Yep, after all the negative press in recent years and campaigns to remove trans fats from our foods, new research suggests that although in high amounts they are bad for you, small amounts of trans fats may actually be of benefit.
Published in the European Heart Journal, German researchers looked at the trans fatty acids (TFAs) intake of people in the south west of Germany who had had a coronary angiography. They accomplished this by measuring the membrane fatty acid composition of blood samples. There was a follow up test approx. 10 years later.
What was found was interesting. A naturally occurring trans fat found in milk and meat was actually “associated with better blood glucose levels and fewer deaths from any cause, but especially a lower risk of sudden cardiac death”.
To make matters more confusing not only were TFAs “inversely associated with adverse cardiac outcomes” but the people in the group that had the highest levels of TFAs in general still had “favourable metabolic profiles”.
The researchers say the reason could be the highest levels of TFAs seen in this study are low by comparison to the levels seen in American studies where TFAs were in general seen as bad for our health.