INTER-ESTER-IFIED FATS

It was inevitable that food manufacturers and the edible oil industry would find a substitute for trans fats, now that consumer backlash is forcing the issue.
After all, we’re talking big business here. Over 90 percent of the money Americans spend on food is spent on the processed stuff. Now that the health dangers of trans fats have been clearly exposed, the food industry would do you a great favor by returning to the use of natural saturated fats for frying and in baked goods. But that would mean reversing their entirely unscientific, 50-year campaign to vilify saturated fats, and would bring an end to the enormously powerful edible oil industry. Since that’s not about to happen, it’s time for a quick review of the bad news about trans fats, followed by an investigation into what seems to be a fast-growing substitute: interesterified fats.

Source:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/03/05/Interesterified-Fat--Is-it-Worse-Than-Trans-Fat.aspx

Doctors Note:

Interesterified oil is another ingredient to avoid completely! Interesterified Fat, like trans-fat, is a man-made fat that in actuality is worse than TRANS- FAT!  Since the dangers of trans-fat have been exposed and people are ridding it from their diet, big companies are now using interesterified as a replacement.

Interesterified oils came to the US in the 1950s and are now the fastest-growing replacement for trans-fat. The interesterification process hardens fat similar to the hydrogenation process but without creating trans-fat. Like trans- fat it is less likely to go rancid and is stable enough to fry foods at high temperatures. The interesterification acts on compounds in oil known as esters. Interesterification is the process of rearranging the fatty acids in triglyceride molecules. Triglycerides form the basic structure of most fats and oils. Interesterified fats are typically created by blending solid fats like fully hydrogenated soybean oil or palm oil with liquid oils such as soybean oil or canola oil then using a process to interchange the fats in order to achieve specific functional attributes in foods such as texture, mouthfeel, and structure.

Interesterified oils may not have trans fatty acid in them but still contain chemical residues, hexanes and other hazardous waste products full of free radicals that cause cell damage.

Interesterified oils have already been shown to be a health hazard. They have been shown to raise blood glucose levels as well as depress insulin production.

Unlike, trans-fat or partially hydrogenated oil- Interesterified fat may not be in the ingredient list, they can use words like high stearate or stearic rich fat. They can also label it as fully hydrogenated oil as well.

I would definitely advise you to avoid it at all costs as it is shown to be worse for your health than trans-fat.