Healthy living
important and part of people being healthier is eating more healthily. Rooting out the bad in diets is fast becoming the mission of individuals, policymakers and industry alike and so it should, as the facts speak for themselves.
If one was to look at the impact artificial trans fats alone are having, they would be forgiven if they shuddered with concern. Globally, according to figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO), almost 18 million people die each year as a result of cardiovascular disease – nearly a third (32%) of all deaths. According to the US Centers for Disease Control, one person every 36 seconds dies from cardiovascular disease in the US alone. It is fair to say trans fats are not responsible for all those deaths, but globally the WHO estimates that intake of trans fats accounts for approximately 500,000 premature deaths from coronary heart disease each year. “Trans fats are unsaturated fats with a specific molecular shape – a trans arrangement of the two hydrogen atoms either side of a carbon double-bond – that has been shown to cause significant risk for cardiovascular disease,” explains James Stevenson, senior research fellow and member of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Standing Panel on Impact Assessment. It is true to say that some trans fats are produced naturally and can make it into our diet, but Stevenson asserts artificial ones were prevalent in Western diets by the end of the past century. Stevenson discussed in great detail their development over the past century or so. An expert in the field, he was particularly good at describing what trans fats were in terms many of us would understand. According to Stevenson, Procter & Gamble was the first company to develop artificial products and labelled it “a miraculous new product, a completely new consumer category superior to, and healthier than, animal-sourced fats such as butter or lard”. It was a campaign, he adds, that was hugely successful in the 1910s and 1920s, influencing how food was prepared in the US and beyond.
Although concerns relating to the impact they had on human health were raised some 50 or so years later, it was not until the late 1980s and early 1990s that any genuine attention was paid to them. “It was not until the field of nutritional epidemiology had developed – based on careful data collection from the same subjects over an extended period of time – that researchers were really able to tease out patterns of excess mortality and morbidity associated with components of diets,” Steveson says. Thanks to this, the following years saw growing pressure for changes to our diets, first in Europe and then the US.
Ingredients Insight /
www.ingredients-insight.com
A policy toolkit to tackle trans fats Understanding of the dangers of trans fats is even further advanced today, but they still play a part in people’s daily dietary intake; a truth that is becoming harder to fathom and accept, particularly given the data spoken of earlier.
“Simply put, cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of global mortality, so the stakes are really high,” he adds. “Trans fats are a double- whammy for cardiovascular disease risk because they raise levels of LDL cholesterol – the ‘bad’ form of cholesterol – and lower the ‘good’ HDL cholesterol.” So, how can the industry get away from their use? That is a very complex question requiring a multifaceted response. The WHO, however, believes it has one that even has its own mnemonic – REPLACE. REPLACE is a package the WHO says comprises an overarching technical document that provides a rationale and framework for an integrated approach to the elimination of trans fats. Put simply, the organisation says it contains six elements: ■ Review dietary sources of industrially produced trans fats and the landscape for policy change.
■ Promote the replacement of industrially produced trans fats with healthier fats and oils.
■ Legislate or enact regulatory actions to eliminate industrially produced trans fats.
■ Assess and monitor trans fat content in the food supply and changes in trans fat consumption in the population.
■ Create awareness of the negative health impact of trans fats among policymakers, producers, suppliers and the public.
■ Enforce compliance with policies and regulations.
The guidance is available online for policymakers, industry or anyone else who is interested. It provides resources that can be used to formulate policy and industry-wide plans to help cut and then eliminate the use of trans fats from products, kitchens and ultimately our diets.
Educating the public while finding alternatives
One of the challenges is to promote healthier decision-making, which is not easily done in a population that largely does not understand the correlation between trans fats and ill health. This, however, is where Stevenson’s vision can help. Speaking of partial hydrogenation, the process of producing trans fats, he says: “This hydrogenation can be continued all the way to complete saturation, resulting in a solid fat that has a really hard, soap-like consistency. It is, therefore, no coincidence that some of the first experiments to commercially hydrogenate oils were carried out by soap makers.”
45 32% WHO
The proportion of all deaths recorded globally related to cardiovascular disease and illness.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92
