Trans-fats banned

If you’ve reached this page and are not familiar with me, I encourage you to review the About Allen page to gain some understanding of where I’m coming from. If you do, you’ll learn that I’m on a personal mission to discredit the mainstream and fad beliefs about weight loss that have so-obviously failed us (and which are totally unsupported by the evidence) – and to convince the world there is a completely different approach to losing weight that actually works due to its precise alignment with the true nature of human physiology. To learn more about this mission, please visit Truths Publishing.

This blog is one component of my efforts that’s focused on nutrition and fitness. Here I review recent media reports related to these topics and try to clarify the confusing, contradictory and inaccurate information that’s so prevalent. My goal if for you to understand the fundamental and unchanging truths about nutrition and exercise so you can stop worrying about doing the wrong thing and enjoy optimal health and fitness.
———————————————————

I’m sure you’ve seen the news that the health departments in New York and Chicago are considering a total ban on restaurant foods that contain trans-fats. You may not know that Denmark has passed legislation and Canada is considering legislation that eliminates trans-fat from food supplies.

What’s going on here?

If you are as old or older than me, then you may remember how, way back in the 50s, we were all told to quit eating butter and use margarine instead. The assumption was that the vegetable fat in margarine is healthier than the animal fat in butter.

What we weren’t told is that the fat in margarine isn’t actually vegetable oil. Rather, it’s a manufactured substance that takes vegetable oil and then modifies it via a process called hydrogenation to lengthen its shelf life and increase its flavor stability. I guess no one imagined that feeding people a manufactured product which doesn’t otherwise exist in nature would cause any problems.

Certainly, the fast-food and snack-food companies didn’t consider the possibility of any negative health effects. Instead, in the 1980s, in response to pressure to reduce the level of saturated fats, these companies started replacing the real fat they were using with this vegetable-based fabricated fat (now called “trans-fat”). Since then, its use has increased to the point where it’s now found in over 35% of the products are supermarket shelves and it represents over 2.5% of our total calorie consumption.

Sadly, up until January 2006 when the FDA started requiring trans-fat to be listed on food labels, it was impossible to know which foods had trans-fat and which didn’t.

Well, guess what? — the nutrition experts and food companies were wrong. Now, after 50 years of being told trans-fat is OK and consuming tons of it, researchers have discovered that this manufactured fat is terrible for our health.

What should we learn from this? Two things:

1. We should be very skeptical about what the “experts” tell us about good nutrition.

2. We should be very cautious about eating substances that don’t otherwise exist in nature. Real food is much safer bet than fabricated foods.

Allen Oelschlaeger
Author of Finally, the Straight Scoop About Weight, Nutrition, and Fitness