Trans Fat Amounts Should Be Clear

Nutrition and food experts from the University of Oxford called for food labelling to clearly list the quantity of trans fat with the cholesterol levels and saturated fat levels so that people can clearly see what they are eating and therefore make informed healthy choices before eating. Trans fat which is the worst possible type of fat is present in many foodstuffs like fast food, some biscuits, cakes and pastry. It is favoured by many food manufacturers as it preserves the food and thus it can be left on the shelves for longer.

Trand fat though has health consequences as it increases the LDL (low density lipoprotein) or bad cholesterol in the bloodstream and also reduces the levels of HDL (high density lipoprotein) or good cholesterol in the blood. High levels of bad cholesterol can cause heart disease. In America food labels are already required to put the trans fat levels and cholesterol levels clearly along with the other nutritional information. There are increasing calls for UK and the rest of the European Union to follow suit and legislate so that the situation here will be the same. Denmark has already legislated in this regard and they report that it was very simple to do.

The advantage of consumers seeing the levels of trans fat in the food would be that many unhealthy foodstuffs would lose their appeal if people could really see what was in them and if they knew that they would be increasing their LDL cholesterol levels buy eating them. Hundreds of different research projects have confirmed that by eating healthy and balanced diet with fruits and veg and by staying away from foods with alot of saturated or trans fat you will reduce the chances of getting coronary heart illnesses.

Trans fat is found in the cooking oils of many fast food restaurants as it keeps the flavour in the food for longer and also is a by products of the process by which liquid oils are made into solid fats for margarine.