Food Industry Mulls Dropping Obesity-Linked Trans Fats

Posted by MacDood
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It has long been thought that to avoid obesity and heart disease, the important kind of fat to watch out for is saturated fat (which mostly comes from animal sources)1. Hence the split in nutrition information labels between saturated fats ("bad") and polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats ("good"). However, over the last decade or so, scientific evidence has been mounting that a different category of fat - consumed in far greater quantities today than in past centuries due to changes in mass food preparation - is actually just as dangerous, if not more dangerous than, saturated fats. Trans fats have been fingered as a major culprit in America's bourgeoning obesity problem, in increasing the risk of heart disease - and they are possibly also a factor behind childhood allergies, asthma, and other conditions. [Kuro5hin.org]