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Thursday, February 9, 2012

Health / Chow Americans™, Now with 60 Percent Less Trans Fat!

Posted by Goldy on Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 10:06 AM

Great news for health-conscious vampires:

The intense battle that public health advocates have waged against trans fats appears to be working: A new report shows that since 2000, levels of trans fats in Americans’ bloodstreams have plummeted nearly 60 percent.

My God, public policy like sensible food labeling can work to help change behavior for the best! Who knew?

Sure, outright trans fat bans, like that imposed on restaurants in King County and other municipalities, have played a role in lowering Americans' consumption of trans fat. But the biggest change has come at the supermarket, where food manufacturers, embarrassed to list trans fat on their labels, have been steadily replacing them with less unhealthy fats.

That said, this trend has slowed in recent years. So maybe it's time for the FDA to impose the total ban that health advocates have been asking for.

Comments (7) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

Will you please provide a link to the recognized medical definition of "healthy?" I'm having trouble locating that.

Posted by Mr. J on February 9, 2012 at 10:43 AM

I had no issue with trans fats until I did undergraduate biochemistry and we had a lecture on lipid chemistry and I learned what trans fats do, and I haven't eaten anything containing them since.

They are *fucking bad* for you.

Posted by Helix on February 9, 2012 at 11:12 AM

That's a good thing, but people still need to limit other kinds of fats too. Just because something says "no transfats" doesn't mean it's healthy. It usually just means it's slightly less harmful. Other fats are just as calorie rich, and can cause people to pack on the pounds if eaten in excess. Also folks should limit their simple carbohydrates as well.

Posted by Rob in Baltimore

on February 9, 2012 at 11:48 AM

#1 thing the government could do to improve the dietary intake of citizens is stop giving literally 99.63% of subsidies to manufacturers of meat/dairy/grains/sugar/oil/starch making them the cheapest option.

Posted by alithea on February 9, 2012 at 11:51 AM

@1 basically, most Americans have hypertension, or too much salt intake for the limited amount of exercise they get, due to many salty processed foods.

Any questions?

Go talk to your MD ...

Posted by Will in Seattle

on February 9, 2012 at 1:29 PM

#3: but transfats danger isn't about calories or obesity. They are unique fats (human-engineered) that have been found to increase every cardiovascular problem imaginable.

An old-school transfat vegetable oil based margarine has less fat and calories than lard. Lard is WAY less harmful.

Posted by SpecialBrew on February 9, 2012 at 4:05 PM

Don't forget the aggressive brand-change of High Fructose Corn Sugar on labels to just "Corn Sugar".

Posted by Drew2u on February 9, 2012 at 10:31 PM