(health.usnews.com) Entire cities and counties have banned them. McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken have vowed to give them upâ€â€as have Starbucks, Ruby Tuesday, and a host of other former sources of sinful pleasures. In response to the 2006 Food and Drug Administration requirement that trans fats be listed on nutrition labels, makers of packaged goods from potato chips to Oreos have brought their totals down to zero. Last month, Frito-Lay even got the FDA’s blessing to put a claim on products loaded with healthy, unsaturated fats that replacing bad fats with good ones may protect against heart disease.
Does this mean that junk food is now the new health food? “No!” says Robert Eckel, immediate past president of the American Heart Association, whose “Face the Fats” education campaign points out that a “zero trans fats” label doesn’t tell the whole story. “People know trans fats are not good for them,” says Eckel. “But they do not understand that replacing them with saturated fat is not a good option.”
And that, in some cases, is what’s happening. Yes, the food industry is experimenting with ways to keep the saturated fat content lowâ€â€by using unsaturated options such as canola and sunflower oils, for example. But some manufacturers, loath to sacrifice taste and texture, are reverting to less-than-healthful choices such as palm oil and butter. (more…)
Related: Face the Fats
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