The FDA takes action to ban trans fat — more than 10 years too late

The FDA rides to the rescue — 10 years too late

Last week, when the news broke that the FDA had taken steps to ban trans fats, the mainstream media practically turned it into a Disney tale. Here we are…the poor public…trapped in a trans fat tower…and the FDA mounted its noble steed to scale the wall and come rescue us.

Ridiculous!

Because the FDA is exactly the evil monster that put us up in that tower to begin with.

So any health risks they are tying to trans fats now — diabetes, heart attacks, all of ’em — those fall squarely on the shoulders of the FDA.

And it’s easy to see why…

A tale of two zeros

Zero.

That’s the amount of trans fats the National Academy of Sciences determined was safe to eat. Zero. No gray areas there!

They arrived at that number based on evidence that even a small intake of this killer fat sharply increased risk of heart disease, sudden cardiac death, and type 2 diabetes.

And this isn’t a new revelation. This was back in 2002!

Okay, so what did the FDA do? (Cue the crickets.)

But when the agency finally came around to a labeling requirement, they let food producers using trans fats lie. And basically put a gag order on companies smart enough to leave them out.

Here’s how…

As a gift to its cronies addicted to using these dangerous fats, the FDA made a single labeling requirement: You could not say “Trans fat free.” You could only say “No Trans Fats” or “Zero Trans Fats.”

Now to the untrained eye of the trusting consumer, those would seem like the same thing.

But you’re not giving the FDA enough credit. You see, whenever you see the phrase “Zero trans fats” on product packaging, check the small print. Turns out, this almost always means “Zero trans fats PER SERVING.”

And that lead to this very convenient lie: The FDA said half a gram or less of trans fat per serving could be called “zero.”

That’s right — in the FDA’s Rock-Paper-Scissors-like World, marketing beats math. So you can use decimal points to trick people into eating something they’re trying to avoid.

But it turns out, even for the FDA, death beats (bad) math.

So in a less-than-stunning reversal, the agency charged with defending the health of Americans decided to stop helping food companies kill us…11 years too late.

Last week, the agency said that partially hydrogenated oils (the primary trans fat source) should be removed from the GRAS list.

GRAS is “generally recognized as safe.” That means it’s considered safe to eat unregulated amounts of it. And taking an ingredient off the list is a very big deal. If an ingredient isn’t GRAS, it is not supposed to be in the food supply. Period.

And that’s exactly where trans fat should have been in 2002 — OUT of our food supply.

Last year, the CDC determined that trans fat consumption had dropped by nearly 60 percent between 2000 and 2009. So let’s hold off on patting the FDA on the back. You’re no hero if you charge into the tower a decade after we climbed out ourselves.

Sources:
“FDA to ban artery-clogging trans fats” Mary Clare Jalonick, Associated Press, 11/7/13, ap.org