http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6097676.stm



US debates 'hidden' food fats ban




Jeremy Cooke
BBC News, New York
Public hearings to discuss a plan to ban an ingredient called trans fatty acids from restaurants across New York are expected to begin on Monday.

The US city's health department says trans-fats are a serious health hazard.
For years health officials in New York have identified trans-fats as a food ingredient which can clog arteries and cause serious health problems.
Some restaurateurs will argue that a ban would be expensive to enforce and insist consumers should have a choice.

Informed choice
For more than a year there has been a voluntary programme for the city's 20,000 restaurants and fast food outlets to remove trans-fats from the food they serve.




TRANS-FATS
They are partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, turning oily foods into semi-solid foods
Used to extend shelf life of products
Put into pastries, cakes, margarine and some fast foods
Can raise levels of "bad" cholesterol
Even a small reduction in consumption can cut heart disease
They have no nutritional benefit

Clearly that has not been as successful as was hoped and now there is to be a series of public hearings to discuss a proposed new law which would ban all but the most minute traces of trans-fats from New York's menus.
The city's health commissioner, Thomas Frieden, says that trans-fats are invisible and dangerous and once they are gone they would not be missed.
In a separate initiative, his department is also recommending that the calorie content of each item on a menu should be printed alongside it.
Officials say that many New Yorkers get at least a third of their calories from food eaten outside the home and they should be making a more informed choice about what they consume.

Either way we may all be done for.

To deal with trans fatty acid, Kentucky Fried Chicken or KFC will be switching oil as a part of politicians attacking the issue.


Polk's KFC Fans Glad Fat Is on the Way Out
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.d...611010425/1039


They may be "glad" for that but not glad at what could be happening to them if they are constant eaters of oil cooked foods including chinese, and others...

but in this case "soybean oil"

From that smiling Doctor Mercola

http://www.mercola.com/2001/aug/1/oil2.htm

But the calves fed soybean oil showed a decline in calcium and magnesium levels in the blood, possibly due to inefficient absorption. They utilised vitamins and minerals inefficiently, showed poor growth and poor bone development, and had abnormal hearts.

More cholesterol per unit of dry matter was found in the aorta, liver, muscle, fat and coronary arteries - a finding which led the investigators to the conclusion that the lower blood cholesterol levels in the soybean-oil-fed calves may be the result of cholesterol being transferred from the blood to other tissues.

The calves in the soybean oil group collapsed when forced to move around and they were unaware of their surroundings for short periods. They also had rickets and diarrhoea.

In short the buildup in our body do not disappear but change and attack other parts of our body.

Yes, this report entirely is alot to consider.

Especially animal fats and type of cancer rates

Quite the contrary: the use of animal fats had been declining steadily since the turn of the century.

A report in the Journal of American Oil Chemists - which the McGovern Committee did not use - showed that animal fat consumption had declined from 104 grams per person per day in 1909 to 97 grams per day in 1972, while vegetable fat intake had increased from a mere 21 grams to almost 60 grams.14

Total per-capita fat consumption had increased over the period, but this increase was mostly due to an increase in unsaturated fats from vegetable oils - with 50 per cent of the increase coming from liquid vegetable oils and about 41 per cent from margarines made from vegetable oils.

Enig noted a number of studies that directly contradicted the McGovern Committee's conclusions that "there is...a strong correlation between dietary fat intake and the incidence of breast cancer and colon cancer" - two of the most common cancers in America.

Greece, for example, had less than one-fourth the rate of breast cancer compared to Israel, but the same dietary fat intake.

Spain had only one-third the breast cancer mortality of France and Italy, but the total dietary fat intake was slightly greater.

Puerto Rico, with a high animal fat intake, had a very low rate of breast and colon cancer.
The Netherlands and Finland both used approximately 100 grams of animal fat per capita per day, but breast and colon cancer rates were almost twice in the Netherlands what they were in Finland. The Netherlands consumed 53 grams of vegetable fat per person compared to 13 grams in Finland.

A study from Cali, Colombia, found a fourfold excess risk for colon cancer in the higher economic classes which used less animal fat than the lower economic classes.

A study found that Seventh Day Adventist physicians, who avoid meat (especially red meat), had a significantly higher rate of colon cancer than non-Seventh Day Adventist physicians.

Might as well die with style with the food we love to eat. I am not advocating what you should eat but things are happening.