Disease Proof : Disease Proof : Health & Nutrition News & Commentary : Dr. Joel Fuhrman

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Back in June the Associated Press reported the American Heart Association was releasing new guidelines recommending a strict limit on people’s consumption of trans fat. You know trans fat, the stuff Dr. Fuhrman calls unnatural and poisonous. From Eat to Live:

Trans fats do not exist in nature. They are laboratory-designed and have adverse health consequences. They interfere with the body’s production of beneficial fatty acids and promote heart disease.1 As trans fatty acids offer no benefits and only clear adverse metabolic consequences, when you see the words partially hydrogenated on the side of a box, consider it poisonous and throw it in the trash.

Apparently all the bad press on trans fat hasn’t fallen on deaf ears. The Associated Press is now reporting that New York City is eyeing a total ban on artificial trans fatty acids:

The city health department unveiled a proposal Tuesday that would bar cooks at any of the city's 24,600 food service establishments from using ingredients that contain the artery-clogging substance, commonly listed on food labels as partially hydrogenated oil.

According to the article many health officials are praising the initiative. Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard University School of Public Health, believes the ban will help save lives. Chicago is also considering a similar ban.
1. Judd, J.T., B. A. Clevidence, R. A. Muesing, et al. 1994. Dietary trans fatty acids: effects on plasma lipids and lipoproteins of healthy men and women. Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 59 (4): 861-68; Mensink, R. P., and M. B. Katan. 1990. Effects on dietary trans fatty acids on high-density and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in healthy subjects. N. Eng. J. Med. 323 (7): 439-45.