Trans Fat: The Demon Ingredient

'Zero Trans Fat' has become like a mantra imprinted on the advertisements, signs and packaging of food products, luring health conscious consumers back into eating food that has become shunned for its use of the evil ingredient.

What are Trans Fats? Chances are you've heard of trans fats lately with the worldwide condemnation by health authorities and the growing trend to reduce or eliminate them from our food. Low levels of trans fats are naturally occurring in some dairy products, oils and meat but at low levels, but they are not considered to be as risky for your health as those which are generated by the by-product of hydrogenation. Hydrogenation is a process where liquid oil is turned into a semi-solid form like shortening or margarine. Manufacturers add them to different foods to act as a preservative, keeping those cookies soft for a longer period of time than it would take for your home made baked goodies to turn as hard as rock. Just what is it about trans fat that is so bad for you? Unlike other types of naturally occurring fat, they are not needed by the body, and they certainly aren't good for you. Without getting too scientific, trans fats lower everything good that saturated fatty acids give to your body and add all the worst elements, leading to obesity and coronary heart disease. One thing seems for certain, you've probably eaten it and if you like snack food, it's even more likely that it's been part of your diet for years, clogging your arteries with gunk. In Canada The federal government wants to legislate acceptable levels of trans fat in food products, targeting vegetable oil and margarine, two very commonly used products to reduce the levels to 2 percent and a reduction to 5 percent in all other foods. The U.S. is putting on the pressure, saying that it would hurt their food producer's pocketbooks and thanks to the North American Free Trade fiasco, American food producers will continue to be able to sell products with high levels of trans fats for another two years before the government will introduce legislation. So without much of a fight the feds basically back down and recommend that food producers reduce trans fat levels to their recommended targets. Some activists were partially pleased with the announcement because it adopts the targets set by a multi stakeholder task force. "Health Canada's adoption of the Trans Fat Task Force recommendation is an important step towards the elimination of processed trans fats in our foods." said Sally Brown, who is the CEO of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and co-chair of the task force. However, They specifically reject the voluntary approach, saying that the government is moving too slowly and instead calling for the limits to be regulated by next June on all domestic or imported food. Every year an additional 2,000 Canadians have heart attacks due to the artery problems caused by trans fat. Health Minister Tony Clement admitted that the trade issue had been part of the discussion, but was not the determining factor. Personally that sounds a little weak to me. In Denmark An example cited by the Trans Fat Task Force was in Denmark, where concerns were voiced to the food industry, but nothing actually changed. "It was only after regulations came into effect that processed trans fats were virtually eliminated from the Danish food supply." said the task force. In the U.S. Some American cities are making the move to ban trans fats, including New York city, which will impose its legislation by July 2007 and Chicago which is considering it. As of September 1st, 2007 Philadelphia banned its use in restaurant food. Albany County New York and Massachusetts state have already made the move. The FDA imposed a requirement, that food must be less than 0.5 gram per serving to be labelled trans fat free, but critics have said that the threshold is still too high. In the UK Some British retailers have announced that they will be reducing the use of trans fats in their products by the end of this year, but there doesn't seem to be much action coming from the government, though the Food Standards Agency has recommended better labelling of products. In Australia A plan is being drafted by the government to reduce the country's reliance on trans fats, but it seems to slow to catch on to the trend, they don't even have laws requiring the substance to be listed on food labels. The Zero Trans Fat Trend Fortunately for consumers around the world, outside of regulatory standards, many manufacturers of products are joining the trend to reduce or eliminate the use of trans fats. It's become popular enough that even if you don't know what trans fats are, you've probably seen the labels on everything from potato chips to baked goods. We've seen numerous articles on Digital Journal about companies jumping on the bandwagon, not necessarily because they care, but more likely they are trying to win back consumers who have moved on to healthier choices. Some big service industry chains have made the move including Starbucks, who has been eliminating them from their muffins, doughnuts and other goodies in their U.S. stores. Taco Bell and KFC are both making menu changes which include the use of a cooking oil that does not contain trans-fatty acids.McDonalds is also changing its frying oil, a move which is being precipitated by the coming ban of the substance in Chicago and New York. Arbys and Wendys are also making the move, starting in May 2007 and August 2006 respectively. Kraft Foods was sued by BanTransFats.com a non-profit corporation dedicated to the cause, in an attempt to get the food company to remove trans fats from their Oreo cookies. The lawsuit was dropped when Kraft agreed to find a substitute in their ingredients. We've also seen that Girl Guide Cookies are going to be healthier than before. As of January 2007 Crisco, the makers of the original partially hydrogenated vegetable shortening has reformulated its product to contain less than 1 gram of trans fat per serving. What can we do about it? Well the obvious answer to that is resist the temptation! Sure that's easier said than done, but nothing else will send a message to the food industry that we're not going to buy their crap unless they get on the zero trans fat bandwagon. Additional source