This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Trans Fats: What the FDA ban means to you

trans fats, healthy eating healthy,heart health,obesity

The latest media news in nutrition is the proposed FDA ban on trans fats in our food. Trans fats are known to cause increased cholesterol, especially HDL or the “bad” cholesterol, which leads directly to heart disease. During the last decade, the food industry has been taking trans fats out of our food supply, and Americans have decreased their consumption from 4.6 grams per day in 2003 to 1 gram per day in 2012. Trans fats are used for the texture, flavor, and shelf life of processed foods.Trans fats are found primarily in processed foods and restaurant foods such as fried foods, french fries, frostings, baked goods such as pastries, pies, cakes and cookies, doughnuts, biscuits, stick margarines, and any foods that have “partially hydrogenated oil” in their ingredient list.

As a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, I am in favor of the FDA move to take a community approach to help Americans become healthier, yet I have some concern that we are once again villainizing an ingredient vs the entire product. See my interview on CNN from last Thursday.

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2013/11/07/fda-to-ban-trans-fats-in-foods.cnn.html

Find out what's happening in Johns Creekwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Where are Trans Fats?

Trans fats replaced saturated fat in mass beginning in the 1960’s and 1970’s and ever since. We knew saturated fat was unhealthy, causing similar effects of trans fats, when consumed in large amounts. So we replaced saturated fat with trans fats. Then in the 1990’s research began to show the ill health effects of this ingredient. Since the American people “demand” the foods that trans fats are found in, food manufacturers will find a replacement. The replacement may cost more, increasing the cost of these foods. I’m okay with this, as then unhealthy food will cost more than healthy food! However, 90% of the time the food or final product are foods that are unhealthy and in and of themselves are linked to high cholesterol, excess calories, and health issues. 

Find out what's happening in Johns Creekwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

What’s the “real” message?

If we are really concerned about Americans health, then I believe we’re missing the message. Just like we villainized High Fructose Corn Syrup, sugar by another name, we miss the message of eating these foods on occasion, not multiple times daily and weekly. Instead, if the advertising of products corresponds to the latest fad, such as contains not high fructose corn syrup or now no trans fats, then it’s “okay” to eat unhealthy foods as long as they don’t contain the villain ingredient.

A Real Solution

Join me during future blogs to address solutions that are doable and make a big impact for little efforts. I learned a lot attending the inaugural Obesity Week, in November in Atlanta with the top researchers and experts in the world. I also will be leading discussions during our holiday series Maintain Don’t Gain.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Johns Creek