Hydrogenated fats and oils and cellulite

Hydrogenated/trans fats, cellulite, skin ageing and skin looseness

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• Man-made, inflammation-causing fats and oils

• Chronic, low grade inflammation is a major cause of cellulite, skin ageing and skin laxity

• Which foods contain hydrogenated / trans fats and how exactly do they cause damage?

• “Where I buy my oils and margarines, they are not hydrogenated”

• Check our professional consultancy in radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, cellulite and skin tightening

Man-made, inflammation-causing fats and oils

Hydrogenated fats/oils comprise one of the worst food groups you can put in your mouth.

Also known as trans fatty acids or simply trans fats, hydrogenated oils are man-made fats that accumulate in cell membranes and mitochondrial membranes in the entire body, displacing normal lipids.

This displacement of natural lipids with deformed artificial lipids leads to chronic, low-grade, inflammation and damage to all organs and tissues on the entire body, including blood vessels and connective tissue, such as skin.

Furthermore, like all fats, hydrogenated fats contain 9 calories per gram.

Chronic, low grade inflammation is a major cause of cellulite, skin ageing and skin laxity

Fat accumulation, chronic, low-grade, inflammation and connective tissue / blood vessel damage are hallmarks of cellulite.

So it is no surprise that trans fats are one of the three most important dietary causes of cellulite, together with sugar and fried food intake.

Which foods contain hydrogenated / trans fats and how exactly do they cause damage?

Trans fats are found in fried foods, such as doughnuts, and baked goods including cakes, pasties, pastries, pie crusts, cakes, biscuits, frozen pizza, cookies, crackers, margarines and other spreads.

Trans fats are basically unsaturated liquid oils transformed into solid fats by partially replacing one of the fatty acid double bonds with hydrogen. Hence the full name: partially hydrogenated fatty acids.

The new configuration makes the oils solid, mimicking butter.

In the process, however, the fatty acid molecule becomes deformed and when these deformed lipid molecules get incorporated into the mitochondrial and cellular membranes, the result is cellular/mitochondrial dysfunction, damage and inflammation.

“Where I buy my oils and margarines, they are not hydrogenated”

True, the last few years many manufacturers have removed trans fats from their products on the supermarket shelf.

However, as in most countries it is not a legal requirement to state the existence/percentage of trans fats in a product, we are simply in the dark with most processed foods, such as margarines, biscuits, pasties, pastries (e.g. croissants), cakes etc.

Moreover, trans fats are still abundant in products where you cannot see the label, such as in restaurant / takeaway food.

Basically, don’t expect to go to the fast food shop, pub or restaurant - even high end restaurant - and consume food made with some sort of cold-pressed, extra virgin, unrefined, organic, biodynamic, non-GMO oil in a glass bottle. It ain’t gonna happen.

Chances are your restaurant oil with be some ultra-processed seed oil with various “stability” additives, pan-, wok- or deep-fried several times at high temperature, quite often packed with trans fats, quite often made with GMO seeds and of course stored in resin-coated container leaching BPA.

Please note that the word “vegan” is not a guarantee that the oil is not any of the above - there is A LOT of vegan junk food around. Neither the word “organic” is a foolproof way to ensure you do not ingest trans fats.

To minimise trans fat consumption:

• Always check the label on store-bought products

• Plus aim for home cooked meals with ingredients you can control, as opposed to eating out too often

Believe me, even the most expensive restaurants use questionable oils or oils fried multiple times, i.e. highly oxidised / damaged oils. These may not contain trans fats in some restaurants, but they are lipoxidised nevertheless - not good for your thighs.

Check our professional consultancy in radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, cellulite and skin tightening

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