TRANS FATS IN SINGAPORE
- a growing public disquiet
Little news about trans fats in Singapore
To read news about trans fats in Singapore, you need to turn mainly to the "Letters to the Editor” pages of the newspapers, such as the ST Forum in The Straits Times, or the Voices section of TODAY newspaper.
Otherwise, search the Internet for blogs and discussion forums that might discuss the issue of trans fats.
There is not a lot of news about trans fats in the main news pages of Singapore newspapers.
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International news about trans fats get reported only when they are too big to ignore, such as when the US FDA instituted trans fat labelling on 1 January 2006, or when New York City' proposed in September 2006, and later decided in December 2006, to ban trans fats.
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In January 2007, the latest research findings that trans fats cause infertility has got women, especially in America, up in arms. As far as I am aware, that, too, did not get reported in the Singapore newspapers.
Even trans fat news involving major fast food chains like McDonald's and KFC did not make it into the Singapore press. Not that I know of.
The HPB and trans fats in Singapore
One of the very few locally generated news about trans fats in Singapore appeared on 22 December 2006.
The day before, the Singapore Health Promotion Board (HPB) called a press conference in response to a spate of letters in the press calling for either trans fat labelling, or a ban on trans fats in Singapore.
The Health Promotion Board (HPB) said it needed to “put the matter in perspective” .
And so, it invited the Chairman of the Singapore Heart Foundation (SHF) Dr Low Lip Ping, to speak at the conference. Dr Low Lip Ping said trans fats in Singapore was “a small problem” and he further described efforts to curb trans fats in the US as “a bit hysterical”.
The Health Promotion Board / HPB meanwhile gave a long list of reasons why trans fats in Singapore should not be banned, nor should trans fats in Singapore be made visible on food labels.
Among other things, it said that imposing trans fat labelling would affect 70 percent of packaged foods while a ban on trans fats in Singapore would affect 30 percent of packaged foods.
Such measures, the HPB argued, would limit consumer choices and also amount to Singapore erecting trade barriers.
More discussion about trans fats in Singapore
In explaining its rationale and giving a long list of reasons for its stance, The Health Promotion Board / HPB, might have hoped to put to rest, once and for all, the debate over trans fats in Singapore.
But no. The debate intensified. More letters about trans fats appeared in the press, more calls were made to introduce trans fat labelling as well as to ban trans fats in Singapore.
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So Health Promotion Board / HPB CEO Mr Lam Pin Woon and Singapore Heart Foundation / SHF Chairman Dr Low Lip Ping wrote a long letter to the press, essentially repeating the exact points they made at their earlier press conference and not saying anything new.
Their letter was published on 11 January in both the ST Forum and the Voices section of TODAY.
ST Forum imposes a strict 400-word limit on letters. But it exempted Mr Lam Pin Woon and Dr Low Lip Ping from this ruling and carried their 699-word letter in full.
Another flood of letters
Did this re-explanation from the HPB and SHF quell the debate? No. It generated another flood of letters debating the issue of trans fats in Singapore.
Thus, in the month following the HPB's 21 December press conference, letters to the press about trans fats in Singapore have been appearing almost every other day.
This week, 15 to 20 January, the flow of letters seemed to have eased. But on Saturday, ST Forum published another three letters, one in the printed edition and another two online.
Obviously, readers have been writing in, except that the ST Forum editor obviously had to give other issues of public interest some airing as well.
Interestingly, all the letters were from lay people. Doctors, nutritionists and other heath experts -- including The Straits Times Senior Writer Dr Andy Ho, who is qualified as a medical doctor and has a PhD -- were noticeably silent on the subject of trans fats in Singapore.
A cardiologist speaks up on trans fats in Singapore
Finally, one medical doctor, a cardiologist, did share his views on the matter.
On Saturday, 13 January, the Saturday Review section of The Straits Times published a 2-page spread about trans fats. It was one of those rare times that trans fats in Singapore received such extensive press coverage.
One page of that coverage was a lengthy article, Good fat? Bac Facts! written by cardiologist Mak Koon Hou, which essentially traced the history of trans fats.
One would not have known that the writer, Mak Koon Hou, was a doctor or cardiologist, as the “Dr” honorific was not in his by-line.
But towards the end of the article, he mentioned that, in 1999, he was Chairman of the Nutrition Labelling Committee of the Singapore National Heart Federation (which is today the Singapore Heart Foundation).
That year, Dr Mak Koon Hou introduced the "Healthier Choice" label -- for foods low in saturated fats and sugar -- as an easy way of helping consumers identify healthier foods when they shop for groceries.
Dr Mak Koon Hou went on to write:
| Labelling trans fat will certainly help to uncover its presence in food items, and will be useful particularly to people with heart disease, diabetes or stroke -- who need to keep their fat levels in check.
Undoubtedly, this practice will help lower the risk of heart attacks without the need for a major education drive or behaviour changes. Neither will it hurt the pocket. But even labelling is not enough... Many foods containing trans fat, including hawker fare, may be exempt from labelling and may even be promoted as cholesterol-free or cooked in vegetable oils. |
So finally, Singapore has one prominent cardiologist calling for trans fat labelling and, indirectly, for a ban on trans fats in Singapore.
But he is one lone “professional” voice, against many others that include nutritionists at the HPB and Dr Low Lip Ping at the Singapaore Heart Foundation, who adamantly refuse to take firmer action to curb the use of trans fats in Singapore.
Will the Singapore health authorities pay greater heed to someone of the stature of Dr Mak Koon Hou? Or will it continue to insist that trans fats in Singapore are “a small problem”?
Watch this space...
