Also in the early 1990s, Market Insights predicted that CSPI would change its mind about the trans fatty acids, which it had spent years defending. CSPI did change its mind, and in fact went on the attack regarding the trans, but CSPI never admitted that it had originally been promoting the trans or that the high levels of trans found in the fried foods in the fast food and other restaurants and in many other foods are directly due to CSPI lobbying. While its change was welcome, CSPI's revisionist version of its own history of support of partially hydrogenated oils and trans fatty acids would have fit perfectly into George Orwell's "1984"

VII. COMPARISON OF SATURATED FATS WITH THE TRANS FATS

The statement that trans fatty acids are like saturated fatty acids is not correct for biological systems. A listing of the biological effects of saturated fatty acids in the diet versus the biological effects of trans fatty acids in the diet is in actuality a listing of the good (saturated) versus the bad (trans).

When one compares the saturated fatty acids and the trans fatty acids, we see that

(1) saturated fatty acids raise HDL cholesterol, the so-called good cholesterol, whereas the trans fatty acids lower HDL cholesterol (Mensink and Katan 1990, Judd et al 1994);

(2) saturated fatty acids lower the blood levels of the atherogenic lipoprotein [a], whereas trans fatty acids raise the blood levels of lipoprotein [a] (Khosla and Hayes 1996, Hornstra et al 1991, Clevidence et al 1997);

(3) saturated fatty acids conserve the elongated omega-3 fatty acids (Gerster 1998), whereas trans fatty acids cause the tissues to lose these omega-3 fatty acids (Sugano and Ikeda 1996);

(4) saturated fatty acids do not inhibit insulin binding, whereas trans fatty acids do inhibit insulin binding;

(5) saturated fatty acids are the normal fatty acids made by the body, and they do not interfere with enzyme functions such as the delta-6-desaturase, whereas trans fatty acids are not made by the body, and they interfere with many enzyme functions such as delta-6-desaturase;

and

(6) some saturated fatty acids are used by the body to fight viruses, bacteria, and protozoa, and they support the immune system, whereas trans fatty acids interfere with the function of the immune system.