Fats and Oils: Fats and Health

Whereas throughout most of human history our ancestors had valued fats as a way of imbibing concentrated calories, in the post–World War II era, opinion, at least in the affluent corners of the world, began to look more critically at dietary fat in general and the composition of certain cooking fats in particular. In the 1950s and 1960s cholesterol was implicated as a risk factor for heart disease, leading many health professionals to advise against eating the highly saturated animal fats and tropical oils that appeared to boost the amount of cholesterol in the blood. This warning was a bonanza for margarine manufacturers, who until this point had only price to recommend their product over butter. Now margarine was the healthy alternative—but not for long. In the 1990s the trans-fatty acids produced in hydrogenation of vegetable oil for the manufacture of most margarines were found to be just as bad as saturated fat.