Trans Fats are Outta Here!

The Food and Drug Administration just announced today that the food industry has three years to eliminate trans fats from their packaged and processed foods.

This is GREAT.  Why?

Well it’s great because trans fats (hydrogenated oils) have been known for some time to definitely contribute to higher cholesterol, atherosclerosis, heart attacks, strokes, and other harmful conditions.  Trans fats could very likely contribute to the 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 heart disease deaths that happen each year.

When I last posted on trans fats in May 2014, the FDA was in the process of deciding whether or not they were safe for consumption, and how to phase them out if they were determined to be unsafe.  I guess they must have determined them to be unsafe, thankfully. 🙂

The Nearly 125 Year Reign of Trans Fats

I did a little research on the history of trans fats and found out some interesting stuff.

First of all, trans fats were first created around roughly the 1890s.  The norm before their creation was to use fats like butter and lard, but three things happened that caused a shift in the US towards using trans fats:

1. A process for hardening liquid oils (hydrogenation) was developed
2. The US began importing soybeans and had a lot of soybean oil to do something with
3. Butter became hard to procure during the Great Depression and World War II

Voila…the reign of trans fats begins.

This is Good News, But…

Now, there are a couple of caveats to this good news about the FDA requirement for elimination of trans fats:

1. Trans fats naturally occur in some meats and dairy products.  Take a look at frozen hamburgers, for example.
2. Food companies will still be able to petition the FDA to use small amounts of trans fats in their products.  One of the reasons that they might want to do this is because of the difficulty of replicating the texture that trans fats give foods.

This is the kind of stuff we need to know about, man.

Still Your Best Bet

I must say this again to cap this post.  The only sure way to come as close as possible to eliminating disease-causing trans fats from your body is to avoid processed and packaged foods.  Think frozen pizzas, margarine, doughnuts, honey buns, packaged cookies, crackers, and microwave popcorn.  Hey, it’s all junk anyway, and it wouldn’t even be healthy without the trans fats!  Eat a diet based on plant foods and you’ll be so much better off.

Also consider lowering your consumption of animal products, especially red meat and dairy.  You might be surprised how much better you’d feel after having a couple of meatless days each week.

Finally, if you must have a pastry or something (for special occasions, of course), why not just make it yourself?  Making your own desserts is the only way to know that there’s nothing weird in them.  If you need any ideas, I recommend going to Pinch of Yum‘s blog.  Their blog always inspires me because it looks great, and their desserts do, too.  Man, oh man they do.

In moderation, guys ;).