Bye bye trans fats — the FDA finally lowers the hammer

Trans fats, which unfortunately Americans have been eating for the past half century or so, are finally being banned from U.S. foods. The Food and Drug Administration finally has set a deadline for the complete elimination of partially hydrogenated oils, the main source of trans fats in our diets, from things like cake frosting, microwave popcorn, cakes, cookies and other things we used to think tasted good.

I say finally because this has been a long time coming. I blogged about it way back in 2013, not long after I started this blog. As I wrote then, “food makers and restaurants saw the writing on the trans fat walls long ago and have been phasing it out of most products.”

I’m old enough to remember when margarine, which traditionally has trans fats, was being touted as healthier than butter. Is that a testament to the fact that nutritionists usually are taking their best guess about what’s healthy and what’s not? OR is it more a testament to the power of big food companies to market us whatever they want to sell, regardless of whether it will kill us or not? I think it speaks to a little of both those things.

The myriad coverage about the trans fat ban last week produced this interesting piece about what it called the worst trans fat offender in the fats food world. Feel like a breakfast biscuit anyone?
John