How bad are transfats really?
 

Yes. Like most things, it is fine in moderation. Fat people obviously don't eat their fried foods in moderation. Too much trans fat can cause complications unrelated to obesity though. Still, you don't see Olean being banned, and fat ppl still sue McDonalds. Yeah, stop eating it if it makes you feel bad or die!

I think we're just uncomfortable with anything "trans-". As we should be.

I don't know. If it is a dangerous artificial compound maybe it shouldn't be put in food.

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
IIRC, trans fatty acids damage blood vessel flexibility. The issue was not so much that fat people eat too much of the stuff, but that it was ubiquitous in our food industry. Pretty much anything fried or with a fat that was solid at room temperature had transfats. It supposedly affects flavour.

It is also found in frozen and dairy foods.

The stuff is everywhere. I'm glad CA did this. It should become much easier to find processed food without it in the near future as the large processors will have to change their formulas to continue selling product in the mega market.

Originally posted by rmsharpe
Typical statist paternalism. Damn the state for protecting us from unscrupulous types.

I do know that the rise of trans fats occurred just after the US Congress required packaged foods to be labeled with calorie content, % fat, % sugar, and what not. Trans fats where popular because they were an artificial compound which tasted like fat and acted like fat but which legally didn't have to appear on labels as fats.

So processed food makers packed their foods with trans fats while loudly claiming their food was "fat free" and thus some how was supposed to be more healthy.

Originally posted by Oerdin
I do know that the rise of trans fats occurred just after the US Congress required packaged foods to be labeled with calorie content, % fat, % sugar, and what not. Trans fats where popular because they were an artificial compound which tasted like fat and acted like fat but which legally didn't have to appear on labels as fats.

So processed food makers packed their foods with trans fats while loudly claiming their food was "fat free" and thus some how was supposed to be more healthy. What sort of labelling laws do you have?

Loop holes. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ons/icon13.gif

Originally posted by snoopy369
Also, from what I read above about the California ban, it is worth noting that the CA ban does not apply to packaged goods that are packaged at the factory (ie, mass market goods), but only to restaurants and local bakeries. Way to go, Arnie, screw over small businesses while not doing a thing about some of the worst offenders ... (Note that most of the major fast-food chains, the original offenders, have headed in the direction of no-TFAs already.) Oh, well then, boo.

Originally posted by snoopy369
Loophole what? It was intentionally put there, it's not a loophole http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/smile.gif Intentional loopholes are still loopholes.

Originally posted by GePap


They can be made without transfats, so what is your point? If you're going to ban unhealthy food, ban unhealthy food!

Actually, that's what they're probably going to be doing next. I don't want Ms. Nanny Schwarzenegger telling me what I can and can't eat when I visit California. We're losing our freedom one bite at a time.

ok that was OTT...

No one gets out alive anyway.

Oerdin, one of the ways to make stearate, a carboxylic acid used by the body, is by reduction of a trans acid that is produced in large amounts in nature, oleic acid. Would this ban on trans fats make it illegal to make saturated fats from trans fats? If so, you food prices are going to increase some more, which is not going to be popular with the plebs...