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Trans Fat Tales

Most people know by now that trans fats are bad for them. But how do you know when you’re eating them? The answer, if you eat a lot of fast foods, is that you don’t.

Some fast food restaurants have done a good job removing trans fats from their products, but others continue to use them in whopping amounts, far exceeding the level researchers say can lead to heart disease.

Trans fats are what you get when you turn liquid oil into quasi-solid fats such as shortening or margarine, a process used to prolong a product’s shelf life. When you shop at the grocery store, you can read a product’s label to see if it contains any trans fat by looking for the term “partially hydrogenated” fats. By law, food manufacturers in the United States must provide this information on the label and many companies that have removed trans fats from their products trumpet that fact in big, bold letters on the packaging.

But in restaurants and at fast-food joints, there are no requirements to provide trans fat content – and many of these meals contain exceptionally high amounts. Studies show eating just five grams of these fats per day increases your risk of having a heart attack by 25 percent. One study, presented at the American Diabetes Association’s annual meeting in June, found that monkeys that ate a diet of trans fats got fatter than those that ate the same number of calories coming from other types of fats. The trans-fat rich diet also appeared to direct the weight gain directly to the midriff.

A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the level of trans fats in take-out meals varies widely among fast food restaurants and also from country to country, even among the same chains. The worst offenders were McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken, which sold meals containing between double and five times the amount shown to increase the risk for heart attacks. The highest level in the study was found in a meal from KFC in Hungary (25 grams); in the United States, the highest level found was at a New York City McDonald’s (10 grams).

In contrast, a separate study done in Canada found McDonald’s had some of the lowest levels there, with its children’s chicken nugget and fries meal containing just 1.8 grams of trans fats (compared to 13 grams in a children’s chicken and fries meal from Burger King).

Scientists say it’s easy to remove trans fats from foods and that doing so does not increase cost or take away from taste. Some fast-food chains, such as McDonald’s, have promised to remove trans fats from their foods but are taking a while to phase them out.

Denmark is the only country to have banned the ingredient outright.

For a copy of the NEJM study, click here.

For more information about the study presented at the American Diabetes Association’s 2006 conference, visit WebMD.

To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org, or www.healthandenvironment.org