydrogenation to straighten
the chains so that they have some of the physical packing properties of
saturated fatty acids they have had their "cis" double bond changed
to a "trans" double bond and they turn a technically mostly
unsaturated oil into a solid fat. The trans fatty acids are the same
length and weight as the original "cis" fatty acid they were formed
from, and although they have the same number of carbons, hydrogens, and
oxygens they are shaped differently in space. The term that is used is that
they are "isomers." The problem arises when a large number of
the trans fatty acids are consumed from foods and they are deposited
in those parts of the cell membranes that are supposed to have either saturated
fatty acids or "cis" unsaturated fatty acids; under these circumstances
the trans fatty acids essentially foul up the "machinery."
Although the trans fatty acids are chemically "monounsaturated"
or "polyunsaturated" they are considered so different from the
"cis" monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fatty acids that they
cannot be legally designated, e.g., monounsaturated for purposes of labeling.
Most of the trans fatty acids produced by the partial hydrogenation
process are chemically monounsaturates.
There have always been small amounts of one kind of trans fatty acids
in the human diet from the ruminant fats (dairy, sheep, goat, deer, buffalo,
antelope, etc.) because the microorganisms in the rumen try to get rid of
the polyunsaturated fatty acids that are found in the plant foods eaten
by these animals. In the early days of trans fatty acid research,
the researchers assumed that the trans fatty acids found in ruminant
fats were no different than those produced by partial hydrogenation in the
factory. But the studies showed that not only was the amount much smaller
(e.g., the fat in butter might be 2-3% of the ruminant trans), the
effect on the "machinery" in the cell membranes was not different
than without the trans. Yet all studies feeding the trans
produced by partially hydrogenating the vegetable oils showed the adverse
effect on the cell "machinery."
Passwater: Why are trans fats a problem?
Enig: The various mechanisms through which the trans fatty
acids disrupt function are related in part to the ability of trans
fatty acids to inhibit the function of membrane related enzymes such as
the delta-6 desaturase resulting in decreased conversion of e.g., linoleic
acid to gamma-linolenic acid or arachidonic acid; interference with the
necessary conversion of omega-3 fatty acids to their elongated tissue omega-3
fatty acids; and escalation of the adverse effects of essential fatty acid
deficiency. This latter effect was shown especially by the work of Dr. Holman and his colleagues at the Hormel Institute at the University of Minnesota,
the other effects have been shown by many researchers including the University
of Maryland researchers.
Passwater: What were your early findings and what got you interested
in this area of research?
Enig: My initial published research in 1978 when I was at the University
of Maryland showed that trans fatty acids, which were increasing
in the food supply at the time and which had not been catalogued in any
of the food data tables, were the very factors that explained the positive
statistical relationship between the increase in cancer mortality and vegetable
fat consumption in the U. S.
It was clear from the literature that once the trans fatty acids
were identified as products of partial hydrogenation and studies were engaged
in, there were a number of earlier researchers who questioned the biological
safety of the trans fatty acids viz a viz their relationship to both
cancer and heart disease. In fact, Dr. Ancel Keys had originally claimed
that the partially hydrogenated vegetable oils with their trans fatty
acids were the culprits in heart disease. This was in 1958, and
the edible oils industry was very swift in their squelching of that information;
they shifted the emphasis to "saturated" fat and started the phoney
attack on meat and dairy fats.
Passwater: What have others added to your findings?
Enig: As you have noted in some of your writings, we at the University
of Maryland were not the first to raise the issue of trans fatty
acids and adverse health effects; Dr. Fred Kummerow from the University
of Illinois, Dr. George Mann from Vanderbilt University, and Dr. Edward
Pinckney with the American Medical Association had sounded the alarm many
years before my plunge into the foray. In fact, I had drawn heavily on the
research findings of Dr. Kummerow and the informative writing of Dr. Mann
when I first started to investigate what was known about health effects
of trans fatty acids at the time. Our research findings have been
duplicated by others, but more importantly other independent researchers
have extended and explained many of our findings and concerns.
Passwater: I remember how the processed food industry tried to suppress
your early research. In Part II, let's discuss the techniques used against
you and how you overcame them, and then we can more fully discuss the relationship
of various fats to heart disease and cancer.
All rights, including electronic and print media, to this article are copyrighted
to © Richard A. Passwater, Ph.D. and Whole Foods magazine (WFC Inc.)
| Richard A. Passwater, Ph.D. has been a research biochemist since 1959. His first areas of research was in the development of pharmaceuticals and analytical chemistry. His laboratory research led to his discovery of......more |  |
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