To ban or not to ban trans fats

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDApr 16 2010

Now it is doctors too who have joined the move towards banning trans fats from food. Trans fats are hydrogenated solid fats that are found in deep fried foods, margarine, bakery products, fast foods etc. they are used because they are cheap and keep better. However it has long been known that these fats are bad for the heart leading to heart attacks, strokes and high blood cholesterol etc.

According to the editorial in the British Medical Journal the US doctors, Dariush Mozzaffarian and Meir J Stamper have said that this ban would prevent 11,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths in England alone annually. They said, “Removing industrial TFAs is one of the most straightforward public health strategies for rapid improvements in health.” Denmark and New York city have already moved towards complete elimination of TFA.

This January the UK Faculty of Public Health called for a ban on trans fats. Food Standards Agency however disagrees and says that as it is trans fat consumption of UK residents is too low for a complete ban. 2% in diet is the dangerous level and an average Briton consumes less than 1%. However UK Faculty of Public Health believes that some pockets of population are consuming more than the dangerous limit and may be in danger. Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, president of the Faculty of Public Health in this context said, “There are great differences in the amount of trans-fats consumed by different people and we are particularly concerned about young people and those with little disposable income who eat a lot of this type of food… This is a major health inequalities issue.”

Expert speak -

According to this editorial in BMJ, these doctors from Harvard Medical School support the ban.

Victoria Taylor, senior heart health dietician at the British Heart Foundation, also believed that while a lot of reduction in trans fats in diet has already been achieved, more needs to be done. She said, “This is good progress but we still need to do more to make sure that the industrially produced trans-fats don't creep back into our nation's diets.”

Steve George, vice-president UK Faculty of Public Health also echoed these sentiments saying, “Trans fats aren't like products such as cigarettes or alcohol – no one goes out to buy trans fats. They are in there because they increase manufacturers' profits, not because they improve taste or are desirable in any way.”

Countering these arguments Barbara Gallani, director of food safety and science at the Food and Drink Federation retaliated that this was scaring the public unnecessarily. She said, “We agree that it is important to maintain a healthily balanced diet in which trans-fats are consumed within the safe levels recommended by the FSA and that is why artificial trans-fats have been virtually eliminated from processed foods in the UK.”

Campaigners in Scotland too recently failed to persuade the Scottish parliament to back a trans fats ban.