Trans Fat Phaseout Applauded by Medical Professionals

The Food and Drug Administration’s announcement last week that trans fats are a health risk and will be phased out has been applauded by medical professionals. 

Medical professionals across the country have long warned of the risk of heart disease from eating too much processed foods—including cookies, cakes, baked goods, refrigerated dough, vegetable shortening, margarine, frozen foods, and coffee creamer. 

The American Medical Association has characterized it “a lifesaving move.”

“The lion’s share of the added trans fats have been removed from our food supply. But this is a good step toward eliminating the remaining amount that continues to pose heart disease risk for many people,” said Kim Larson, a registered dietitian nutritionist and spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics to WebMD.

New York City first banned restaurants from using trans fat in 2006. That same year the FDA required food makers to label how much trans fat a food contains. Following New York City, 15 states, cities, and towns also banned restaurant use of trans fat. Ten fast-food chains have also stopped using trans fats. 

Research has shown trans fat can contribute to plaque buildup in arteries, which increases the risk of heart attacks. 

In the announcement, the FDA cited estimates by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that cutting trans fat in foods could prevent 20,000 heart attacks a year and save 7,000 people from dying of heart disease.

The agency has yet to set a timeline for the phaseout, but it will collect comments for two months before officials determine how long it will take. Different foods may have different timelines, depending how easy it will be to find a substitute.

The food “industry has demonstrated that it is, by and large, feasible to do,” said Michael Taylor, FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods.

To phase them out, the FDA already determined that trans fats no longer fall in the agency’s “generally recognized as safe” category, which is reserved for thousands of additives that manufacturers can add to foods without FDA review. 

Scientists said there are no health benefits to trans fats, as they raise levels of so-called “bad” cholesterol and increase the risk of heart disease—the leading cause of death in the United States.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.