The zero trans-fats scam
This Week In The HSI Healthier Talk Community
Remember when “zero” equaled, you know, zero – as in nada, zip, bupkis, etc.?
An HSI member named Gerry introduces us to the New Math (as imagined by the FDA) when he leads off a thread with the transcript of an article he came across titled “The FDA and the ‘Zero Trans-Fats’ Scam.”
By now, you’ve probably seen many food products with the words “zero trans fats” prominently displayed on the labels. In reality, the FDA mandates that if a product serving contains less than half a gram of trans-fat, the amount can be expressed as zero.
Did you catch the word “serving”? That’s the key. Say a box of crackers contains a dozen servings. That means the entire package of crackers might contain nearly six grams of trans-fat, even though the package claims “zero.”
Here are a few reactions from HSI members:
SoCalGal: “I was munching away on a bag of ‘Zero Trans Fat’ Tostitos ‘Hint of Lime’ chips when I saw in the fine print that partially hydrogenated vegetable oil was the fourth or fifth ingredient on the label but not included in the percentages. I called the Frito-Lay Company.
“Me: Why does this bag of chips, clearly labeled ‘Zero Trans Fats,’ have partially hydrogenated vegetable oil as one of the main ingredients?
“Frito Lay: We don’t fry the chips in partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, but we use it in the mix of spices to keep the spices on the chip; otherwise, they wouldn’t stick to the chip.”
Bill: “Thank you for posting this. I had no idea I could be eating up to 500 mg per serving of trans fats in a ‘no trans fat’ product. But pretty typical I’d say.”
George: “Reading the zero trans fats bullet on a product shouldn’t stop anyone from reading all labels carefully. The fact that they advertise it will make me more skeptical.”
SoCalGal mentioned hydrogenated vegetable oil. That’s the primary tip off that a product contains trans-fat.
In the e-Alert “Train off the Track” (12/2/04) I told you about a trans-fat assessment from Bruce Holub, a professor of nutritional sciences at Canada’s University of Guelph. In an interview with the Toronto Globe and Mail, professor Holub said that ingesting a daily gram of trans fat over several years is enough to significantly boost your risk of heart disease.
And in a study of more than 800 subjects conducted at Chicago’s Rush University Medical Centre, seniors who had a high trans fat intake were found to be twice as likely to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease compared to those with the lowest intake.
Zero never sounded so bad.
Other topics being discussed this week in the Healthier Talk community forums include:
- Heart: Pink grapefruit
- General Health Topics: L-arginine & vision
- Hearing: Ringing in the ears
- Cancer: Intravenous vitamin C and chemo
- Dental: Teeth whitening
- Hormones: Premarin
To join in with any of these discussions, just go to our web site at www.hsionline.com, choose “Forum,” and add your own insights and comments about health, nutrition and natural treatments.
