Trans Fat-Free :: Food and Nutrition

Trans Fat-Free
by author Sandra Tonn, RHN

In the field of natural health, we’ll probably remember 2007 as the year of trans fat-free–and it’s about time.

The issue of trans fats has been simmering on the back burner for many years. Scientists raised concerns about the negative health effects of trans fats as early as 1990, and by the mid-‘90s, researchers estimated that Canadians had one of the highest intakes of trans fats in the world.

More than a decade later, research and increased consumer awareness finally resulted in mandatory nutrition labelling of trans fats in both Canada (December 2005) and the US (January 2006). New York City turned up the heat on the trans fats issue last December when it banned them from restaurants. Since then there has been an enthusiastic lineup of restaurant chains, coffee franchises, and food manufacturers, including KFC, Starbucks, and Frito-Lay, promising to eliminate trans fats from their food products.

Trans fats, which are transformed fat molecules, are created when food manufacturers take liquid vegetable oils (chemically unstable) and add hydrogen, making them more chemically stable. The resulting hydrogenated fats are semi-solid, which makes them a cheap and handy replacement for saturated fats in food production. They replace butter and lard in baking, are stable enough for deep frying, and offer an inexpensive way to increase taste and shelf life in processed food products.

Trans Fat Trouble

Most of us know that consuming trans fats increases LDL (“bad”) cholesterol levels and decreases HDL (“good”) cholesterol. According to a 2006 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, eating trans fats is associated with coronary heart disease, death from heart attack, and diabetes. Additional preliminary research suggests that eating trans fats may increase the risk of infertility in women and prostate cancer in men, and may result in more weight gain in the abdominal area than what would be seen with the consumption of natural fats.

Despite ample research, it is unclear whether the Canadian government will take steps to ban or regulate trans fats in food. A multistakeholder task force headed by Health Canada and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada worked from November 2004 to June 2006 on a report titled “TRANSforming the Food Supply.” However, the federal government has yet to take action on their advice, which included limiting and replacing trans fats in food.

Bill Jeffery, national coordinator of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), who was also a trans fat task force member, says, “The trans fats in partially hydrogenated vegetable oil likely cause between 800 and 2,000 premature deaths per year in Canada due to heart disease.” The lower end of the range, he explains, is an estimate from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. The higher figure is extrapolated from an estimate by the US FDA that “22,000 lives could be saved each year if trans fatty acids from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils were replaced by other fatty acids.” (The numbers for Canada reflect smaller population figures.)

“Dramatically reducing trans fats in our diets by the sensible regulatory reforms advocated in the federal trans fat task force report is an important way to prevent most of that needless human carnage,” concludes Jeffery.

While our government sits on the research and recommendations of industry experts, restaurants and food manufacturers are already responding to consumer demand for trans fat-free food.

Trans Fat Transition

The Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association (CRFA) has drafted guidelines for its industry based on the task force recommendations. For example, trans fats used for frying may be replaced with stable, higher-quality vegetable oils. For harder fats, the task force recommends products prepared by interesterification, a mixing of oils.

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Sandra Tonn, RHN, is a registered holistic nutritionist, natural health journalist, whole food nutrition teacher, and certified hatha yoga instructor based in North Vancouver, BC. sandratonn.com

Source: alive #294, April 2007

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