| Trans fatty acids are unsaturated fatty acids with at least one double bond in the trans configuration. These fatty acids occur naturally in dairy and other natural fats and in some plants. However, industrial hydrogenation of vegetable or marine oils is largely the main source of trans fatty acids in our diet. The metabolic effect of trans isomers are today a matter of controversy generating diverse extreme positions in light of biochemical, nutritional, and epidemiological studies. Trans fatty acids also have been implicated in the etiology of various metabolic and functional disorders, but the main concern about its health effects arose because the structural similarity of these isomers to saturated fatty acids, the lack of specific metabolic functions,... |
