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Interesterified fat, a replacement for trans fat in processed foods, is chemically similar to trans fat and can have negative effects on cholesterol and glucose levels. A diet containing saturated fats may be safer than one high in interesterified fats.
When scientific studies exposed the inherent public health dangers of trans fat, many manufacturers of processed foods scrambled to find a suitable replacement. They needed to find a form of fat that would still provide the extended shelf life of partially hydrogenated oils, but did not contain trans fatty acids. A solution came in the form of interesterified fat, a fully hydrogenated product with many of the same characteristics as trans fat, but closer to chemically saturated fat. Interesterified fat is produced through a process called interesterification, which rearranges the molecular structure of plant fatty oils.
It may be useful to think of the term as “interesterized fat” since the interesterification process generally affects compounds known as esters in the oils used. The chemistry that produces interesterified fat is a bit tricky, but essentially, a natural vegetable oil like rapeseed is combined with stearic acid and various alkylene catalysts. The fat components of the oil are chemically modified to become more saturated, much like margarine (a partially hydrogenated fatty product) is artificially converted into shortening, a saturated fat. Interesterified fat provides the best of both worlds for manufacturers of processed foods: longer shelf life and better mouthfeel.
The problem with interesterified fat for consumers is that, in many ways, the cure is worse than the disease. Reducing or eliminating harmful trans fats should have led to a safer fat product for general consumption. Instead, interesterified fat can be even worse than the partially hydrogenated products it replaced. Recent studies on the effects of interesterified fat in humans revealed that interesterified fat has roughly the same negative effects on HDL/LDL cholesterol as trans fats. Interesterified fat is believed to lower levels of good HDL cholesterol and increase levels of bad LDL cholesterol.
Furthermore, the interesterified fat also showed signs of raising glucose levels by up to 20%, which could lead to the development of pre-diabetic conditions or diabetes. The scientists who conducted these studies on interesterified fats suggest that a diet moderately containing previously maligned saturated fats would be safer than a diet high in interesterified fats. Although interesterified fat is not the same as partially hydrogenated oils, the unnatural rearrangement of lipid molecules creates many of the same health concerns for consumers. Chemically speaking, interesterified fat is the saturated fat alternative that trans fat developers hoped to create but couldn’t. Time will tell if interesterified fat will meet the same fate as the trans fat it replaces.
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