WebMD Groups Wants Trans Fats Banned

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> Group Wants Trans Fats Banned

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> Partially Hydrogenated Oils Raising Heart Disease Risk, Watchdog Group Says

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> By Todd Zwillich

> WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD

> on Tuesday, May 18, 2004

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> > Email to a friend > Printer-friendly version

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> May 18, 2004 - A consumer watchdog group is asking the Food and Drug

> Administration to ban " trans fat " from the U.S. food supply, saying that it

> unnecessarily raises the risk of heart disease.

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> The Center for Science in the Public Interest filed a petition with the FDA

> Tuesday asking it to ban partially hydrogenated vegetable oils from foods.

> The group says that the oil, commonly found in margarine and in processed

> snacks such as cookies, chips, crackers, and fried fast foods, can be easily

be

> replaced. Partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are vegetable oils that are

> made into solid form to preserve shelf time.

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> " The FDA simply cannot consider partially hydrogenated oil to be safe when

> the FDA -- and every scientific committee that has examined the topic --

> recognizes that the product causes thousands of deaths annually, " says

F.

> son, PhD, the group's executive director.

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> Partially hydrogentated oils were seen for years as a healthier alternative

> to saturated fats found in meats, dairy products, and lard. An effort to

> lower rates of heart disease prompted professional societies and thousands of

> doctors to recommend products such as margarine in place of butter.

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> But evidence began to mount in the 1980s that the trans fats in partially

> hydrogenated oils may be doubly dangerous. While saturated fats raise LDL

" bad "

> cholesterol, trans fats are now known to both raise LDL cholesterol while

> lowering " good " HDL cholesterol, " says Walter Willet, MD, a professor of

> nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.

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> Willet says that he used to regularly recommend partially hydrogenated oils

> to patients. " I did that because that's what we were told to do ... thinking

> it was a healthy thing to do, " he says.

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> Several studies have shown that trans fats cause unfavorable cholesterol

> profiles (increasing " bad " LDL and lowering " good " HDL). A 2001 analysis of

four

> major studies shows that a 2% increase in trans fat consumption raised the

> risk of heart disease an average of 25%.

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> " They're worse than anything else in the food supply with regard to blood

> lipids, " Willet says.

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> The data prompted FDA in January to demand that food manufacturers include

> trans fat amounts on all grocery store food labels. Companies have until

> January 2006 to comply with the order.

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> FDA officials did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday's petition.

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> CSPI wants manufacturers to consider using canola and sun flower seed oil

> instead of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. These liquid vegetable oils

> contain polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats which can help lower " bad "

> LDL cholesterol without affecting the level of " good " HDL cholesterol. Many

> companies, including Mc's, have made the switch in Denmark, which has

> banned trans fats.

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> son says that the food labeling requirement does not go far enough.

> While several major food companies, including Kraft and Frito-Lay have already

> moved to cut trans fats out of some products, not all companies will follow

> suit, he says.

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> " The government shouldn't just wait around until companies decide to make

> changes, " he tells WebMD.

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> Regina Hildwine, senior director of Food Labeling and Standards for the

> National Food Processors Association (NFPA), says the petition was " the wrong

> way " to address trans fats in the food supply. She says that FDA recommends

that

> people eat diets low in trans fats, not eliminated them totally from their

> diets.

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> " FDA now has trans fat labeling requirements that will provide consumers

> with useful information on the trans fat content of various food products.

More

> and more product labels containing trans fat information are coming onto the

> market, " Hildwine says.

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> Kraft Foods announced in April that it would soon begin selling Oreo cookies

> that contain no trans fat.

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