By Karin McCay| email
LUBBOCK, TX (KCBD) – Cookies, doughnuts, and french fries may soon be getting healthier. University of Missouri researchers say trans fats in vegetable oil from soybeans may soon be a thing of the past. Scientists there are growing soybeans to make a vegetable oil without trans fats.
Grover Shannons said,"it will be premium oil. They can fry with it, and they can be assured that they'll have a heart healthy oil. It'll be a lot like olive oil. Olive oil is high in oleic acid." Currently, soybean oil must undergo a process called hydrogenation, so it doesn't spoil. That creates trans fats, which isn't good for your heart. Now, through natural soybean breeding, scientists at the MU Delta research center say they are producing soybeans that avoid this unhealthy process. It's something they predict will be in big demand.
The beans are very high in Oleic acid, up to 80 percent. This makes the oil stable with a good shelf life, and it lowers the saturated fat by 25 percent. The goal now is to put the high oleic trait in soybeans that produce high yields. MU scientists say it will take about three years.
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