27 May 2010

Food Industry Makes Strides in Ousting Trans Fats

U.S. News & World Report

 
In its move to oust trans fat from food products, the food industry is substituting the bad with better-for-you fats, a new report published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests. That's good news, since some experts had worried the industry would just replace one unhealthy substance with another: saturated fat.

Researchers analyzed 83 reformulated products from grocery stores and restaurants and found that most had no more saturated fat than before—save for some baked goods they examined, HealthDay reports.

In April, U.S. News contributor Katherine Hobson wrote about the latest research on what types of fats are fine to eat. All fats are not alike in their effects on blood cholesterol levels, which can affect heart disease risk. Saturated fat, for example, generally increases levels of LDL, or "bad" cholesterol, Hobson wrote. Trading saturated fats for polyunsaturated fats—the omega-3 fatty acids found in certain fish and the omega-6 fatty acids in vegetable oils such as safflower and soybean oils—does seem to offer a heart benefit.

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