Of Brain Disease and Belly Ache

In her inaugural post the doctor explains why eating humans is bad; and eating margarine is barely any better

By Isadora Botwinick Posted 08.28.2008 at 4:38 pm 11 Comments

Dr. Gajdusek:

Another interesting point about the trans fat ban is that most related advertising has only a negative slant: products are labeled “no trans fats.” Other products often advertise both what they contain and what they lack; for example, diet cheese may state that it is “dairy free” but also that it is “made with soy.” Very few foods, however, emphasize the presence of the alternative to trans fats, which are known as "cis fats." What are cis fats? (I always thought the term "cis fat" sounded like the name of an early 1990s female rapper: “Sis Phat in the house, yo.” But I digress.) To understand cis fats, it helps to first explain a bit about trans fats—a kind of unsaturated fat; meaning it's made up of hydrocarbon chains that contain at least one double bond. The atoms in trans fats are arranged around the double bond in such a way that the fat molecules are fairly straight and can pack tightly, especially in places you don’t want fat to be, like in your arteries.

Cis fats, which are also unsaturated (i.e. they contain double bonds), have their atoms arranged as to make the fat molecules fairly bulky. Cis fats thus can’t pack together as tightly and are more fluid than trans fats. (Imagine Sis Phat as a more flexible dancer working the floor and trans fat as the uncool dude sitting behind the table in the corner.) Saturated fats, which have no double bonds, pack together tightly as well. Research suggests that trans fats are even worse than saturated fats because trans fats decrease the level of good cholesterol (HDL) in the body.

Some folks might bring up freedom of choice, and say that, as with smoking, people ought to be allowed to make their own decisions about what they put into their bodies. (Probably the Fore of New Guinea weren’t too happy when the Australian government banned cannibalism at funerals: “What, we can’t eat dead people, but you can eat Vegemite, which, everyone knows, tastes like dead people?!”) On the other hand, trans fats aren’t really such exciting things to eat; they tend to have long, hyphenated, scientific-sounding names. Butter, olive oil and, heck, even natural lard aren’t trans fats, and thus will still be around in all their greasy goodness. As for a ceremonial brain substitute, we're still on the lookout for that one.

Welcome to the inaugural post of The Doctor Is In. Medicine and the biomedical sciences are chock full of the bizarre, the fantastic, and the downright disgusting. As a medical student with a peculiar sense of humor, I’d like to share some of my favorite examples of weird and wild stories of the human body, health and disease.

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11 Comments

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hubnair

08/29/08 at 2:21 pm

It worries me that the good doctor equates cannibalism with eating margarine. There is no moral or scientific equivalence here. And if this represents the kind of thinking that will try to influence public policy, get ready to live a radically different world. Apparently the development of human evolution has brought us to the state where we now need nannies to take care of us.

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smokeman

08/29/08 at 3:37 pm

The movie was already made. If you want take another shot at it, you could always add in the fact that he plead guilty to child molestation in 1997.

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mathmaid

08/30/08 at 6:13 am

magistra

Hey Doc this is great. Perfectly pitched prose tickled my funny bone and taught me a great deal. Thanks!

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mattman4sale

08/31/08 at 8:20 am

yea i would deff watch that movie

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08/31/08 at 12:27 pm

I would certainly hope that "some people might bring up freedom of choice." Good god, this nation is turning into a herd of sheeple. Perhaps we don't deserve to be free if freedom is something that we allow to be legislated away.

Grow up, America. Eat what you want to eat, and if you get sick, it's your responsibility, not mine or anyone else's.

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escoles

from rochester, ny

12/25/08 at 8:49 am

hubnair --

it's fine to say that there's no moral "equivalency" (I'm scare-quoting because "equivalency" was not what was posited in the piece), but it would be nice if you said why.

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jimb12345

09/16/09 at 6:46 pm

i think this is so good. i would definitely run with this.
http://www.domic.info

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john2000

10/17/09 at 11:49 am

The argument for eating margarine and other products containing hydrogenated oils are their lack of cholesterol. Margarine is also less expensive than butter. However, margarine contains refined, artificially saturated vegetable oil. It also contains harmful trans-fatty acids, and often residues of the toxic metals nickel and cadmium. Butter is a natural food and a good source of important fat-soluble vitamins. You will pay more for butter, but nutritionally it is well worth it.
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igr40

11/15/09 at 11:00 am

Similar effects through eating animal by products.

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BanderasBrody

11/22/09 at 4:27 am

I agree with you! This was actually what I was looking for all over the net, and I am glad that I finally stumbled into your article! I love your blog and cool design you have
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john2000

11/22/09 at 6:45 pm

Doc wins a Nobel Prize for his work. Then he is arrested and spends time in prison.So is life :)
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