A NATION-WIDE BAN ON TRANS FATS
IT’S ABOUT TIME!
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This news “is very welcome and strongly supported by massive scientific evidence that trans fat has many adverse effects on health. Trans fat has no place on the table, and this step will help make the diets of Americans safer.” Walter Willett, MD, DrPH, of the Harvard School of Public Health, in an article on today’s issue of MedPage Today
Contrary to decades of clinical assumptions and advice to patients, dietary cholesterol is good for your heart – unless that cholesterol is unnaturally oxidized (by frying foods in reused oil, eating lots of polyunsaturated fats or smoking). University of Illinois Life Science editor, Diana Yates from a February 2013 story called, Lipid Researcher, 98, Reports on the Causes of Heart Disease |
Fred Kummerow is an interesting man. He is not only the Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois’ Food Science and Human Nutrition department, he also happens to be just shy of his 100th birthday (he got his Ph.D right smack dab in the middle of the Second World War —1943 — in Lipid Biochemistry). Interestingly enough, Dr Kummerow touts the same message I have been spreading for over two decades. CHOLESTEROL and ANIMAL FAT do not, in-and-of-themselves, cause of Heart Disease. TRANS FATS, however, do! In fact, Dr. Fred is so passionate about this subject that he wrote a book about it 5 years ago called, “Cholesterol Won’t Kill You, but Trans Fats Could…“.
Shortly after writing this book, Kummerow filed a ‘Citizen Petition’ with the FDA calling for Trans Fats to be totally banned here in the US. Among other things, the petition stated that, “Trans fat calcifies both the arteries and veins and causes blood clots. Trans fat leads to the reduction of pro stacyclin that is needed to prevent blood clots in the arteries. A blood clot in any of the coronary arteries can result in sudden death.” The FDA is required by law to respond to these ‘Citizen Petitions’ in a timely manner (within 180 days). When the Obama Administration’s FDA failed to do so, Kummerow filed a lawsuit back back in September —- over four years after the fact. This seems to have gotten at least a few bureaucrats off of their trans fatty arses.
It must be incredibly rewarding for Dr. Kummerow to know that he has helped save countless lives and curb a whole lot of misery with this ban. But because the FDA has not set a definite date, there is a good chance that Dr. Kummerow will not actually be alive to see the fruit of his labors. Write your congressman today and urge them to require the FDA to get a move on it! We sincerely thank you for your hard work and dedication Dr. Kummerow. Some of this story reminds me of another elder physician who accomplished some big things (HERE).
