Los Angeles County to Join the Anti-Trans Fat Bandwagon?

In a city where looks are everything, it's really no surprise that Los Angeles County is considering banning Tran's fats in all county restaurants, not to mention its a lot healthier. Tran's fats today are industrially created, originating from partially hydrogenated plant oils; this process was developed in the early 1900's and introduced in its first commercial form as Crisco. These fats are made by injecting oil with hydrogen, turning the oil solid which makes for longer shelf life.

Tran's fats unlike other types are neither needed nor required for food. They appear on labels as hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. These fats can be found in all sorts of crackers, cookies, breads, and potato chips. They are much worse than natural fats and are more likely to raise the risk for coronary heart disease. This dangerous type of fat has provoked countries to spring into action and some have even made it mandatory to label products that carry these man made fats. Dangers don't stop at coronary heart disease, other ailments resulting from high consumption of Trans fatty foods include obesity, Diabetes, and liver dysfunction.

In early January of 2007, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to study the rationality of banning Tran's fats in all county restaurants. The city of New York is the leader of the healthier packs. They banned all Tran's fats from its restaurants in December of last year. Back in Los Angeles, public health officials are carefully researching the difficulty of enforcing a county wide ban on Tran's fats all together. The city of Chicago is also entertaining the thought of a city wide ban on the oil.

In January, 2006 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) started to require food manufacturers to properly list Tran's fat information on all nutrition labels. The regulation allows for anything with less than 0.5 grams per serving to be labeled as 0 grams per serving and so forth.

A handful of major fast food chains around the nation have begun to stop the use of the Trans fats or have reduced the amounts being used. Headline makers such as McDonalds vowed in 2002 for reduction in the amount of hydrogenated oil in their fries but efforts were stunted when McDonalds feared it would change the nature of their fries. In June of 2006, Wendy's announced plans to remove hydrogenated oil from 6,300 of its restaurants. Having even bigger plans, Walt Disney theme parks will begin the process of ridding Tran's fats from all meals by the end of 2007 and will stop the use of them in promotional and marketed products by 2008.

Like all things, there are pros and cons to every side. However food can still taste good without this man made death trap. With that said,I'am going to go get a cookie.