The World Health Organization is calling for the total elimination of trans fat – responsible for over 500,000 premature deaths each year.
In its annual status report, Countdown to 2023 WHO Report on global trans fat elimination 2022, WHO says governments need to do more to ban industrially-produced fats, which clog arteries and are commonly found in cooking oils, spreads, packaged foods, and baked goods.
CTV News Canada is reporting that trans fats were developed at the beginning of the 20th century, and hailed as a cheaper alternative to animal fats like butter. As late as the 1990s, the chemical was perceived as being healthier and was frequently used in large-scale food production. But that has since been debunked.
“Trans fat has no known benefit and huge health risks that incur huge costs for health systems,” WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a news release. “By contrast, eliminating trans fat is cost-effective and has enormous benefits for health. Put simply, trans fat is a toxic chemical that kills and should have no place in food. It’s time to get rid of it once and for all.”
VOA News is reporting that Tom Frieden, the president and chief executive officer of the public health initiative Resolve to Save Lives, said that the global elimination of trans fat from food could prevent up to 17 million deaths from cardiovascular diseases by 2040.
What is trans fat?
Trans fat, also called trans-unsaturated fatty acids, or trans fatty acids are a type of unsaturated fat that occurs in foods. Trace concentrations of trans fats occur naturally, but large amounts are found in some processed foods.
Natural trans fat occurs in some meat and dairy products and is not considered harmful. For example, butter contains about 3 percent trans fat. These trans fats, in contrast to industrially produced trans fats, exist only as a few isomers and are perfectly safe, as opposed to industrial trans fats.
Research shows that artificial trans fat can raise bad cholesterol levels and build up in arteries, increasing the risk of heart disease and heart attack.
In 1902, German chemist Wilhelm Normann patented a process that showed that liquid oils could be hydrogenated, in a process called hydrogenation, to make them more solid, or “spreadable.”
Normann’s hydrogenation process made it possible to stabilize affordable whale oil or fish oil for human consumption, a practice kept secret to avoid consumer distaste.
The elimination of trans fats
In 2018, the WHO called for the global elimination of industrially produced trans fats, with an elimination target set for 2023. As of today, forty-three countries have now implemented best-practice policies for tackling trans fat in food, with 2.8 billion people protected globally.
Besides Canada, those countries include Thailand, India, Brazil, the U.S., and many countries across Europe. Canada, as well as Latvia, Slovenia, and the U.S., banned trans fats in 2018.
Despite substantial progress, however, this still leaves 5 billion worldwide at risk from trans fat’s devastating health impacts with the global goal for its total elimination in 2023 remaining unattainable at this time.
Currently, 9 of the 16 countries with the highest estimated proportion of coronary heart disease deaths caused by trans fat intake do not have a best-practice policy. They are Australia, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Ecuador, Egypt, Iran (Islamic Republic), Nepal, Pakistan, and the Republic of Korea.
While most trans fat elimination policies to date have been implemented in higher-income countries, an increasing number of middle-income countries are implementing or adopting these policies, including Argentina, Bangladesh, India, Paraguay, the Philippines, and Ukraine.
Best-practice policies are also being considered in Mexico, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka in 2023.
