Why burgers are bad for you

New research helps to explain how the 'bad' fats found in many foods (such as hamburgers) are converted into artery-clogging cholesterol...

From HealthDayNews:

Researchers say they have discovered the molecular switch that turns the bad fats in food into the cholesterol that clogs your arteries.

It is a molecule designated PGC-1 beta, biochemically classified as a co-activator, and it plays a role in liver metabolism, according to a report in the Jan. 28 issue of Cell by scientists at Harvard's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

When the saturated fats and trans-fatty acids in meat, whole-milk dairy products and other foods on cardiologists' crime sheet arrive at the liver, PGC-1 beta begins a cascade of biochemical signals that direct liver cells to produce LDL cholesterol, the "bad" kind that clogs arteries, as well as triglycerides, another family of artery-blocking substances, the researchers report.

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