Coming out of a fat trance

Trans fats are being recognised for the baddies they are.

The Walt Disney Company, seeking to address concerns about obesity and eating habits, recently declared that it would phase out trans fats from food served at its theme parks.

In 2003 Denmark became the first country to introduce laws strictly regulating the sale of many foods containing trans fats. The New York Board of Health has just voted to make it the nation's first city to ban trans fats at all eating joints, by July 2008. Closer home, the Taj group is the first Indian hotel chain to address the problem of trans fats, by removing them from all its F&B offerings.

Trans fats, a type of unsaturated fat, today have an unsavoury reputation as the ultimate artery cloggers. They are suddenly the primary target on global food-and-health agendas. They are formed when liquid oils are made into solid fats by adding hydrogen in a process called hydrogenation (like ghee), and are favoured because of their long shelf life and low refrigeration needs.

The uneducated assumption is that all fats are bad. Low- or no-fat diets don't distinguish between good and bad fats. In fact, monounsaturated (groundnut or peanut oil) and polyunsaturated fat (from grain, fish or soybean) are the good fats, and consumption of saturated fat (dairy products) should be kept low.

Small amounts of naturally occurring trans fats are found in vegetables like peas, or in meat or milk. The real threat, however, is partially hydrogenated oil, commonly used in cooking and found in processed foods and baked goodies.

Trans fats cause significant and serious lowering of HDL (good) cholesterol and a significant and serious increase in LDL (bad) cholesterol. There are suggestions that the health risk goes beyond cardiovascular complications to include cancer, type 2 diabetes and liver dysfunction.

A move to eliminate trans fats is no doubt burdensome. Butter, margarine, vegetable cooking oils and processed meats would all have to go out the window.

But as consumer awareness and rights movements gain ground, stringent labelling requirements and, eventually, complete elimination might be the food industry's only option. Opponents are willing to label themselves in a good cause: one campaign (www.bantransfats.com) advocates the purchase of T-shirts that read: "Don't partially hydrogenate me!"