Saturday, October 23, 2010

Trans Fat: When Zero is Not Zero

That the consumption of trans fats increases the risk of coronary heart disease by raising levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol and lowering levels of "good" HDL cholesterol is well known, but the strange thing is that almost all packaged food you look at nowadays are labelled: ZERO TRANS FAT.

How is that achieved?

On July 11, 2003, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a regulation requiring manufacturers to list trans fat on the Nutrition Facts panel of foods and some dietary supplements. The new labelling rule became mandatory across the board, even for companies that petitioned for extensions, on January 1, 2008. However, unlike in many other countries, trans fat levels of less than 0.5 grams per serving can be listed as 0 grams trans fat on the food label.

Zero is not Zero!!!

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