SUFFOLK CLOSEUP - TRANS FATS AND THE PROMOTION OF BAD STUFF

SUFFOLK CLOSEUP

By Karl Grossman

Suffolk County government was early to move against trans fats.

In doing much writing on environmental issues—in this column, in magazines, in books I’ve authored, and on the Internet in recent years, as well as for nearly 30 years hosting a TV program “Enviro Closeup,” a central principle that’s become very clear to me is that virtually all polluting products and processes aren’t necessary. There are safe, clean alternatives.

Trans fats are a poster child for this. Bad actors like trans fats throw a monkey wrench into nature and impact on peoples’ health. They are promoted by those who profit from them. The lethal health impacts of trans fats are gargantuan.

As the World Health Organization declared last month in announcing a drive to eliminate trans fats around the globe, they lead to more than 500,000 deaths from heart disease each year. “It’s a crisis level, and it’s a major front in our fight now,” said the WHO’s director general.

In Suffolk, the use of trans fats in restaurants was banned in 2009. Legislator Lou D’Amaro of North Babylon sponsored the law. He stated it “fulfills the government’s obligation to do all it can to protect public health.”

The action by Suffolk followed trans fats bans by other governments in New York State including New York City (first to ban trans fats) and Nassau, Albany and Westchester Counties. Some of the bans, like the one in Suffolk, focused on restaurants. Some were broader, 

Action against trans fats has become a national movement. These days, food packages often display the statement: “No Trans Fats.” People have become aware of their dangers. 

Trans fats are produced when vegetable oil is pumped with hydrogen thus causing it to become solid at room temperature. They assist in extending the shelf life of cookies, cakes and frying oils. Some elements of the food industry, when Suffolk was moving on its ban, insisted that French fries would never be the same without trans fats. This was nonsense.

Trans fats alter the chemical composition of food increasing LDL or “bad” cholesterol and decreasing HDL or “good” cholesterol. Consumption of trans fats clogs arteries.

They aren’t needed. “Trans fats are a harmful product that can be removed easily without major cost and without any impact on the quality of foods,” says Dr. Francesca Branca, director of WHO’s Department of Nutrition for Health and Development.

TCTMD, a website of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation, reports that in the decade since action against trans fats “there has been a significant decrease in hospitalizations for cardiovascular events in New York State.”  It quotes Dr. Eric Brandt of Yale University School of Medicine, who investigated this reduction, as saying “there are no known benefits” of trans fats and “experts who have done extensive research in the field recommended that complete avoidance may be necessary to avoid any of the associated harmful effects from them.”

In 2015 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finally stepped in and revoked the “Generally Recognized as Safe” status of trans fats and ordered the banning of trans fats from all food in the U.S. as of June 18, 2018. Especially delighted was a then 100-year-old University of Illinois professor of comparative biosciences, Fred Kummerow, who had warned about the dangers of trans fats for nearly six decades. Dr. Kummerow, who sued the FDA in 2013 for not acting sooner, commented: “It’s very important that we don’t have this in our diet.”

 The New York Times in an editorial last month, “Making Trans Fats History,” applauded the WHO drive. Although “most of the American food industry stopped using artificial trans fats, a leading cause of heart disease and death globally…and few consumers noticed the change in their French fries or donuts…these fats are still commonly used in the Middle East, India, Pakistan and elsewhere. Beyond the United States, countries like Canada and Denmark have taken action against the use of trans fats, but lawmakers and regulators in other places haven’t—because they are unaware of the health risks or are reluctant to take on the food industry.”

I wrote a book, “The Poison Conspiracy,” about the promotion of toxic products by powerful interests and inaction or extremely delayed action by governments—and the abundant safe alternatives to these poisonous processes and products. 

This promotion involves self-interest, greed, and extends widely. I thought about this the other day reading an article headed “Hawaii Officials Encourage Visitors to Visit, Despite Volcano.” It reported: ‘Hawaii tourism officials are hoping Kilauea’s eruption won’t deter travelers from the state’s largest island, even as geologists warn the volcano could soon shoot boulders out of its summit.” Boosting tourism even if it means getting people to go to where a volcano is erupting, or getting them to eat trans fats and be subject to other dangerous products, or exposing people to toxic processes, this self-interest must be confronted.

Karl Grossman is a veteran investigative reporter and columnist, the winner of numerous awards for his work and a member of the L.I. Journalism Hall of Fame. He is a professor of journalism at SUNY/College at Old Westbury and the author of six books.