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    US Adults' Trans Fat Drops

    By Rachael Rettner | LiveScience.com – Wed, Feb 8, 2012

    Americans have less trans fat floating around in their blood today than they did 10 years ago, a new study finds.

    Between 2000 and 2009, the average level of trans fatty acids in the blood dropped 58 percent, according to the study of white adults in the U.S.

    The drop may be good news for Americans' health. Because trans fats have been linked to increased cholesterol levels and risk for heart disease, lower blood levels could mean a decrease in cardiovascular disease, the researchers said.

    Exactly what caused the drop is unclear, but the researchers noted that trans fats are often found in manufactured foods, and in 2003, the Food and Drug Administration began to require that food products list their trans fat content on their nutrition labels.

    In addition, around that time, manufacturers started to remove trans fats from their foods, and there was an increase in educational information about the health risks of these fats, said study researcher Hubert Vesper, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All of these factors could have contributed to the decline.

    In the study, the researchers examined blood samples from 229 adults taken in 2000 as part of a national health survey, and 292 samples taken in 2009. The blood samples were analyzed for the presence of four major trans fatty acids. Trans fatty acids are stable in the blood, and so would not have degraded between the time the samples were taken and analyzed, Vesper said.

    The study did not include other ethnic groups, so the findings cannot be generalized to the population as a whole, the researchers said. Further research is needed to see whether a drop in cholesterol levels occurred along with the drop in trans fat levels.

    The researchers plan to further analyze their data to better assess the effectiveness of public health measures in reducing trans fat levels, Vesper said.

    The study is published in the Feb. 8 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

    Pass it on:  White Americans experienced a decline in their blood levels of trans fat, which could mean a decreased risk of heart disease for this group.

    This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily staff writer Rachael Rettner on Twitter @RachaelRettner. Find us on Facebook.

     

    5 comments

    • Jeff
      Jeff  •  San Diego, California  •  3 mths ago
      How is this possible? There are no federal laws banning trans-fats. You mean, given reasonable information, people and manufacturers acted rationally, and in their own best interest? Shocking!
      • Chris
        Chris 3 mths ago
        trans fats are illegal at the state level for many states.
      • Jeff
        Jeff 3 mths ago
        Lets see, California in 2008, New York City in 2008, and two counties. Only banned in restaurants. The study went from 2000 to 2009. Wow, thanks for making me look this up. This clearly makes all the difference.
    • Rob
      Rob  •  3 mths ago
      We'll see many reductions (per-capita) in many related diseases.
      This was a long time coming - I've been fighting these since 1972 when I read exactly how their made "palatable" after an incredibly damaging and grueling process - not fit for human consumption, really!
      Later I learned the importance of fatty acids in every cell membrane of our body Every one, and the structural problems with the artificial trans fats and the effects on metabolic processes including our bodies own natural anti-inflammatory processes which it can basically flip on it's head to make pro-inflammatories as well.
      Inflammation is now most commonly associated with auto-immune diseases and cancers.

      Trans fats probably contribute to nearly any disease we experience because they're so insidiously and globally introduced at the cellular-structural and process levels.

      Frankenfood at it's worst!
    • Otto Pilot
      Otto Pilot  •  Spring Branch, Texas  •  3 mths ago
      Simple. I can't afford food.
    • JJMurray
      JJMurray  •  3 mths ago
      "The study did not include other ethnic groups..."
      The only "group" mentioned in the article was "adults". So is adulthood now an ethnicity?
    • killer
      killer  •  3 mths ago
      People should be more concerned about the food additives than the trans-fats. The tricky labels often lead people into believing that they are tasting something genuine even though it may be entirely artificial/chemical.
      • Rob
        Rob 3 mths ago
        No, they need to be concerned with both...
        Artificial trans fats are, if you really care to understand what they are and do, the worst fat by far that we can eat.
        We shouldn't even be eating the allowed up to 0.5 grams per serving (called "0-Grams"). Many people are eating that multiplied many times over and more because some foods contain grams per serving.
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