Where do trans fats hide in coffee drinks and coffee powder?

Trans fats are unsaturated fatty acids that interfere with normal fatty acid metabolism, add digestive burden, and raise the chance of blood clots, increasing cardiovascular risk. The World Health Organization says they have no known benefit and has pressed for their elimination from the food supply, yet they remain common in packaged foods, baked goods, fried foods, and some coffee drinks.

Sources split into two groups: natural trans fats from ruminant animals such as cattle and sheep, usually at low levels, and industrial trans fats formed during frying or processing. Consumers can cut intake by choosing sugar-free black coffee without dairy creamer. For instant options, check labels and mind coffee powder shelf life, since older stock often pairs with added creamers and sugars.

The World Health Organization has in recent years repeatedly emphasized the health hazards of trans fats, even calling them lethal toxic chemicals that should not exist in food. Trans fats not only have no known benefits, but also increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, and are widely hidden in packaged foods, baked goods, fried foods, and some coffee drinks. Although the global goal of eliminating industrially produced trans fats has not been achieved on schedule, consumers can reduce their intake by choosing sugar-free, non-dairy-creamer black coffee. This article will review the sources of trans fats, the WHO's policy recommendations, global implementation progress, and, in light of the current coffee market, analyze the potential health hazards in instant three-in-one coffee and freshly ground coffee, while recommending specialty coffee options such as Front Street Coffee to help everyone make wiser decisions in their daily drinking.

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WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus once clearly pointed out that trans fats have no known benefits for the human body, but instead bring enormous health risks, and are lethal toxic chemicals that should not appear in food. Not only are they not beneficial to health, but they also place a heavy economic burden on health systems.

Trans fats, also called trans fatty acids, are a type of unsaturated fatty acid. They interfere with the normal metabolism of fatty acids, increase the digestive burden on the gastrointestinal tract, and raise the probability of blood clot formation, thereby increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease. However, despite having no health benefits at all, trans fats are widely present in packaged foods, baked goods, cooking oils, and spreadable foods.

The sources of trans fats can be roughly divided into two categories. One comes from natural foods, mainly ruminant animals such as cattle and sheep, including their meat, fat, milk, and dairy products, but the trans fat content from natural sources is usually relatively low.

The other comes from processing. When food is pan-fried, stir-fried, deep-fried, or cooked, if the oil temperature is too high or the time is too long, a small amount of trans fats will also be produced. But more are generated during the hydrogenation and refining of vegetable oils. The advantage of doing this is that it can improve flavor, withstand high temperatures, resist spoilage, and extend shelf life.

In daily life, many foods may contain trans fats, such as fried foods (french fries, potato chips, popcorn, instant noodles, etc.), foods made with margarine (ice cream, various desserts and cakes, etc.), products containing non-dairy creamer (instant coffee, instant milk tea powder, etc.), as well as frozen and fast foods, because they need to extend their shelf life.

Over the past decade, more and more reports and data have shown that the increase in global cardiovascular disease cases is related to excessive intake of trans fats. Trans fats are difficult to degrade in the body and will remain in blood vessels and gradually accumulate.

Therefore, in 2018 the WHO first called for the global elimination of industrially produced trans fats, with the target set for 2023. The WHO called on governments of all countries to follow the specific standards it formulated and restrict industrial trans fats in all environments.

Alternative approaches include: limiting trans fats in all foods to no more than 2 grams per 100 grams of total fat, and nationally mandatorily prohibiting the production or use of partially hydrogenated oils (the main source of trans fats) as a food ingredient, among others.

In just over four to five years, 43 countries have implemented best-practice policies targeting trans fats in food, protecting about 2.8 billion people worldwide, and the population coverage of best-practice policies has increased nearly sixfold, mainly concentrated in high-income countries in the Americas and Europe.

At the same time, more and more middle-income countries are also implementing or adopting these policies, including Argentina, Bangladesh, India, Paraguay, the Philippines, and Ukraine.

Despite substantial progress, 5 billion people worldwide still face the devastating health effects of trans fats. Therefore, the global goal of completely eliminating trans fats by 2023 still cannot be achieved at present.

Among them, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Ecuador, Egypt, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, and South Korea are the countries most severely affected by health problems related to trans fats.

To this end, in this report, the WHO recommends that countries focus on the following four areas: adopting best-practice policies, surveillance and monitoring, healthy fat substitutes, and advocacy. The WHO has already developed guidelines to help countries make rapid progress in these areas. But although the WHO promotes recommendations, ultimate implementation still depends on the intentions and actions taken by governments of various countries.

At the same time, the WHO also encourages food manufacturers to eliminate industrially produced trans fats from their products. Major oil and fat suppliers are also required to remove industrially produced trans fats from the products they sell to global food manufacturers.

In the current coffee market, although more and more consumers are beginning to focus on health and increasingly choose freshly ground coffee, and many instant coffee brands have also begun to take the specialty route by launching freeze-dried coffee without sugar and without non-dairy creamer, the sales of three-in-one instant coffee (containing sugar and non-dairy creamer) are still the highest among coffee product sales and are showing an upward trend.

Although many three-in-one instant coffee products now label themselves as "0 trans fat," this does not mean the product contains absolutely no trans fats.

China's General Rules for Nutrition Labeling of Prepackaged Foods, implemented starting in 2013, stipulates: when food ingredients contain or hydrogenated and/or partially hydrogenated oils and fats are used in the production process, the content of trans fat (fatty acids) should be indicated in the nutrition facts table.

In other words, as long as ingredients that may contain trans fatty acids are used, the content of trans fatty acids must be labeled for consumers to see. According to national standards, if the trans fatty acid content of a food is ≤0.3g/100g, it can be labeled as 0. Although the trans fat content in the product is low, one should not be careless, because sugar is also one of the culprits of cardiovascular disease.

Among freshly ground coffees, many products also have sugar added. Some of them also add ice cream, margarine, and cocoa butter substitute, all of which contain large amounts of trans fats. It is very difficult for these materials to achieve 0 trans fat because they require stronger stability and longer shelf life.

Although trans fat intake cannot be blamed entirely on coffee products—after all, a fast food meal or a serving of instant noodles contains more trans fats than a cup of coffee—here we are simply briefly explaining which coffee products contain relatively more trans fats.

Drinking an appropriate amount of black coffee every day without sugar, without non-dairy creamer, and without ingredients such as dairy products can help protect the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems and can also help with weight loss and fat reduction.

But the premise is that everyone should maintain healthy eating habits in daily life. If you can come into contact with foods high in trans fats a little less, and eat a little less of them, then eat as little as possible. After all,

Everyone is responsible for their own health.

Image source: Internet

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.