New York City Proposes To Ban Trans Fats In Restaurants

Main Category: Nutrition / Diet
Also Included In: Cholesterol;  Cardiovascular / Cardiology
Article Date: 27 Sep 2006 - 4:00 PST

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New York City Health Commissioner Tom Frieden announced today that the city is proposing to ban trans fats in restaurants and also proposing a requirement that many eateries post calories on menus. Trans fat is made when manufacturers add hydrogen to vegetable oil to prolong shelf life and stabilize flavors. Trans fat raises the LDL cholesterol, thereby increasing the risk for coronary heart disease.

Yale University psychologist Kelly Brownell, director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale and a leading expert on the global obesity epidemic, offers an informed perspective on how this sweeping move will affect diners' health and on the history and politics of such public health reforms.

Brownell is chair of the Department of Psychology and professor in the Department of Epidemiology & Public Health at Yale School of Medicine. A long-time critic of what he terms "the toxic food environment," Brownell was recently named by Time magazine as one of the "100 Most Influential People in the World."

Brownell said of the New York initiative: "Consumers have the right to know what goes on their plates. They also have the right to know their meals won't contain unsafe ingredients, like trans fat. For decades, research has linked trans fat and heart disease. With so many alternatives available, no restaurant needs to put its customers at risk by cooking with trans fats."

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