H 23°, L 4° | Tomorrow: 
H 21°, L 6°It is common knowledge that America has a weight problem; recent statistics show that 60 percent of adult Americans and 17 percent of children and teens are overweight. It is less commonly known, however, that coronary heart disease causes more than 500,000 deaths each year, making it one of the leading causes of death in the United States, and not all who die from CHD are overweight.
Scientific evidence shows that consumption of trans fat raises "bad cholesterol" levels and therefore increases the risk of CHD. In the past few years, trans fat has been getting more and more negative press, and starting Jan. 1, 2006, the Food and Drug Administration required that trans fat be listed on the Nutrition Facts panel on food labels.
Trans fat is made when manufacturers add hydrogen to vegetable oil in order to increase the shelf life and flavor of certain foods. Many popular foods contain trans fats including crackers, cookies, fried foods, chips, candy bars and cakes.
Although the law to require listing trans fat on food labels is helpful to many Americans who wish to avoid them in order to keep their hearts healthy, it does not change the risk that many Americans face when choosing to eat out.
Americans love to dine at restaurants because, let's face it — having someone else prepare your meal is much easier than doing it yourself. When you choose to eat in a restaurant, however, you give up your ability to decide what goes into your food, and restaurants don't always provide the healthiest food choices. They are naturally much more interested in making food that tastes good than food that is healthy for the consumer.
Well, now perhaps both the chef and the customer can be happy. Recently, New York City adopted the nation's first major municipal ban on artificial trans fats in restaurant cooking. Although chefs objected at first, because they feared that their food would not be as appealing without the use of trans fats, chef Michael S. Schwartz took on the challenge of finding if he could make his food taste just as good, if not better, without trans fats. The challenge was not finding an alternative to trans fat, but finding one that would not change the food. This is a dilemma that the city's more than 20,000 restaurants are currently dealing with.
Mr. Schwartz conducted numerous experiments in which he used Crisco (a trans fat), butter and coconut oil in foods such as tarte tatin, French fries and friend chicken. The results were that, although the tarte and fries looked nicer when made with Crisco, all three foods tasted better when made with coconut oil.
With these positive results, what's stopping the rest of the country from following New York City's example and banning trans fat? Most chain restaurants will already have to change their recipes to comply with the new rules, and there seem to be no negative consequences to removing trans fat from food.
Although some people, such as Mr. Schwartz, see this law as a "blow" to their civil liberties, there is no reason that people should actively want to consume fats proven to lead to heart disease and death. The ban on trans fat may not stop people from consuming high-calorie dishes, and ultimately calorie consumption is a more important factor in obesity than fat consumption, but it will help people who care about the health of their heart to feel better about eating out. The new law will make it easier for those concerned with their health to keep their hearts healthy, and those who are unconcerned will not be affected. I hope that it is only a matter of time until other cities follow New York's example and ban trans fat in restaurants.
Gabbie Wade ([email protected]) is a freshman intending to major in journalism.
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thanks you for a normal non satirical opinion this week
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Oh mighty Government! Please protect me from myself, for I know not what I do!
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It’s frightening how little people care about care about their right to make their own decisions and how they are more than happy to turn over their choices to the government. The only thing worse than the opinions expressed in this article is the author’s ability to write.
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What would Big Brother prefer?
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A fair wisconsin votes NO on the ban of trans fats in restaurants.
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There are so many idiotic statements and conclusions in the piece that my head is about to explode. But here’s my favorite:
“there is no reason that people should actively want to consume fats proven to lead to heart disease and death”
As if that is an argument to PASS LEGISLATION to prevent it!
Hmm, maybe in your research for this story you missed this— one reason could be that it tastes better!
So now people can’t be trusted to choose what kind of food they want to eat? You have the right to have an abortion (my body, my choice!) but goddammit you can’t get french fries cooked in trans-fats.
There are dozens of reasons why Americans are obese. Not one of those reasons is lack of laws.
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You know, 10 years ago many of us were criticizing the big tobacco lawsuits as outrageously frivolous. “What next, sue McDonald’s for getting fat?” we asked. And people like you told us we were crazy.
Now we have government telling restaurants what ingredients they are allowed to use to prepare food. How long before McDonald’s is sued because “they knew!” they were using that deadly addictive trans fat when suitable alternatives existed? You laugh. Just wait.
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Even better, lets just ban all food entirely, and have FDA g-men distribute fat-free, high-protein, vitamin-packed, anti-oxidant soylent green slurry to every American 3 times a day! Yummo!
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Only one sure way to get rid of trans fat: castrate all the white males.
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10:52, Soylent Green is people!
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Eat your trans fat. There are children in Africa who would love to have as much trans fat as you have.
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This is a perfect example of a situation where the markets will solve this so called problem. Already in the supermarket, it is common to see “a Trans Fat free food,” even on foods that never had trans fat in them, or foods that are still extremely unhealthy. This must be working, because I see more and more products with these types of messages displayed on the label. McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Taco Bell, and culvers all have plans to reduce or eliminate trans fat. I guarantee you they are not doing this to be “healthy.” This is going to increase their profits. It gives Them a better image, and they will also be able to raise prices because now they are offering a “premium” product. So this is a win-win situation (as it always in free market situations), people who don’t want to eat trans fats will have a place to go and eat, and the businesses will benefit and will be able to hire more employees. Eventually, I believe most places will switch their oils, and they will use this point to drive in new customers. In addition, this will create a niche market for places that still use trans fats, and they will be able to drive in people looking for cunchy fries.
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Here is the main problem with the article:
“Although some people, such as Mr. Schwartz, see this law as a ‘blow’ to their civil liberties, there is no reason that people should actively want to consume fats proven to lead to heart disease and death.”
Does the government have a duty to prevent people from doing an activity because people should not actively want to do that activity?
Why stop at trans fats: Cigarrettes? Cigars? Food with over 800 calories?
What about other foods: Foi Gras? Lamb?
We must have a balance between looking out for the health of fellow citizens and allowing citizens to do what they want to do. If we can have oils that are better for us and the food tastes the same, that’s great, but how far should we go?
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Yes.
I think food producers should get rid of trans-fat all together. It’s the secrect danger that inside these cheaply produced foods today. Restaurants and food producers need to return to using richer ingridents that are healthy.
But we all know its a money thing, companies want to be able to produce a product the cheapest and at the same time make the most out of it. Trans-fat oil instead of regular oil gives that opportunity, but it comes at the cost of our health.
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you people miss the point…..trans-fats can be removed from food production without doing anything to taste…they used to be added to preserve shelf-life of products, however, technology has advanced, but the trans-fats have not been removed. Why do you people want trans-fats when they can and should be removed from your foods???? You can still eat whatever you want, and it will taste exactly the same….it just won’t have trans-fats
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A little history of Trans Fats from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_fat#History
” Production of hydrogenated fats increased steadily until the 1960s as artificially hardened liquid oils replaced naturally hard saturated animal fats in the US and other western countries. At first, the argument was a financial one due to lower costs; however, advocates also said that the unsaturated trans fats of margarine were healthier than the saturated fats of butter.[14]
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) campaigned against the use of saturated fats for fast food cooking starting in 1984. When fast food companies replaced the saturated fat with partially hydrogenated unsaturated fats, CSPI’s campaign against them ended. While CSPI defended trans fats in their 1987 Nutrition Action newsletter, by 1992 CSPI began to speak against trans fats and is currently strongly against their use.[15] “
Forgive me if I don’t entirely trust the feds determination of what’s healthy for me.
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wikipedia is not a reliable source!!
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Asked why he was trying so hard to get into the USA one guy said it was “because he wanted to get into a country so rich that the poor people are fat”.
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Actually, poor people are fatter then rich people, because they can’t afford to eat healthy.
A good compromise would be to require restaurants to provide, upon request, a list of ingredients and nutrition information on their food. (I thought most chains did this?) In Los Angeles, they are required to post their health rating in the window: A,B,C. As has been stated already, restaurants will try to reduce their trans fat to fit the demand of consumers. But ultimately, if someone wants to eat bad food, let them.
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Actually, ACTUAL poor people are THINNER than rich people, because they can’t afford to eat AT ALL. The “poor” people in the USA have way more to eat than a huge number of acually poor people around the world.