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Fatty acids found in baked goods and takeaways may put people at greater risk of dementia. Trans fats, which are used to make cakes, biscuits, margarines and fried food, are not banned in the UK, although they are not commonly used. Japanese researchers have now linked these fats to dementia, in a study of more than 1,600 people over 60. Estimating people's consumption of trans fats using blood tests, they found those with the highest levels in their body were 52 per cent more likely to get dementia. Evidence suggests trans fats may cause harmful inflammation and the build-up of...

<p>Every January, fat's in the crosshairs of health columnists, fitness magazines, and desperate Americans. This year, PopSci looks at the macronutrient beyond its most negative associations. What’s fat good for? How do we get it to go where we want it to? Where does it wander when it’s lost? This, my friends, is Fat Month.</p>

(CNSNews.com) – During a “voters first presidential forum” in New Hampshire on Monday, GOP presidential candidate Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal criticized President Barack Obama’s deal with Iran, saying he “declared war on trans fats and a ceasefire with the largest state-sanctioned sponsor of terrorism.” “This is a bad deal. He’s declared war on trans fats and a ceasefire with the largest state-sanctioned sponsor of terrorism,” said Jindal regarding the nuclear deal with Iran. As CNSNews.com previously reported, the Food and Drug Administration ruled in June that trans fat is not “generally recognized as safe” for use in food and gave...

The Obama administration is expected to all but ban trans fat in a final ruling that could drop as soon as next week, killing most uses of an ingredient that has been put in everything from frozen pizza to Reese’s Pieces but since deemed harmful to human health. The agency may create some very limited exemptions, but the ruling could force food companies to cut trans fat use beyond the 85 percent reduction already achieved over the past decade — a key piece of the Obama administration’s broader agenda to nudge Americans toward a healthier diet. The food industry believes...

Regulation: Cures for cancer and Ebola having been found, the federal ubernannies have decreed that sprinkles should no longer adorn kids' ice cream because they contain the trans fat that liberal groups once pushed for. Come the New Year, the Food and Drug Administration, ignoring the principle that in most cases it's the dose that defines the poison, will issue new regulations designed to remove even trace amounts of hydrogenate oils, commonly known as trans fats, from our diets. Trans fats have been in our foods since the 1950s to increase shelf life and improve taste. A small amount appears...

Early next year, the FDA is expected to finalize a new regulation intended to eradicate even trace amounts of partially hydrogenated oils, known as trans fats, from our diets. Although the amount of trans fats Americans consume has declined significantly in recent years, the FDA’s quest to completely eliminate a particular type of trans fat threatens to eliminate the noble “sprinkle,” used to decorate holiday treats and donuts. Even a small amount of joy is suspect in the FDA’s brave, new, food-monitored world. In recent years, research has determined that consuming large amounts of trans fats is harmful to the heart. Trans fats have been in...

An Australian chef who killed himself after cutting up his transgender wife and boiling her body parts in a pot was memorialized in a funeral to the song "Killer Queen." Around 250 family and friends said their goodbyes to Marcus Volke as rock songs like "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd played Thursday afternoon in Ballarat, Australia, according to the Herald Sun. Tearful mourners reportedly described 28-year-old Volke as "loving, loyal and caring" without mentioning the murder of his partner, Mayang Prasetyo, according to the Melbourne news outlet. Volke killed 27-year-old Prasetyo in their Brisbane apartment last week in...

Hide your Big Gulps again, New York. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this week his administration will pick up where former Mayor Michael Bloomberg left off and will continue the battle to ban sodas larger than 16 ounces. The city will appeal a state court ruling that pulled the plug on the ban last year. City lawyers will argue the case at the Court of Appeals on June 4, the New York Daily News reported this week. Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg got plenty of headlines in 2012 when he declared war on Big Gulps and other large sugary drinks. The...

New federal dietary guidelines are due to come out next year, and critics say early drafts suggest they may represent a new nanny-state intrusion – calling for Internet-based "weigh-ins" and government text messages to overweight people meant to help them shed the pounds. Critics also fear the guidelines, which are subject to revision every five years, may go well beyond nutrition to address the planet’s health, too. At a March 14 meeting of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, committee member Miriam Nelson of Tufts University said: "The question that we're spending the most time on right now is really, what...

From Oregon to Oklahoma, farmers have started planting canola in earnest, rotating the yellow-flowered crop that could blossom into a replacement for artery-clogging trans fats found in myriad junk foods, such as cookies, cakes and pies. The amount of canola being grown in the U.S. has increased dramatically in the last two decades or so, with 1.7 million acres planted in 2012. Some of it is growing in areas such as Oklahoma, which for generations has been dominated by wheat and cattle operations. …

Would you rather sip on unpasteurized milk or a cold glass of soda? Do you prefer Saturday lunch at a fast food joint or a farmers market? Regardless of your choices, your food freedom -- your right to grow, raise, produce, buy, sell, share, cook, eat, and drink the foods you want -- is under attack. Here are ten food freedom issues to keep an eye on in 2014. 1: FDA May Ban or Restrict a Growing Number of Food Ingredients. The FDA has proposed banning oils containing trans fats, an ingredient found in foods like coffee creamers and muffins....

Michael Bloomberg steered New York City through economic recession, a catastrophic hurricane and the aftermath of 9/11, but he may always be remembered, accurately or not, as the mayor who wanted to ban the Big Gulp. After 12 years, Bloomberg leaves office Dec. 31 with a unique record as a public health crusader who attacked cigarettes, artery-clogging fats and big sugary drinks with as much zeal as most mayors go after crack dens and graffiti. And while Bloomberg’s audacious initiatives weren’t uniformly successful, often leading to court challenges and criticisms he was turning New York into a “nanny state,” experts...

We recently posted Julie Borowski’s video entitled, “Get the Government Off My Donuts.” Sure, it sounds silly and stupid in light of stories about the turmoil in Syria or the persecution in North Korea. Donuts…seriously? Who cares? How shallow is that! Well, despite Julie’s silly donut scarfing demonstration and the light-hearted title, the point of her video wasn’t actually about getting the government away from her donuts. It was about freedom. Nothing shallow about freedom.The FDA taking steps to ban transfats in food doesn’t seem important in light of what’s happening in places like Syria, but the root of Syria’s...

Prohibition: Washington is moving to ban trans fats. The obvious question, of course, is what will it ban next? If it can outlaw trans fats, it can outlaw anything. Is taking away choice what we want government to do? Trans fats, also called partially hydrogenated oils by many, have been in our foods for decades. These artificial fats help extend shelf life and in some cases simply make food taste better. Activists, though, tell us they're not healthy. We're not going to debate the issue. The health concerns of trans fats are not the point. But this is: Where does...

The FDA announced Thursday that there is no safe level of partially hydrogenated oils. The move — unusually bold for an agency that typically leaves additive safety to the private sector — is the first step in what could be a long road to removing trans fats, which are still widely used to improve the texture and shelf stability of processed foods like frosting, doughnuts and crackers. There is no safe level of consumption of artificial trans fats, Hamburg stressed. Consumer advocates are applauding the FDA’s actions.

They are among our most personal daily decisions: what to eat or drink. Maybe what to inhale. Now that the governmentºs banning trans fat, does that mean it’s revving up to take away our choice to consume all sorts of other unhealthy stuff? … In the tug-of-war between public health and personal freedom, the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to ban trans fats barely rates a ripple. Hardly anyone defends the icky-sounding artificial ingredient anymore, two decades after health activists began warning Americans that it was clogging their arteries and causing heart attacks. …

(CNSNews.com) – First lady Michelle Obama is praising what has often been one of the left’s biggest targets, Walmart, for helping to fight obesity and “food deserts” in the United States. “At Walmart, you can believe that as America’s largest retailer, you have an obligation that goes far beyond the bottom line,” Obama said Thursday at a Walmart in Springfield, Mo. “You know that every day, with the products you sell, you’re helping parents get by on a budget -- which is what everybody in this country is trying to do. You’re helping kids get the nutrition they need to...

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Sept. 7, 2011: Not all trans fats are created equal and it's time for a change in nutrition labels in North America to reflect this, particularly when it comes to dairy and beef products. According to a scientific review published in the latest edition of Advances in Nutrition, natural trans fats produced by ruminant animals such as dairy and beef cattle are not detrimental to health and in fact show significant positive health effects. Some evidence even links these natural trans fats to reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer. "The body of evidence clearly points to...

Within the last few years, we have been treated to attempts by government to control our food intake with regulatory “nudges” and legislative edicts. Sugar, salt, trans-fats, fats in general, fast foods, and school lunches are just a few ingredients and food types which have come under assault by sanctimonious busybodies seeking to dictate “healthy” eating to everyone.New York Times food writer  provides the latest in we-know-what’s-best-for-you babble. In a Times op-ed, Bittman complains, “WHAT will it take to get Americans to change our eating habits?”The question itself makes a fundamentally flawed assumption and exhibits arrogance. Why is it anyone’s...

Scientists at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have discovered that a diet with high levels of fructose – levels equivalent to that in high fructose corn syrup – and of trans fats not only increases obesity, but also leads to significant fatty liver disease with scar tissue. Moreover, the researchers conducted the study in a new mouse model of obesity and liver disease that so closely models human disease they will now be able to test therapies to determine their effectiveness, according to Rohit Kohli, M.D., a gastroenterologist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and the study's main author. "Fructose...