Market trans fat like cigarettes

This past weekend I spend time with a group of kiteboarders at the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  We stayed in a big beach house and shared meals.  I did not shop for the food.  But I wish I had.

Almost everything they purchased, almost everything we ate, had trans fat – the Bisquick® pancake mix, the enriched wheat flour bread, the Duncan Hines® brownies…  I just about had a heart attack at every meal.

Why does this concern me?

Two reasons.  Because trans fats are very detrimental to health.  And because the group was composed of intelligent, physically active, health-conscious individuals (teachers and doctors) who should have known better.

To give them the benefit of the doubt, it is possible that the food purchased was not indicative of their typical diet.  They may have simply been trying to feed a big group as inexpensively as possible.  Or perhaps the cuisine was “vacation food” (i.e. junk food you don’t usually allow yourself to eat, but splurge on during vacation).

But what if they really ate that much trans fat?

According to the  2005 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the “estimated average daily intake of trans fats in the United States was about 2.6 percent of total energy intake” between 1994 and 1996.  Based on a 2,000 calorie diet, that is about 5.5 grams (52 calories) of trans fat every day!  And I’m sure that number has gone up in the last 16 years.

As a registered dietitian-nutritionist, I wince when I see people eating trans fat because I know how bad trans fats are for the body.

Consuming trans fats increases your risk of developing cardiovascular disease (2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans). Trans fats are worse than saturated fats (which was, until only recently, public enemy number one).  This is due, in part, by the ability of trans fats to raise bad (LDL) cholesterol while also lowering good (HDL) cholesterol.

Trans fats also increase inflammation, which is the underlying cause for most chronic diseases, including diabetes, obesity, and cancer.

Furthermore, there is no reason to eat trans fat because trans fats “are not essential in the diet” (DGA 2010, p 25).  In other words, trans fats are not a healthful food additive. 

So why are trans fats ubiquitous (found everywhere) in the food supply? 

Because they improve taste, provide a consistent and desirable texture, and extend the shelf-life of processed foods.  This is why Twinkies taste and feel the same no matter how long after the “best by” date you eat them!

Trans fats were invented in response to consumer demanded for foods low in saturated fat (which was spurred by the first Dietary Guidelines for Americans in 1980 – but that is a topic for anther blog entry).  To make trans fats, liquid vegetable oils are bombarded with hydrogen atoms until the bent molecules become straight.  This “hydrogenation” process turns the liquid oil into a solid fat.

Once the government realized that trans fat may be harmful, they passed a law requiring “trans fatty acids be declared in the nutrition label of conventional foods and dietary supplements on a separate line immediately under the line for the declaration of saturated fatty acids” (The law passed in 2003, effective January 2006, read the Federal Register here).

However, a manufacturer can report “0 g trans fat” if the amount is less than 0.5 g per serving.  The “per serving” stipulation is important because most people consumer more than one serving at a time, thus consuming more than 0.5 g of trans fat in one sitting.  In other words, manufactures can manipulate product recipes and serving sizes to avoid having to claim trans fat on the Nutrition Facts label.  This is deceptive to consumers who do not know any better.

The best way to determine whether or not a product has trans fats is to read the ingredients list.  If there is mention of any “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated” oils, the food product contains trans fats.

Better yet, I wish there was a law requiring graphic pictures be included on the package of every food containing trans fat, similar to the nine selected graphics the FDA wants to include on every pack of cigarettes sold in the United States to inform and educate consumers.  Of course, the cigarette manufacturers argue the graphic images do more than educate.  They believe the images are meant to advocate a change in behavior.  They brought the case to court, which is still unresolved.  (Read the New York Times article here).

What will happen from here?  I do not know.  But I hope the FDA wins.

If the FDA is able to advocate behavior change against smoking with graphic images, then there is no reason they wouldn’t be able to require graphics of people with heart disease be included on the packaging of products that contain trans fats.

A picture speaks a thousand words.  If we had a better way to educate consumers about the dangers of trans fats, I believe people would finally start to pay attention to how much trans fats they are consuming.