When I read newspaper headlines such as “Trans fat Could Stop Your Heart” and “New Food Labels Indicate ‘bad fat’ Content,” I know that at last, the tireless work by health food educators on the dangers of ‘bad’ fats has now become mainstream.

Last summer Udo Erasmus-a world authority on healthy fats-made the front page of the Vancouver Province newspaper as the “Fat Man.” Bravo Udo! With obesity rates skyrocketing, scientists, doctors, and health care officials have switched their focus from low-fat and no-fat diets to evaluating the type of fat in the diet-something alive has been expounding for over two decades.

Statistics Canada reports that Canadians are eating 10.75 kilograms of shortening every year, up from 8.2 kg in 1987. To put this into perspective: that’s 24-one-pound blocks of shortening. A frightening statistic since shortening is a source of deadly trans fatty acids, which are formed by the high temperature and hydrogenation that turn refined oils into margarines, shortenings, and partially-hydrogenated vegetable oils, making them solid or semi-solid and shelf stable. Trans fatty acids damage our cardiovascular system, promote cancer, disrupt cellular membranes, and impair immune function. Trans fat is found in: all fast food, potato chips, french fries, baby biscuits, breakfast cereals, cookies, light microwave popcorn, and margarines. Scientists at the University of Guelph state that, “Trans fatty acids are almost twice as bad as saturated fats in terms of damage to your cardiovascular system.” Health Canada announced in January of this year that new regulations will require all prepackaged foods to list the trans fat content and eventually these regulations will include the fast food industry so that we will know the trans fat content of those fries and doughnuts.

MacDonald’s and Kraft foods have both vowed to make their foods healthier. Why? For the first time in their history, MacDonald’s had reduced earnings, causing them to evaluate their products and services. They discovered people are eating healthier foods. Kraft decided they should take some responsibility for helping North Americans lose a few pounds. They have formed a panel of heath and nutrition experts to review all their products and recommend solutions to help reduce obesity. The panel will look at total calories, fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, sugar, salt, and especially trans fatty acids. Kraft wants to eliminate all trans fats or cut them to one-half of a gram per serving in their cookies and cakes. I applaud fast food companies recognizing the need to provide healthier foods although the timing seems a bit suspicious in the wake of the new labelling laws. Now that the governments in both Canada and the United States have mandated labelling trans fats, large food manufacturers have to reduce or eliminate the trans fats because consumers will know the percentage of these deadly fats in foods and make alternate food choices to avoid them. My concern is what will they use to replace the hydrogenated oils they are currently using? In the past fat was replaced with sugars. We don’t want to trade one evil for another.

The Food and Drug Association in the US has estimated that simply by revealing the trans fat content on the label allowing consumers to make healthier choices, between 2,000 to 5,000 lives will be saved annually. The US National Academy of Sciences, the organization that determines nutrition levels, states that there is no safe level of trans fats. For over two decades, alive’s writers have been advising readers to completely avoid trans fats and balance fat intake by consuming plenty of healthy, essential fatty acids from fish, flaxseed, olive oil, evening primrose, coconut, and other nut and seed oils. Bravo to all the pioneers who broke new ground and taught the mainstream scientific world about fat!

Lorna Vanderhaeghe, BSc, is the author of several books, including the bestseller, Healthy Immunity: Scientifically Proven Natural Conditions from A-Z(Wiley & Sons, 2001) and No More HRT: Menopause Treats the Cause (Quarry Books, 2002). Her latest book is Healthy Fats for Life(Quarry Health Books, 2003). She is also senior editor of alive’s Encyclopedia of Natural Healing (2002) and associate editor of alive journal.