- ALLERGY, RESPIRATORY
- Air Pollution May Raise Blood Pressure
- 'Safe' Ozone Levels May Not Be for Some
- Overweight Moms More Likely to Have Asthmatic Kids
- ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
- Wristbands May Lessen Nausea After Radiation
- Cranberries May Help Prevent Urinary Tract Infections
- Imaging Sheds Light on How Acupuncture Works
- ANIMAL CARE
- Animals Respond to Acupuncture's Healing Touch
- Beware of Dog Bites
- Separation Anxiety, Canine-Style
- BONES & JOINTS
- Fall Sports Peak Time for Lower Leg Damage
- Tequila Plant May Help Fight Bone Loss
- Osteoporosis May Raise Risk for Vertigo
- CANCER
- More Americans Urged to Get Cancer Screenings
- Antioxidants Pose No Melanoma Threat
- Study Suggests Link Between Cell Phones and Brain Tumors
- CAREGIVING
- Memory Loss Help from Brain Supplement Prevagen
- Coordination Has Led to Quicker Heart Treatment
- With Age Comes Greater Risk of Hypothermia
- CIRCULATORY SYSTEM
- Secondhand Smoke Quickly Affects Blood Vessels
- Grapefruit-Heavy Diet Helped Spur Dangerous Clot
- Anemia Rates Down for U.S. Women and Children
- COSMETIC
- Study Evaluates Laser Therapies for Hair Removal
- What to Do If You Have Unsightly Veins
- Get Sugared!.... Its a sweet choice for hair removal
- DENTAL, ORAL
- Gum Disease May Reactivate AIDS Virus
- Obesity Boosts Gum Disease Risk
- Hormones May Be to Blame for Women's Cavity Rates
- DIABETES
- Vitamin K Slows Insulin Resistance in Older Men
- Insulin Resistance Tied to Peripheral Artery Disease
- Boosting Vitamin D Can Do a Heart Good
- DIET, NUTRITION
- Most Fast-Food French Fries Cooked in Unhealthiest Oil
- Eating in America Still Unhealthy
- Research Confirms How Valuable A Healthy Lifestyle Can Be
- DISABILITIES
- Review Finds Marijuana May Help MS Patients
- Could Your Cell Phone Help Shield You From Alzheimer's?
- ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH
- Bed Bugs Bring No Disease Danger
- Pilots May Face Greater Cancer Risk
- Traffic Seems to Make Kids' Asthma Worse
- EYE CARE, VISION
- Glaucoma Treatment Can Prevent Blindness
- Impotence Drugs Don't Harm Vision: Study
- When Corks Fly, Watch the Eyes
- FITNESS
- Keep Safety in Mind While Your Kids Are Cooling Off in the Water
- Consciousness Helps the Mind and Body Work Together
- Mom and Baby Alike May Benefit From Exercise
- GASTROINTESTINAL PROBLEMS
- New Guidelines Issued for Management of IBS
- Intestinal Bacteria Trigger Immune Response
- Japanese Herbals May Ease Gastro Woes
- GENERAL HEALTH
- Brisk Walk Can Help Leave Common Cold Behind
- Vitamin D and Bone Health: Are You Getting Enough of This Important Vitamin?
- To Quit Smoking, Try Logging On
- HEAD & NECK
- Zen May Thicken Brain, Thwart Pain
- Ski Helmets Encouraged for All
- Many Children Will Outgrow Headaches
- HEALTH & TECHNOLOGY
- Airport Full Body Scanners Pose No Health Threat: Experts
- 'Cell Phone Elbow' -- A New Ill for the Wired Age
- Magnet Therapy May Ease Hard-to-Treat Depression
- HEART & CARDIOVASCULAR
- Rheumatoid Arthritis a Threat to the Heart
- A Little Chocolate May Do the Heart Good
- Omega-3, Some Omega-6 Fatty Acids Boost Cardiovascular Health
- INFECTIOUS DISEASE
- Grapefruit Compound Inhibits Hepatitis C Virus
- Swine Flu Loves a Crowd
- Swine Flu Now Reported in All 50 States
- KID'S HEALTH
- Breast-Feeding May Protect a Woman's Heart
- Dangerous Toys Still on Store Shelves, Report Finds
- Mom and Baby Alike May Benefit From Exercise
- MEN'S HEALTH
- Noise Hurts Men's Hearing More, Study Shows
- Low Iron Levels Cut Cancer Risk in Men With PAD
- More Vitamin C May Mean Less Chance of Gout
- MENTAL HEALTH
- Music Soothes Anxiety as Well as Massage Does
- The Unmedicated Mind
- Green Spaces Boost the Body and the Mind
- PREGNANCY
- Music of Mozart Soothes the Preemie Baby
- Alternative Treatments May Boost IVF Success
- Acupuncture May Ease Depression During Pregnancy
- SENIORS
- Money May Matter, Health-Wise, in Old Age
- Any Old Cane Won't Do
- Want Better Health in the New Year, Add Exercise to Your Day
Trans Fat Labeling Gets Tricky
By eHolistic.com Published: 06/30/2008
By E.J. Mundell
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, June 30 (HealthDay News) -- Are 3 or 4 grams of trans fats in a serving of baked or fried food bad for you, or can you stop worrying?
Answer: It's always unhealthy, since no amount of the artery-clogging artificial fat is good for you.
However, a new study suggests that the Nutrition Facts panel found on the side of grocery store products does a poor job of getting that message across to consumers.
"It's very misleading to just throw a number out there," contends study author Elizabeth Howlett, a professor of marketing at the University of Arkansas, in Fayetteville.
Her team found that the average health-conscious consumer is often misled by trans fat information found on the Nutrition Facts panel.
The main problem is that because no amount of trans fat is good for you, it makes no sense to post a percentage of the "recommended daily value" -- as is done with other ingredients such as sugar, or total or saturated fats. So consumers are just left with a number -- such as 2, 3 or 4 grams of trans fat per serving -- and no way of interpreting how unhealthy that might be.
Furthermore, compared to the amounts of calories or carbohydrates listed on the Nutrition Facts panel -- which can often run into the dozens or hundreds of units -- a few grams of trans fat can seem harmless, Howlett said. In that context, consumers often think, "4 grams, wow, that looks good," she explained.
In reality, the American Heart Association states that anything over 2 grams per day of trans fat is definitely bad for you -- and it's preferred that your intake stay at zero.
The average consumer doesn't know this, however. Reporting in a recent issue of the Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, Howlett and her colleagues had nearly 600 adults assess the relative nutritional value of a number of snack crackers with Nutrition Facts labels that were manipulated to display varying levels of trans fat per serving.
All of the participants had good reason to eat healthy: In one experiment all the volunteers were diabetic, and in a second experiment they had all been diagnosed with heart disease.
And yet the Arkansas team found that, in the absence of any education as to how much trans fat per day is good or bad for you, most participants failed to associate 3 or 4 grams per serving of trans fat with cardiovascular risk.
"When you tell someone what the trans fat level is in a product, and don't give them any guidelines about how to evaluate what that number means, that can lead to some false inferences," Howlett said.
The addition of trans fat to the list of ingredients on the Nutrition Facts panel is the first major change to the label since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration first introduced it back in 1994. Howlett didn't offer any fix of her own to make interpreting the label easier for consumers, but she believes that "there needs to be some educational component or campaign" whenever changes to the Nutrition Facts panel appear.
"That's something that the FDA would have to wrestle with," she said.
One labeling note did seem to help study participants make healthier food choices, Howlett said. A manufacturer's front-of-package claim that a product was "Low in Trans Fat" or had "Zero Trans Fat" did make participants more likely to consume the food in question.
Howlett supports the use of such claims, if valid, but notes that consumers still need to read the Nutrition Facts panel closely. That's because a product can have no trans fat but still be very high in unhealthy saturated fats or sugars, she said.
Discerning how much trans fat is in a take-out or sit-down restaurant meal can be even tougher. "Consumers have very little understanding in an away-from-home food context," Howlett said. "The information is there if consumers want to find it, but most consumers aren't highly motivated to sit at the Web and find out exactly how many calories and grams of fat and trans fat are in [restaurant] products."
The consequences of not knowing can be tough on the heart, however. According to a 2006 study from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a typical three-piece combo meal at Kentucky Fried Chicken contains a whopping 15 grams of trans fat.
Diners in New York City will soon have an easier time avoiding trans fats in restaurants, however. Starting Tuesday, health officials there are banning trans fats from menu items in the nation's largest city. A similar ban goes into effect in Philadelphia in September.
Things are slowly getting better in the grocery aisle, too, with most of the country's biggest manufacturers of packaged and processed foods beating a quick retreat from the use of trans fats in their products. But trans fat is still a prime component in many products. For example, Digiorno's Garlic Bread Crust Pepperoni Pizza For One contains 3.5 grams of trans fat per serving, as well as 16 grams of saturated fat, according to its Nutrition Facts panel. And Drake's Coffee Cakes also contain 2.5 grams of trans fat per serving (2 cakes), the product's panel says.
All of this means more must be done to educate consumers about the dangers of any level of trans fat, Howlett said. She believes the FDA needs to learn from the current confusion around trans fat numbers, to help consumers better interpret the Nutrition Facts panel the next time a change comes around.
"If there's going to be further changes -- because who knows what they are going to find next -- there also needs to be some sort of guidance for consumers, to be able to evaluate this information," Howlett said. "We are trying to get the information there that consumers need to make an informed choice, at the time that they are making the decision."
More information
To learn more about trans fats, visit the American Heart Association.
Avoiding Trans Fat
Dietitian Lona Sandon, national spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association and chair-elect of the Nutrition Educators of Health Professions, offers up the following tips on trans fats:
What is a trans fat?
"A trans fat is a type of man-made fat in which the chemical bonds of a vegetable oil, normally liquid at room temperature, are changed so that it becomes solid at room temperature and more shelf-stable," she said. The fats' chemical bonds become "twisted," hence the name "trans." Natural trans fats can occur as well, but they are not thought to be harmful.
Why are these compounds so bad for us?
According to Sandon, man-made trans fats have been shown to greatly boost levels of harmful LDL cholesterol, helping clog arteries with fatty plaques. Many nutritionists believe trans fats are even more dangerous than saturated fats.
How can I avoid trans fats?
"Trans fats are typically found in processed foods, particularly snack foods or bakery items," Sandon said. These would include cookies, crackers, pre-packaged donuts, muffins, even chewy granola bars. Always check labels. Better yet, stick to fresh, whole foods, vegetables, grains, nuts, lean meats, low-fat dairy and soft tub buttery spreads made with liquid vegetable oil.
If a product says "low" or "zero" trans fat, is it good for me?
Not necessarily. "You still must think about what else is in, or not in, the food," Sandon said. "The words [no] trans fat or low fat does not mean healthy."
SOURCES: Elizabeth Howlett, Ph.D., professor, marketing, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; Lona Sandon, M.Ed., R.D., assistant professor, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, spokeswoman, American Dietetic Association, and chair-elect, the Nutrition Educators of Health Professions; Spring 2008, Journal of Public Policy & Marketing
Last Updated: June 30, 2008
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