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The US Food Agency Seeks Ban on Trans Fats

An FDA proposal intended that these substances no longer considered ‘generally safe’ for consumption.

The FDA (the agency of US Food and Drug Administration) has proposed measures to eliminate distribution channels of artificial trans fats, the artery-clogging substance and one of the main culprits of heart disease in the United States.

Under this proposal, open to public input for 60 days, the agency would not be including partially hydrogenated oils, source of trans fats in the legal category that recognizes them as ;generally safe’, which includes for example the caffeine or salt.

Consequently, companies would have to prove scientifically that partially hydrogenated oils are safe for consumption, which would imply a major obstacle because the scientific literature proves otherwise. The Institute of Medicine has concluded that there is no level that is safe to consume trans fats.

‘This will be a challenge, to be honest,’ said Michael R. Taylor, deputy director of the FDA Food. The director of the agency, Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, said that the measures could prevent every year 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths from heart disease.

This proposal puts the finishing touch to the three decades of struggle by public health advocates against artificial trans fats, which are created when liquid oil is treated with hydrogen and solidifies.

However, over the years, scientists have proven it to be more harmful to health than any other fat because they increase the levels of bad cholesterol and can reduce the level of good. In 2006, a rule was made effective by the FDA demanding that artificial trans fats be included on food labels, prompting many large producers forced out. A year earlier, the New York City Council asked the restaurants to stop using trans fats for cooking. Many large chains such as McDonald's, found substitutes and removed it.

These actions led to major advances in public health and trans fat consumption decreased from 4.6 grams in 2006 to about one a day in 2012. A report by the Centers for Prevention and Disease Control revealed that level of trans fat acids in blood in white adults in the United States decreased by 58% between 2000 and 2009.

However, these fats were never banned and are still present in many popular processed foods such as microwave popcorn, some desserts, frozen pizza, margarine and powdered milk for coffee.

‘The medium is still clogged artery,’ Dr. Thomas R Frieden, the director of the Centers for disease prevention. ‘This is to prevent people from being exposed to harmful chemicals existed.’

Frieden said that it only requires artificial trans fats on labels appear when they exceed more than half a gram per serving, an amount that can accumulate faster and increase the risk of heart attack. Even just two or three grams of trans fat per day can increase the risk to health, scientists say.

‘It's very important,’ said Frieden, who led the battle against these fats in New York when he was health director there. ‘It will save money in health care and will reduce the number of heart attacks.’

Some trans fats are natural. The FDA proposal only applies to those that are added to foods. The public health advocates have applauded the measure.

‘A lot has gone, but artificial trans fats that remain are a serious problem,’ said Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the public interest, which petitioned FDA to force to include this substance in food labels in 1994.

‘I suspect that there are thousands of small restaurants that continue to use them in ignorance.

However, public awareness can be a powerful weapon. This summer, the nonprofit group Jacobson drew attention to the fact that the menu of fried fish called Big Cath's Long John Silvers, which comes with corn bread balls and chips contained 33 grams of fat transgenic. The restaurant chain promised to remove it by the end of the year. . If you need to know more in this regard, you will get more info related to this subject at http://reviewlization.com/

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