Soon after I was diagnosed with diabetes, someone, either a dietician or
an endo, recommended Becel.  But I found it tasteless and decided to use
"Gold'n Canola Lite, a source of Essential Omega-3*, reduced fat spread
with cholesterol free canola oil." The nutrition information on this spread
lists
the "trans fat" as being 0.03% and the serving size as being  0.5g.

It takes me well over a month to use up a 500g container of  this canola.

Nev.

Hi JoAnne

"I seem to recall reading somewhere that this type of
transfat behaves differently than partially hydrogenated
oils." Yep, you're right.

We have a friend here who posts regularly on subjects like
this. I hope Quentin won't mind if I re-post one of his
excellent and informative comments. This is the sort of
thread that he usually joins - so I hope he's well.

In his absence:

From October 2006:
http://tinyurl.com/2b3d6l

G'day G'day Folks,

It is with some diffidence that I raise these issues.  Many
people have very fixed ideas about dietary fat when in truth
there is much that is still subject to debate.  While I'm
happy to highlight the issues I haven't at the moment the
energy following a fifth round of chemo to debate with
anyone. The side effects accumulate with each round. For the
last few days it has been a matter of crawling out of bed
for a few hours to do something important, typing up
equations and graphs for student notes etc. IMHO raising
some dietary issues in a way that might help newbies and act
as a reminder to old timers is important. I'll leave arguing
to those who find that aspect important to do amongst
themselves.  

If there is one fat that most people despise with certainty
it is trans fats.  In public perception these are the arch
villains.  

Trans fats are mono-unsaturated fats that have the wrong
twist in their geometry.  The one most vilified is elaidic
acid the evil twisted twin of the beneficial
cis-monounsaturated fatty acid called oleic acid found in
olives, nuts and avocados and to a lesser extent in animal
fats.  

How bad are trans fats?  Conventional wisdom has for many
years put them on par with saturated fats. In fact very
little attempt has been made by most researchers to separate
trans fats from saturated fats in experiments.  Supporters
of saturated fats have made much of this suggesting that the
evils attributed to saturated fats are really to be
attributed to trans fats.   Some studies such as the Nurses
study have painted a more daunting picture of trans fats,
suggesting that as little as 2% of calories from trans fats
was damaging to health.

Those who oppose saturated fats suggest keeping the level of
saturated fats below 10% or sometimes 7% of calories. The
processed food industry apparently like trans fat for it's
taste and texture stability.

Are all trans fats equally harmful?   Quite possibly not.  

Many cultures have grown up with dairy products for many
generations.

In those populations they have been exposed to another trans
fat, vaccinic acid.  For these populations it is reasonable
to suggest that trans fats found in cheese etc is less
harmful than the elaidic acid trans fat produced
artificially by partial hydrogenation, and to a lesser
extent, deodorization and repeated deep frying.

The question of saturated fats is quite controversial in
some people's opinion and a done deal in others.  Saturated
fats raise LDL and HDL cholesterol.  This to many leads to
their condemnation.  By similar reasoning polyunsaturated
fats which lower LDL are praised by the same people.
Lowering LDL should lead to a reduction in coronary heart
disease.  The problem is it doesn't, not at least with the
omega-6 polyunsaturated fats found in vegetable oils.  It
seems that the single minded thinkers who employ such short
circuit logic ... reduce LDL ... reduce CHD would like us to
believe that they should.  

I suspect the problem is that omega-6 polyunsaturated fats
found in vegetable oils raise silent inflammation levels and
that contributes adversely to CHD.  A distinguishing feature
of the saturated fat/bad vegetable oil/good clan is that
they quite ignore cis-monounsaturated oils since they have
little effect on LDL and HDL.  Weird, the safest oils are
ignored.

So what of the cis-monounsaturated fatty acid found in
olives, nuts, avocados and to a lesser extend animal fats?
Well these fats have a decided advantage for T2 diabetics.
They can up to a point be used to replace carbohydrate, a
point readily acknowledged by the ADA expert opinion panels.
One can think of them as carbohydrates with the very lowest
GI rating, zero.  Some people worry that like any fat they
contribute more calories per gram than carbohydrate. That's
fair enough as far it goes.

Most all fats contribute about 9 Cal/gram as opposed to 4
Cal/gram for carbohydrate.  The message seems clear enough
and the trap doors of the short circuit logic brains snap
shut but in practice the most powerful study ever to be
conducted on low fat, the WHI has shown beyond doubt that
reducing fat intake by a third did absolutely nothing to
bring about weight loss. Nothing. People simply ate more
carbohydrate.  When I observed friends losing weight at
about 1 kg per week following a reduced carbohydrate diet I
was surprised to find them eating one avocado per day for
lunch.

Surely they couldn't be.  Then I sat down and did the math.

Avocados were 70% water. A 100 gram of avocado had fewer
calories than 100 gram of carbohydrate because of that high
water content.  

The same sort of reasoning following if one eats walnuts
with high water content foods such as salad.  The trick is
not to eat fat plus carbohydrate as in pastry.

What of omega-3 fats?

There are principally two types. There are the longer chain
ones found in fish oils. These benefit brain function etc.
For T2s they are likely to be of some benefit.  One strong
indicator of incipient T2 diabetes is discovering raised
triglycerides and reduced HDL in a blood lipid profile
panel.  In practice measuring the ratio of triglycerides to
HDL is a good indicator of insulin resistance.

After getting good control of post prandial blood glucose
reducing the triglyceride:HDl ratio is a good marker of
progress in how well one is dealing with T2 diabetes.  (By
the way I talk about T2 diabetics because I am one. T1 can
also have insulin resistance problems but their situation
has a different set of complexities to T2 and the most
important rule for newbies is not to confuse suggestions
meant for one with suggestions meant for the other.)

The higher the ratio of triglycerides to HDL, the higher the
insulin resistance.  The point is that fish oils reduce the
triglyceride:HDL ratio and that is likely to be a worthwhile
thing for many T2s to do.

Do omega-3 fats reduce the risk of coronary heart disease?  
Apparently NOT if one relies on fish oil. Apparently YES if
one uses vegetable omega-3.

The people of Crete has exceedingly low rates of coronary
heart disease. Far, far less than their neighbours.  There
fat consumption was even higher than the Standard American
Diet, SAD levels. Some were as high as 35 or 40%
predominantly olive oil.

Their fish consumption was low thanks possibly due to over
fishing. Spain at the time had something like six times the
fish consumption but a much higher rate of coronary heart
disease. Clearly omega-3 from fish was not a contributing
factor. The distinguishing factor was their consumption of
alpha linolenic acid,ALA the vegetable omega-3 from various
salad vegetable, walnuts and snails.  Where unprocessed
canola oil has been used with its high levels of a ALA there
has been a dramatic drop in CHD. (Processed canola
unfortunately has the partial hydrogenation, elaidic acid
trans fat) This has occurred in Lyon where the French had a
relatively high cholesterol diet. It has also occurred in
India where two thirds of the participants were vegetarians.
In each case there was approximately a 50% reduction in
CHD in six months.  This is in complete contrast to the WHI
results which were unable to achieve an statistically
significant result from a total fat reduction of one third
over eight years.  The basic point IMHO is simple. It is not
a matter of total fat consumption it is a matter of wise fat
choices.  

A simple strategy for T2s is to start with increasing
vegetable consumption markedly. Not by some namby pamby
third but by increasing consumption to about seven serves
per day.  That at least gives them a chance of getting some
vegetable omega-3 polyunsaturated fats.  It is well
established in many Epidemiology studies that nut
consumption correlates with three to five years of longer
quality life. The reasons aren't clear. The results are.

Some fish would make good sense, the proteins in fish
apparently have some desirable features not found in soy and
casein. However obesity is often a problem with T2s so it is
vital to ensure the highest quality fish.  Many toxins such
as dioxin and methyl mercury are fat soluble. Obese people
have more body fat to store these toxins which can damage
the beta cells in the pancreas.

Unfortunately for too long mankind has treated the oceans as
an infinite sewer outfall.  The processing of fish oil into
tablets removes methyl mercury efficiently and molecular
sieving removes dioxin. It pays to read the labels
carefully.

If you include grains in your diet, please make sure you
fully understand the distinction between whole grain and
whole meal.

The Japanese have done some research where they replaced
fifty percent of rice with pearl barley. This lowered the
average GI of the traditional rice dish.  Using Indian
Basmati and the Australian Doongara rice with a lower GI
than sticky rice is also beneficial.

IMHO a good strategy to include whole grain would be to
incorporate tabuli with plenty of greens into one's diet.

If one uses extra virgin olive oil then choose one with a
peppery after taste. The peppery after taste is
hydroxytyrosol which is reputed to be one of the most
powerful antioxidants available in foods.

Cis-monounsaturated oils have benefits to diabetics, by
improving the uptake of various valuable pigments eg
zeaxanthin, the orange pigment that protects the central
vision of eyes.  Diabetes has the effect of accelerating
some forms of age related macular degeneration. Eating
greens, even culinary herbs such as parsley, cilantro, dill
will stave off these forms of age related macular
degeneration.  Obese people need a higher intake because
their fat redistributed the orange pigment zeaxanthin away
from the eyes where it performs an utterly irreplaceable
function. The best source of zeaxanthin is orange capsicum
(orange bell peppers) The point is that olive oil improves
the uptake of the zeaxanthin and many other irreplaceable
pigments. Peripheral vision requires a yellow pigment,
lutein.  Lutein is found more widely than zeaxanthin.  The
best fruit source by far is avocado.  

While I use extra virgin olive oil made from Picual olives
for cooking it has to be realised that we cook at low
temperatures. Cooking anything whether fat, protein or
carbohydrate at excessive temperatures produces dangerous
chemicals similar to smoking. Lower temperature cooking is
our choice. For higher temperature brief cooking such as
stir fry is another sensible strategy.  For this avocado oil
has the benefits of cis-monounsaturated oil while having
the highest smoke point of any commercially available
cooking oil.

If the answer to weightloss for sedentary people is not to
be found in fats and carbohydrates then where is it to be
found?  IMHO the best advice comes from Joslin and some
scientist working for the Australian CSIRO, raise protein
levels to over 20%. To put it another way the Joslin source
when reverse engineered comes down to a recommendation
of 2 grams of protein for every gram of fat.  A mix of
sources say, one third meat, fish, and vegetable seems to be
a safest option.

Hopefully this post has encouraged people to think about
some issues, perhaps even rethinking some issues.  Mostly I
hope it will encourage people not to engage in short circuit
thinking where their minds snap closed at the first stopping
point.  

Hey, I'm the sort of bloke who feels he has made a
contribution to a spin doctored world if a few people are
encouraged to think for themselves especially when it
involves putting in some hard yards.

Best wishes,