Is a trans fat worse than a saturated fat?

Question

What is the scientific evidence to say so?

Answer 1

No. Saturated fat is worse.

Chemically, trans fats are made of the same building blocks as non-trans fats, but have a different arrangement. In trans fatty acid molecules, the hydrogen atoms are bonded to pairs of doubly bonded carbon atoms (characteristic of all unsaturated fats) are in the trans rather than the cis arrangement. This results in a straight, rather than kinked, shape for the carbon chain, more like the straight chain of a fully saturated fat.

Trans fat and saturated fat both produce the same undesirable effect, but the saturated fat's result is more pronounced. Saturated trans fat has the worst of both.

Answer 2

fat trannies are the worst

Answer 3

Trans fat is a human invention that has never been found in nature, unlike saturated fat.  It was created by forcing hydrogen into a liquid fat, solely for the use as a cheap food additive to add shelf life, taste, and consistency to food, but it has no place in the human body.  

On the other hand, while saturated fat still isn't healthy in high amounts, it is still needed by the body - it makes up the membranes that keep our cells together.  I recall that you can eat about 10 (some even say up to 20) grams of saturated fat per day without a detrimental effect to the body, but most nutritionists agree that ANY amount of trans fat is bad for you - period.  

In addition, trans fat is harder to get rid of than sat fat, since the actual molecular composition of the fat makes it very, very hard to break down by the body.  Studies also show that trans fat increases bad cholesterol and lowers good cholesterol, more so than the same amount of sat fat does.

Also, according to a study published in 2006 in the New England Journal of Medicine, "On a per-calorie basis, trans fats appear to increase the risk of CHD [coronary heart disease] more than any other macronutrient, conferring a substantially increased risk at low levels of consumption (1 to 3 percent of total energy intake)".  In comparison, the Advisory Committee for the 2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommended a maximum of 10% of energy intake from saturated fat to be an acceptable daily limit for most adults.

Answer 4

trans fat doesnt ever go away after you eat it but saturated fat does.