Cholesterol

"What manufacturers have been doing is taking trans fats out of their products, but they're replacing them with fractionated oils."Fractionated (or modified) oils, which food makers use to give food the same texture and taste as trans fats, are found in everything from cookies to protein bars.

Healthy, unsaturated fats aren't used in packaged or baked goods because they are liquid at room temperature and don't provide the same taste or "mouth feel" as a solid fat.

While modified oils are better for you than trans fats, they're still not good for you."Modified or fractionated oils are typically saturated fats," Holwegner says.

"They're not great for you because saturated fats still elevate bad The reader who wrote in wondered if it was just another term for hydrogenated oil.

(Hydrogenation turns unsaturated fatty acids into saturated or trans fats.)Holwegner says it all depends on the oil and the process.

Modified does not necessarily mean hydrogenated."It's not really a scientific term, so it depends on what they're doing to it," she says.

"You could be talking about a modified olive oil." (Olive oil is known as a healthy fat.)Alejandro Marangoni, a professor and food scientist at the University of Guelph, says modification can be unhealthy when it involves introducing a saturated fat to the mix.

He explains how food makers can modify fats, tur...

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