Although Crisco appeared on American grocery store shelves as early as 1911, the popularity of hydrogenated vegetable oils, or trans fats, including margarine and shortening, soared between the 1950s and the 1980s, as the demonization of saturated fats consumed the medical establishment. To fight heart disease and lower cholesterol, food manufacturers were advised to replace the saturated fat in their products with the supposedly healthier type of fat – trans fat, or hydrogenated vegetable oil. Unfortunately, our health suffered as trans fats flooded our food products, and traditional foods such as butter were replaced by margarine during this disastrous dietary experiment.
What Are Trans Fats?
Trans fats are made through “hydrogenation” – hence their technical name, “partially hydrogenated oil.” The hydrogenation process converts a liquid oil into a shelf-stable solid fat through adding hydrogen atoms to the oil. This transformation allowed home cooks and food companies to remove lard and butter from recipes and substitute the a non-animal-based fat that offered the same spreadability, texture, and shelf life that real foods such as butter and lard provided. Finally, in the late 1990s, research revealed the dangers of trans fats and public awareness and FDA labeling requirements followed in the early 2000s.
