New York’s Trans-Fat Ban Is Working: Study

MONDAY, July 16 (HealthDay News) — New York City‘s restriction
on the use of trans fats in foods served at restaurants is helping Big
Apple residents cut down on the unhealthy fat, a new study shows.

Researchers compared purchase receipts from fast food restaurants in
2007, before the ban went into effect, to those from 2009, after it went
into effect.

Trans-fat intake decreased, said researcher Christine Curtis, director
of nutrition strategy at the New York City Department of Health and Mental
Hygiene.

“It’s a substantial drop,” she noted.

The average drop in trans fats per purchase — which included food for
just one person — dropped 2.4 grams, Curtis said. It started at 2.9 grams
of trans fat per purchase and dropped to 0.5 grams.

Saturated fat increased a bit, to 0.55 grams per purchase. But overall,
when the researchers looked at trans and saturated fats together, it was
still a drop of 1.9 grams of unhealthy fats per person.

On average, the diners saw a decline in trans fats of about 21 calories
per purchase, Curtis said.

That is enough to help heart health, experts think. “It’s been
estimated that 40 calories from trans fats per day increases the risk of
coronary heart disease by 23 percent,” Curtis said.

The study is published in the July 17 issue of the Annals of
Internal Medicine
.

The researchers also found that the number of meals that had no trans
fat increased to 59 percent after the ban went into effect, compared with
32 percent before.

The greatest decline in trans fat purchases were seen at hamburger
chains, followed by Mexican food chains and fried chicken restaurants.

For the study, Curtis and her team compared the trans fat and saturated
fat content of 6,969 purchases in 2007 with 7,885 purchases in 2009. They
went to 168 New York City locations of 11 fast-food chains at
lunchtime.

They asked to look at diners’ receipts as they left and asked them to
complete a survey.

Although some protested the New York City ban on trans fats in
restaurant food as akin to the nation’s largest city becoming a ”nanny
state,” the new research suggests it is working to make city residents’
diets more heart-healthy.

Saturated fats are solid fats found primarily in animal foods,
including meat and dairy products, as well as in baked goods and fried
foods. Trans fats are formed when processing a vegetable oil into a more
solid fat like margarine or shortening, according to the U.S. Department
of Agriculture (USDA).

Some experts feared that with the ban, saturated fats would replace the
trans fats, Curtis said. But their study suggests that did not happen.
“The concern that saturated fats would increase the same amount [as the
trans fats decreased] was not observed,” she said.

Since the New York ban became effective, 15 other jurisdictions have
launched similar bans, Curtis said, citing information from the Center for
Science in the Public Interest.

The New York City regulation was phased in beginning July 2007. It was
in full effect a year later. Under it, all food-service establishments are
restricted from using, storing or serving foods that have partially
hydrogenated vegetable oil with a total of 0.5 grams or more trans fat per
serving.

In an editorial accompanying the study, Alice Lichtenstein, a
distinguished professor of nutrition science at Tufts University, said
that issues raised by the restaurant industry before the ban have not
materialized.

One concern, for instance, was that the switch to heart-healthier oils
would be expensive. In fact, the switch is cost neutral, she said.

The New York City trans fat ban, she said, suggests that well-planned
and executed public health measures work well.

Lichtenstein said that it is difficult to predict success at an
individual level due to the trans-fat ban. “For someone who regularly
purchases foods affected by the ban, for example, fried foods, the effect
on them is likely to be substantial. For some who rarely purchases food
prepared outside the home, the effect of the ban on them is likely to be
minimal.”

The major public health challenge, she writes, is still one of excess,
with many people simply eating too many calories on a daily basis.

Foods with several grams of trans fat per serving are still widely
available at grocery stores and restaurants, according to the Center for
Science in the Public Interest. In a report earlier this year, it listed
some, including buttermilk biscuits, frozen pizzas and pies from chain
restaurants.

More information

To learn more about trans fat bans, visit the Center for Science in the
Public Interest.

You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Leave a Reply

Powered by WordPress | Designed by: Premium WordPress Themes | Thanks to Themes Gallery, Bromoney and Wordpress Themes