“For good global health, let’s permanently eliminate trans fatty acids from the diet”

Ltrans fatty acids kill: up to 500,000 people die each year worldwide from the consequences of their consumption. Trans fatty acids raise levels of LDL-cholesterol (“bad cholesterol”), which causes clogged arteries and heart attacks, and leads to death from heart disease.

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Most trans fatty acids come from artificial and industrially produced partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, which are used in many baked goods, frying oils, fried foods, and hardened fats, such as margarine and ghee [beurre clarifié] vegetal.

However, they have no known health benefits and can easily be replaced with other ingredients to preserve taste and consistency. They do nothing but harm our hearts; in short, they are the equivalent of tobacco in the field of food products.

And yet it would be so simple to eliminate them… Indeed, partially hydrogenated oils can easily be replaced by other healthier vegetable oils, which are not more expensive and which taste good, such as vegetable oils rich in oleic acid .

Best Practice Policies

In 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) called for complete elimination industrially sourced trans fatty acids into the global food supply by the end of 2023. Since then, we have been supporting countries to implement policies banning trans fatty acids and replacing them with oils healthier.

There are two best practice policies. The first is to set a national mandatory limit of 2 grams of industrial trans fatty acids for a total of 100 grams of fat in all foods. The second is the nationwide mandatory ban on the production or use of partially hydrogenated oils (the main source of trans fatty acids).

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Nowadays, more than forty countries, representing more than a third of the world’s population, have implemented one of WHO’s best practice policies on trans fatty acids. Seventeen other countries, or 400 million more people, have less restrictive policies but are still on track to implement all of the WHO’s recommended best practices.

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