Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 15 May 2018
UN health agency aims to wipe out trans fats worldwide

By MIKE STOBBE
AP Medical Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — The
World Health Organization
has released a plan to help
countries wipe out artery-
clogging trans fats from the
global food supply in the
next five years.
The United Nations agency
has in the past pushed to
exterminate infectious dis-
eases, but now it’s aiming
to erase a hazard linked to
chronic illness.
In a statement Monday,
the U.N. health agency said
eliminating trans fats is criti-
cal to preventing deaths
worldwide. WHO estimates
that eating trans fats —
commonly found in baked
and processed foods —
leads to the deaths of more
than 500,000 people from
heart disease every year.
“It’s a crisis level, and it’s
major front in our fight
now,” WHO Director-Gen- In this Aug. 8, 2007 file photo, a Milky-Way candy bar is deep-fried in oil free of trans fats at a food booth at the Indiana State Fair
eral Tedros Adhanom Ghe- in Indianapolis.
breyesus said at a news Associated Press
conference in Geneva on placed with canola oil or action and we stand ready they prolonged product the end of the decade.
Monday. other products. There are to support effective mea- shelf life. They used them In 2015, the FDA took steps
Officials think it can be also naturally occurring sures to work toward the in doughnuts, cookies and to finish the job of elimi-
done in five years because trans fats in some meats elimination of industrially deep-fried foods. nating trans fats, calling
the work is well underway and dairy products. produced trans fats and But studies gradually re- for manufacturers to stop
in many countries. Den- The WHO recommends ensure a level playing field vealed that trans fats selling trans fatty foods by
mark did it 15 years ago, that no more than 1 per- in this area,” said Rocco wreck cholesterol levels in June 18, 2018 — a dead-
and since then the United cent of a person’s calories Rinaldi, secretary-general the blood and drive up the line that arrives next month.
States and more than 40 come from trans fats. of the International Food risk of heart disease. Health FDA officials have not
other higher-income coun- “Trans fats are a harmful and Beverage Alliance. advocates say trans fats said how much progress
tries have been working on compound that can be re- Dr. Tom Frieden, a former are the most harmful fat in has been made or how
getting the additives out of moved easily without ma- director of the U.S. Centers the food supply. they will enforce their rule
their food supplies. jor cost and without any for Disease Control and In the U.S., New York City in against food makers that
The WHO is now pushing impact on the quality of Prevention who worked 2006 banned restaurants don’t comply.
middle- and lower-income the foods,” Branca said. with WHO officials on the from serving food with trans “The removal of trans fats
countries to pick up the Countries will likely have to call to action, called its fats. The same year the from the food supply as an
fight, said Dr. Francesco use regulation or legisla- move unprecedented. FDA required manufactur- additive counts as one of
Branca, director of the tion to get food makers to “The world is now setting its ers to list trans fat content the major public health vic-
WHO’s Department of Nu- make the switch, experts sights on today’s leading information on food labels. tories of the last decade,”
trition for Health and Devel- said. killers — particularly heart Many manufacturers cut said Laura MacCleery, poli-
opment. At the WHO news confer- disease, which kills more back, and studies showed cy director for the Washing-
Artificial trans fats are un- ence Monday, a represen- people than any other trans fat levels in the blood ton, D.C.-based advocacy
healthy substances that tative from a leading food cause in almost every coun- of middle-aged U.S. adults group, Center for Science
are created when hydro- industry trade group said try,” said Frieden, president fell by nearly 60 percent by in the Public Interest.q
gen is added to vegetable companies are working to of Resolve to Save Lives, a
oil to make it solid, like in reduce trans fats in their New-York-based project of
the creation of margarine products. an organization called Vital
or shortening. Health ex- “We call on food producers Strategies.
perts say they can be re- in our sector to take prompt In the U.S., the first trans
fatty food to hit the mar-
ket was Crisco shortening,
which went on sale in 1911.
Trans fatty foods became
increasingly popular begin-
ning in the 1950s, partly be-
cause experts at the time
thought they were healthi-
er than cooking with butter
or lard.
Food makers liked artifi-
cial trans fats because