December 25, 2006 & January 1, 2007
Student Scene
City Can Take the Heat, Gets into the Kitchen to Ban Trans Fats
Photo by Graham Ramsay Joseph Ladapo |
New York City’s recent ban on the use of trans fats in restaurants grabbed national headlines and was met with applause and criticism from health policy analysts, opinion leaders, and food industry representatives. Though unconventional, the city’s mandate has helped intensify campaigns against consumption of the dangerous fat and may inspire a larger movement throughout the country.
Trans fats, primarily found in partially hydrogenated vegetable oils and shortening, are more harmful to cardiovascular health than any other cooking oil. Occurring naturally only in small quantities, nearly all trans fats in our diet are the product of an artificial chemical process in which vegetable oils are hydrogenated. The modification gives them a more solid consistency at room temperature—particularly desirable in baking—and inhibits them from going rancid. Their commercialization began with Crisco in the early 1900s, and trans fats have since spread to margarine, fried foods, baked goods, fast foods, and many other processed foods.
Good Intentions
Though trans fats are relatively cheap, their pervasiveness in modern diets is, paradoxically, a result of health concerns as well as economics. Bolstered by a growing consensus in the 1970s and 80s that saturated fats are a major culprit in heart disease, food manufacturers and restaurants turned to trans fats instead, believing that their vegetable oil origin made them inherently healthier.
Major scientific research later showed that trans fats were actually more dangerous than saturated fat; though both increase the level of bad cholesterol in the body, trans fat has the additional drawback of decreasing the level of good, artery-cleaning cholesterol.
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Major scientific research later showed that trans fats were actually more dangerous than saturated fat |
Public awareness of the dangers of trans fats grew in the 1990s, and some members of the food industry, such as Boston’s Legal Sea Foods, voluntarily replaced trans fats with healthier alternatives, such as canola, olive, or vegetable oils. More recently, this transition was accelerated by an FDA decision to require food manufacturers to list trans fat content on nutrition labels by January 2006. The result has been a sharp increase in the number of products proclaiming their “trans fat free” status and a general decrease in their use in snack foods. By FDA estimates, this policy will prevent thousands of heart attacks over the next few years and save billions of dollars in medical costs and lost productivity.
The New Ground Zero
With its recent ban, New York City raises the stakes by cracking down on trans fat use completely. Supported by health enthusiast Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the policy gives restaurants 18 months to phase out trans fats from city kitchens.
Though the move is unusual because it bans a legal substance, New York City health commissioner Thomas Frieden believes the government had no choice but to intercede on behalf of consumers, arguing that restaurants failed to clearly delineate the ingredients in their foods. “New Yorkers are consuming a hazardous, artificial substance without their knowledge or consent,” Frieden said. “Like lead paint, artificial trans fat in food is invisible and dangerous, and it can be replaced.”
The policy’s ripple effect may be felt nationwide since multiple cities, including Boston and Chicago, are considering similar bans.
Food Fight
New York’s policy has its dissidents, however. The American Heart Association (AHA), in contrast to other major medical organizations such as the American College of Cardiology and the American Medical Association, opposes the policy change.
It argues that an 18-month window does not give restaurants enough time to switch to healthier oil alternatives. Under the time pressure, the AHA fears that “if appropriate substitutes are not widely available in the food supply chain, restaurants may substitute saturated fats, which are also strongly associated with the development of heart disease.”
The AHA’s concerns may be earnest, but they are negated by lessons from the FDA. Food manufacturers responded in a timely fashion to the FDA’s nutrition labeling rules, and consumers seeking trans fat–free foods have more options now than they did five years ago. Moreover, even if restaurants were to replace all their trans fats with saturated ones, there still would be a health benefit to the citywide ban.
—Joseph Ladapo is a Harvard medical student and a PhD student in health policy.
The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of Harvard Medical School, its affiliated institutions, or Harvard University.
Copyright 2006 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College