trans fatty acids, which is increasing in the food supply at the time; and (ii) which have 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 is evident from published studies of the trans fatty acids that a number of earlier researchers had questioned the biological safety of the trans fatty acids viz a viz their relationship to both cancer and heart disease. In fact, 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 oil industry was very swift in their squelching of that information; they shifted the emphasis to “saturated” fat and started the unwarranted attack on meat and dairy fats. It has taken 30 years for research to get back on track. Now research is being reported on adverse effects from trans related to heart disease, diabetes, cancer, low birth weight, obesity, and immune dysfunction.
Because trans fatty acids disrupt cellular function, they affect many enzymes such as the delta-6 desaturase and consequently interfere with the necessary conversions of both the omega-6 and the omega-3 essential fatty acids to their elongated forms and consequently escalate 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).
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