Posted on 10/17/2006 7:08:12 AM PDT by xrp
Two years ago Denmark declared war on killer fat, making it illegal for any food to have more than 2 percent transfats. Offenders now face hefty fines _ or even prison terms. The result? Today hardly anyone notices the difference.
The french fries are still crispy. The pastries are still scrumptious. And the fried chicken is still tasty.
Denmark's experience offers a hopeful example for places like Canada and the U.S. state of New York, which are considering setting limits on the dangerous artery-clogging fats.
Transfatty acids are typically added to processed foods such as cookies, margarine and fast food. They are cheaper to produce than mono-saturated fats, and give a longer shelf life to the foods they are added to.
Producers also argue that removing transfat from processed food will change certain tastes and textures beloved by consumers.
But they have been called the tobacco of the nutrition world. They lower good cholesterol while raising bad cholesterol.
Even consuming less than five grams of transfat _ the amount found in one piece of fried chicken and a side of french fries _ a day has been linked with a 25 percent increased risk of heart disease.
"No other fat at these low levels of intake, has such harmful effects," said Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist at Harvard's School of Public Health.
It is still too early to tell if removing transfat from food in Denmark has improved the country's health.
Although the Danish health ministry reports that cardiovascular disease has dropped by 20 percent in the last five years, similar reductions have been reported in other countries that are making an effort to combat heart disease by measures such as regulating the food and tobacco industries, and by educating the public about the need to exercise. In countries that are making no effort to regulate the amount of transfat in food, such as Hungary and Bulgaria, heart disease rates have continued to climb.
Denmark is the only country to have outlawed the fat, passing a law in June 2003 that made it illegal for any food to contain more than two percent of transfat.
For Danes like Troels Nyborg Andersen, the government's decision means he feels less guilty about his fast-food habit.
"I know transfats are bad, but you don't think about that when you're hungry," said the 27-year-old Copenhagen native, chomping a hamburger. "It's good that the Danish government got rid of transfats so that I don't have to worry about it."
That was the rationale that motivated the transfat ban.
"We wanted to protect people so that they would not even have to know what transfat was," said Dr. Steen Stender, one of the leading Danish experts who lobbied for the anti-transfat law.
Though obesity rates are rising in Denmark, they are far below those of most countries: just 11.4 percent of the Danish population was obese in 2005, less than half of Britain's obesity rate, estimated at 23 percent.
When faced with the prospect of a transfat ban, industries typically rebel. Other countries in the European Union initially objected to Denmark's ban, arguing it would be economically unfair since their foods could not be legally imported into Denmark.
Many producers were also concerned about the possible change in texture and taste without the additives.
Preserving the delicacy of the traditional Danish pastries was a major concern at Copenhagen's famed La Glace cafe, renowned for its pastries and cakes. When the transfat law kicked in, its bakers began experimenting.
"There was a bit of a crisis," admitted Marianne Stagetorn Kolos, La Glace's owner.
The first attempts were disastrous. The transfat-free margarines melted too soon, destroying the flakiness of the 81-layered pastries.
"Everything was flat," Stagetorn said. Luckily, the problem was solved by switching margarine suppliers.
Customers like Anne Petersen haven't noticed.
The pastries "taste just as good as they always did," said the 59- year-old sales assistant, who favors the raspberry pastry. "If it wasn't for the law, I never would have known that there wasn't any transfat."
Stender and other health experts say Denmark's transfat ban should be adopted worldwide.
"There's no reason it cannot be done elsewhere," he said, explaining that the food in Denmark is not markedly different from food anywhere else. "If you removed transfat from the planet, the only people who would feel the difference are the people who sell the transfat."
Uh, I think most people, if not all, know that transfats are bad to eat. And I believe the food labeling laws already require the transfats to be listed.
And in a restaurant, all you have to do is ask. If they can't tell you what the transfat level is in a food, don't order it.
The government will be coming for you next. But who will be left to speak for you?
How are you suppose to know that your getting it if it is not posted or banned????.
Ask.
right, sorry but too many restaurants may not have a clue.
It is like restaurants which don't actually USE MSG but use chicken bullion cubes which themselves have MSG.
At some point there ARE some things that should be subject to regulation and/or standards.
For example O'Doules is marketed as Alchohol free but it still has alchohol in it. Enough to still be forbidden for those defendants on DUI/DWI probation.
These are not cigarettes,
These are not alchohol
These are not even carbonated soda
This is an ingredient which has dubious value.
For example there are regulations regading the amount of insect parts permitted in food. People should be free to unknowingly buy food with ground up bug parts because it is cheeper to NOT keep a factory clean?
If the science can support it, then transfats should be considered for a ban.
That would be way too complicated. In the interest of smaller and leaner government, I propose the following:
Make staying in bed a Class One felony.
Make getting out of bed a Class One felony.
Throw in a little selective enforcement and everything that's icky would go away.
If they can't tell you what's in it, don't order it.
At some point there ARE some things that should be subject to regulation and/or standards.
I wouldn't have a problem with a law that states restaurants have to have a list of the ingredients in anything they serve. I DO have a problem with forbidding restaurants from serving certain things.
Gee, is it too hard for you to take responsibility for yourself? Do you need nanny to take care of you?
I need help living my life. Please regulate me.
Of course. There will always be bug parts in food, as long as food is grown out in the open. It's not a matter of keeping factories clean; it's a matter of using enough pesticides to keep most (never all) of the bugs off the food, and then processing the food to a sufficient degree to remove most (never all) of the bug parts that came into the factory with the food.
But wait! Food processing and pesticides are supposed to be bad for you too. Too bad.
Nannystate....absolutely not. Nanny state is telling you that you cant eat something you know is bad for you and if you want to kill yourself with crappy food that is your business and the government should bow out.
this goes beyond nanny state. This is tantamount to slow murder on the part of food suppliers. Someone opens a business and kills you with quick poison, you put them on trial and punish them. but someone sells you slow poison and kills you slowly with the crap and you cant put them on trial for murder. If a business wants to use it, well ok then, but at least let the people know the stuff has the transfat or whatever other crap is in it.
I personally have very bad food allergies, and I avoid restaurants like the plague anyway. the few times I do go, I do check with the management to make sure that what is harmful to me is not in the food. But food should not be sold that can do harm, without a posting being displayed to tell me what it is.
Someone posted that lard or butter was a good thing....well they are right. It is real food from real food sources....Transfat is synthetic and harmful.
I would agree with that.
Someone posted that lard or butter was a good thing....well they are right.
The American Heart Association would disagree with you on that. Therefore, restaurants should have to reveal the amount of fats included in foods, even if they come from butter and lard. And while they are at it, they need to tell us how much sugar is included in the foods they serve.
"Trans fats" include things like "partially hydrogenated soybean oil." Partial hydrogenation reduces the number of double bonds in the oil, raising the melting point. It also introduces some trans- double bonds into molecules which are normally all cis-. It is the basis for the modern production of inexpensive margarine. The campaign to ban trans fats is a campaign to ban partially-hydrogenated plant oils. I guess we can go back to the original margarine, which was made from clarified beef fat. That should make the vegans happy.
Trans fats are not poisonous; they are merely not the best things in the world to eat in large quantities. The same can be said of beer, chicken eggs, and jabanero peppers. Perhaps we should ban them.
Maybe so.... It is the only product on the market that when used as directed will likely kill you.
So you're saying that free will and choice should be regulated (approved) by the government.
Why are you on a conservative forum again?
Exactly. Trans-fat offers no nutritional value, and it is essentially poisonous to the human body. The amount in American food is astonishing.
No, I am saying the government should regulate the content of foods sold to the public, which is within its power under Article I, Section 8, Clause 3 of the United States Constitution.
Why are you on a conservative forum again?
Because I am a conservative. Are you for free will and choice when it comes to prostitution, drugs, and pornography?
Anti trans fat here. I prolly don't eat too many because I don't eat fast food French fries and supermarket pastries (twinkies) larded down with trans fats
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