trans fat in my meat? what the?

If you’ve been endlessly scouring labels since my last post number one enemy: trans fats, you may have come across something interesting. Certain meat and dairy products contain trans fats even though there are no added partially hydrogenated oils. How can this be?

Look at the trans fat content of some beef patties. Granted, these are HUGE.

Check it out though. 3.5g of trans fat per 8oz patty! If I saw a cookie with that amount of trans fat, I’d be running for the hills. So, why did I buy these?

Isn’t all trans fat bad?

Nope.

There is one form of trans fat that gets a hall pass. Conjugated linoleic acid or CLA is produced in the gut of ruminant animals (ya know, the animals with those crazy 4 compartment stomachs – think cattle, sheep, goats, bison, etc). Ruminants naturally forage on grasses and greens, therefore consuming a ton of fiber that requires this special stomach (and special bacteria) to digest it all. During digestion, bacteria ferment the plant matter and produce CLA as a by-product. Ruminants that are grain-fed, however, do not produce much CLA. Yes, the diet that animals consume effects the probiotics in their gut, just like humans. Shocking. The wrong food feeds the wrong bacteria and produces the wrong by-products, or at least does not produce much of the good by-products.

Anyways, back to CLA. It has been extensively researched and may prevent or even help treat cancer, aid in weight loss, and reduce abdominal fat. The supplement industry has tried to capitalize on the weight loss research, however the forms of CLA in supplements is not always equivalent to what is found in foods. Supplement companies synthesize CLA in a laboratory and end up with slightly different isomers than what is produced within an animal’s gut. One of these isomers has been shown to increase oxidative stress (think free radicals, that’s bad) and reduce DHA in the heart (increasing likelihood of heart disease, also bad). So, if you want to get the benefits of CLA without the risks, eat real food!

Your best food sources are:

• grass-fed beef, bison, lamb, and meat from other ruminants (grass-fed animals contain 300-500% more CLA than grain-fed animals)
• eggs (more in pasture-raised chickens that eat grass and bugs)
• milk from grass-fed cows (whole milk contains the most, since CLA is a type of fat!)