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Little Tich

(6,171 posts)
Tue Jun 16, 2015, 10:45 PM Jun 2015

F.D.A. Sets 2018 Deadline to Rid Foods of Trans Fats

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday gave the food industry three years to eliminate artery-clogging artificial trans fats from the food supply, a long-awaited step that capped years of effort by consumer groups and is expected to save thousands of lives a year.

Trans fats — a major contributor to heart disease in the United States — have already been substantially reduced in foods, but they still lurk in many popular products, including frostings, microwave popcorn, packaged pies, frozen pizzas, margarines and coffee creamers.

The agency announced its plans to act in 2013 and has since addressed more than 6,000 public comments. The decision Tuesday was final and would effectively remove industrial trans fats from the American diet by 2018, a change that the agency has estimated could prevent 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths from heart disease each year.

The food industry said it was pleased that the agency had given it three years to carry out the rule, but also said it planned to seek permission to keep using small amounts of trans fats in certain products, an indication of just how difficult it is to root them out.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/health/fda-gives-food-industry-three-years-eliminate-trans-fats.html?_r=0

13 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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dflprincess

(28,078 posts)
2. "You can have my trans fats when you squeeze them out of my cold, dead arteries."
Tue Jun 16, 2015, 10:51 PM
Jun 2015

Or that seems to be the attitude of people in some of comments I've read about this at other sites.

Response to Little Tich (Original post)

Response to Elmer S. E. Dump (Reply #5)

RichVRichV

(885 posts)
4. Yes!
Wed Jun 17, 2015, 12:29 AM
Jun 2015

That's a huge win for healthy living!

Trans fats are one of the absolute worst additives in our diet. If I could only pick one thing to remove from our foods that would most likely be it. Second on my list would probably be man-made free glutamic acids (such as MSG) and aspartic acids (such as aspartame).





This was all set in motion due to labeling laws. Now you can see why the GMO industry is so dead set to fight any labeling requirements no matter the cost.

 

Elmer S. E. Dump

(5,751 posts)
6. Also Sodium metabisulfite.
Wed Jun 17, 2015, 10:02 AM
Jun 2015

My wife is highly allergic to it - she almost died once before I got her to a hospital (can't breathe).

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8267251
Since the introduction of sodium metabisulfite as a food preservative, it has been associated with several idiosyncratic reactions (eg, bronchospasm, oculonasal symptoms, and urticaria/angioedema) in sulfite-sensitive individuals. The pathogenic mechanism of these reactions is not yet understood. We report the case of two crewmen on a shrimp trawler who were found dead in the ship's hold. Their deaths had occurred while they were applying dry sodium metabisulfite, referred to as "shrimp dip" in the shrimping industry. Postmortem examinations showed diffuse pulmonary edema consistent with death secondary to asphyxia. Associated findings were visceral congestion. Although it is possible to measure death from sodium metabisulfite with available records, its potential morbidity cannot be estimated. It is known that sodium metabisulfite can react with acids and water, releasing toxic sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas. In addition, SO2 gas reacts with respiratory tissue forming sulfureous acid, and inducing a pulmonary reaction causing hypoxemia. Furthermore, sodium metabisulfite, compared with sodium bisulfite, has a much greater propensity to release SO2 gas. We conclude that there is a need for improved education regarding the potential side effects of sodium metabisulfite, thus eliminating needless occupational morbidity and mortality.

Amishman

(5,557 posts)
9. i'm normally hesitant on banning things but I'm all for this one
Wed Jun 17, 2015, 10:47 AM
Jun 2015

Unhealthy with no redeeming qualities, we are better off without them.

wordpix

(18,652 posts)
13. 2018? you gotta be kidding. How about toxic agrochemicals?
Wed Jun 17, 2015, 01:38 PM
Jun 2015

Let's start with 11,000 untested/undertested pesticides allowed on the market

Or maybe Monsanto's birth defect-linked Roundup with glyphosate

Or Dow's "Enlist Duo" enlisting both glyphosate and Agent Orange's 2,4,D all in one toxic bottle to grow your food! yum!

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