New York to ban trans fats: do we care?
New York City has become the latest to propose a phasing out of trans fats, which are now known by scientists to be extremely harmful to health. But here in Singapore, we still don't seem to care less.
On September 26, the New York Health Department proposed a plan to give the city's 24,600 restaurants six months to switch to cooking oils that have less than 0.5 grams of these harmful artificial fats per serving. After 18 months, all other food items would need to contain less than 0.5 grams per serving.
|
|
Naturally, the restaurant industry did not welcome the proposal. Chuck Hunt, Executive Vice President of New York City's chapter of the New York State Restaurant Association, said the proposal would “create havoc”.
But Dr Walter Willett, Chair of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, said: “If New Yorkers replace all sources of artificial trans fat, by even the most conservative estimates, at least 500 deaths from heart disease would be prevented each year in New York City. Based on long-term studies, the number of preventable deaths may be many times higher. Trans fat is a toxic substance that does not belong in food.”
New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden added that such fats can easily be replaced with substitute oils that taste the same or better and are far less unhealthy. “It is a dangerous and unnecessary ingredient,” Frieden said. “No one will miss it when it's gone.”
No doubt a ban will be problematic for the food industry. But it can be done – because it already has been done.
Denmark led the way in 2003 when it banned all foods containing more than 2 percent of the substance. And fast food restaurants like McDonald's have changed the way they prepared their meals in Denmark.
In 2004, Tiburon in California's San Francisco Bay became America's first trans fat free city. All the city's restaurants display a green heart with the words “We use trans fat free cooking oil!”
More recent developments around the world include:
June 2006:
- Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, USA, published new findings that “trans fats may be worse than we thought”.
- A doctor in Maryland, USA, sued Kentucky Fried Chicken to require the company to state that it uses partially hydrogenated oils for frying.
- The American Heart Association recommended that the daily intake of trans fatty acid be limited to 1 percent of total calories. Translated into practical terms, this means eating only a fraction of a serving of common fast foods items like French fries and fried chicken.
- A task force set up by the Canadian Health Ministry recommended that, for vegetable oils and margarines sold to consumers or used in food preparation, the level of trans fatty acid should be limited by regulation to 2 percent. For all other foods, the limit should be 5 percent.
|
|
July 2006:
- Chicago proposed a ban, targeting restaurant chains with at least US$20 million annual gross sales.
- Westchester County in New York State became a transfat-free zone, with 125 restaurants agreeing not to use partially hydrogenated oils. This initiative is highlighted on the Westchester government website.
- Boston introduced an initiative whereby restaurant menu items that meet certain healthy criteria get a “Boston Bestbites’ label.
August 2006:
- Wendy's announced that it had completed the switch to a new cooking oil that significantly cuts trans fats. All of Wendy's 6,300 fast food restaurants in the US and Canada now use the new oil.
- Three of Britain's leading supermarket chains – Sainsbury, Tesco and Asda – announced that they would eliminate hydrogenated oils from house brand products by the end of 2006. Marks & Spencer had already stopped using hydrogenated oils while Waitrose had been removing them since early 2004.
If you are reading most or all of this ‘news’ for the first time, it just goes to show the level of interest regarding trans fats here in Singapore.
News about the subject hardly get mentioned in the local media and the average Singaporean does not know much. I can bet that if you were to conduct a survey of Singaporeans, the majority will ‘strongly agree’ with the totally erroneous statement that “margarine is healthy”.
Health Promotion Boad has done little
Our health authorities have done little to raise public awareness about this matter.
The Health Promotion Board has said that it has been working with food manufacturers to reduce trans fats. But what has been the outcome? There are hardly any locally produced trans fat free products.
In its public education campaigns, the HPB hardly mentions trans fatty acids, but focuses its main attention on telling Singaporeans to reduce their intake of saturated fats.
The rationale for this focus, according to the HPB Chief Executive Officer in his response to my occasional commentaries in the press, is that Singaporeans are consuming far more saturated fats.
But then, scientists tell us that trans fats are many times more harmful than saturated fats. Trans fatty acids have been scientifically shown to be a major cause of heart disease, more so than saturated fats.
Saturated and trans fats
Meanwhile, the link between saturated fats and heart disease is increasingly being questioned. Saturated fats seem to ‘cause’ heart disease only in developed societies, but not in traditional societies. And in developed societies, the rate of heart disease continues to escalate even when saturated fat consumption has actually fallen.
Trans fatty acids are also strongly linked with various types of cancers and other killer diseases. They are said to be so harmful that even the smallest amounts are dangerous.
As a nation, do we know this? Do we care? We seem to care more about chewing gum clogging up MRT train doors.
An edited version of above article was published on 3 October 2006 in TODAY newspaper, following New York City's announcement of the proposal on 26 September.
The Singapore Health Promotion Board responded to my commentary saying, among other things, that:
- It is “attentive” to the issue of trans fats and the risks they pose towards cardiovascular disease
- It has been working with food manufacturers to encourage them to switch to healthier fats
- It is important to focus on both trans fats and saturated fats, since both are implicated in causing heart disease.
Below is my response, which was published slightly edied:
The Health Promotion Board, in its response to my commentary about trans fats, failed to address the main point that I raised – that little has been done to educate the public about their harm.
Public awareness is vital. If consumers don’t know and don’t care, food providers have zero incentive to change their ingredients. New York City proposed a ban because after one year of asking restaurants to voluntarily remove hydrogenated cooking oils, only a few responded.
Rather than educate consumers, I feel the Health Promotion Board sends a misleading message by labeling products like margarine as “Healthier Choice”. No amount of trans fatty acid is safe for human consumption. So when soft margarine contains lower levels, it is “less harmful” not “healthier”.
I recently visited a school whose canteen had won a HPB award. I was dismayed that it sells white bread spread with margarine.
The HPB further advises that we should consider the total content of trans and saturated fats. It lumps together two totally different substances – trans fats, which are highly toxic, and saturated fats, which are debatably harmful but also unanimously agreed to be beneficial in many ways.
This approach is totally flawed.
On 5 December, the New York City's board of health voted to phase out most of the artificial fats, requiring erstaurants and fast-food chains to eliminated them by July 2007. They will be given a three-month grace period before facing fines.
Click here to read an earlier commentary about the campaign against trans fats
