It is forbidden to add trans fatty acids into food│Why is it so strictly prohibited?

For a long time, people have believed that artificial fats come from vegetable oils and do not cause obesity like animal fats, and eating more is harmless. However, research in recent years has gradually allowed people to see its true face: "safe fat" can actually cause diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. Trans fatty acids affect us in two ways: by disrupting the food we eat, and by changing the normal metabolic pathways of our bodies. Safflower oil, corn oil, and cottonseed oil containing polyunsaturated fats can reduce cholesterol levels, but when hydrogenated into trans fatty acids, the effect is exactly the opposite. Although they are not as harmful as saturated fats, they increase blood cholesterol levels. . The most influential cholesterol is LDL (low-density lipid), or bad cholesterol, which increases the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). HDL is a type of good cholesterol that reduces the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). Trans fatty acids can increase LDL (low-density lipids) and reduce HDL (high-density lipids), thus increasing the risk of coronary heart disease. In addition, trans fatty acids are also associated with the development of breast cancer. As early as 10 years ago, eight European countries jointly conducted a number of studies on the hazards of artificial fat. Professor Andre Feige, head of the German Nutritional Medicine Association, told reporters that the research results show that artificial fats bear a great responsibility for the occurrence and development of cardiovascular diseases. The probability of it causing cardiovascular diseases is 3-3 times that of saturated fatty acids. 5 times, and even damage people's cognitive functions. In addition, artificial fat can also induce tumors (breast cancer, etc.), asthma, type 2 diabetes, allergies and other diseases, and can also have adverse effects on fetal weight and adolescent development. Seeing that the reporter's "reaction" was not strong enough, Professor Feige simply made this analogy: If you have to choose between a thick steak that looks "fat and meaty" and a plate of French fries made with artificial fat, Then choosing the former is more beneficial to health. Trans fatty acids are a nutritional issue, not a food safety issue. Recently, the term "trans fatty acids" has attracted a lot of attention. Studies have shown that the unsaturated fatty acids produced during the hydrogenation of liquid vegetable oils will greatly increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, promote diabetes and Alzheimer's disease, lead to fertility difficulties, and affect the growth and development of children. Why do most countries not strictly ban foods containing trans fatty acids? This is because trans fatty acids are a classic nutritional issue, not a food safety issue. More than 100 years ago, "fat hydrogenation technology" appeared in the West to turn liquid vegetable oil into solid fat. Because this technology facilitates the transportation and storage of vegetable oils and can be used to make a variety of food ingredients with attractive tastes, the European and American oil and fat industries quickly adopted this technology and vigorously promoted it in the market. During World War II, the supply of butter was limited, and margarine made from hydrogenated vegetable oil became popular among European and American housewives. After the war, sales of hydrogenated vegetable oil continued to rise. On the one hand, this is because hydrogenated vegetable oil is cheap, and the food it makes tastes good and has a long shelf life, which is more cost-effective than using butter and refined butter. On the other hand, it is because people at that time hated cholesterol and believed that vegetable butter and vegetable shortening did not contain cholesterol. Cholesterol is better for health. However, some scientists have gradually questioned the large amounts of trans fatty acids produced during the hydrogenation of oils. They found that the history of large amounts of trans fatty acids entering human food coincides with the increase in the incidence of heart disease in European and American countries. Studies in the 1980s found that the content of trans fatty acids in the body fat of patients with heart disease was significantly higher than that of healthy people. A 1990 Dutch study proved that trans fatty acids can increase the content of "bad cholesterol" or low-density lipoprotein in human blood and reduce the content of "good cholesterol" or high-density lipoprotein, thereby significantly increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease. This has attracted great attention from the global scientific community. Since then, studies have further confirmed that trans fatty acids can cause many other diseases. After recognizing the dangers of trans fatty acids, the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations recommended in "Dietary Nutrition and Chronic Diseases" (2003 Edition) that "in order to improve cardiovascular health, trans fatty acids in the diet should be controlled as much as possible and the intake should be maximized. The amount does not exceed 1% of the total energy." Governments around the world are taking active steps to control trans fatty acids in food. In 2003, Denmark issued government regulations that from June 1, 2007, any oil with a trans fatty acid content of more than 2% cannot be used in food processing. The United States, Canada and South Korea require the content of trans fatty acids to be stated on food labels, and Canada has also introduced limits for trans fatty acids in food. Japan and most countries in Europe remind consumers to reduce their intake of trans fatty acids. It can be seen that there are currently two management ideas for trans fatty acids in the world: one is to strictly control the production of hydrogenated oil through source management and control the content of unhealthy ingredients in oil, thereby reducing its potential harm to national health. ; The other is to require the content of trans fatty acids to be marked on food packaging so that consumers have the right to know. In fact, there are many unhealthy ingredients in food. Even without trans fatty acids, too much fat, sugar, salt and some additives are not good for health. Many consumers choose these highly processed foods with low nutritional value because they are greedy for taste.

Requiring food packaging to clearly indicate the content of various raw materials, especially the content of ingredients that are not good for health, can remind consumers of the harm that eating this food may cause to their health and ensure that they can make rational consumption choices on an informed basis. . For any food that is not good for health, no matter how it tastes, the public should consciously buy less and eat less, so as to prevent "nutritional disaster".

Policies of various countries and sectors

Europe and the United States

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires food to clearly list trans fat ingredients on food packages. As more and more studies indicate that trans fat is harmful to health, some food manufacturers such as Kraft and KFC have been involved in lawsuits involving the use of trans fat. In recent years, restaurants, supermarkets, and governments in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom have begun to regulate food production and Stop using trans fats in processing. Please see the English version for details. In 2003, Denmark was the first to legislate to ban the sale of food ingredients containing more than 2% trans fat. Natural trans fats are not affected by the legislation. On October 30, 2006, New York City held a hearing on this issue, and the city's health committee finally decided that starting from July 1, 2008, the amount of artificial trans fat used in each portion of food in the city's restaurants must not exceed 0.5g. In January 2008, the city of Calgary, Canada, decided that the trans fat content in fats and oils used in restaurants and fast food restaurants should not exceed 2%. In April 2008, Switzerland followed Denmark’s legislation in restricting the sale of trans fat foods. In July 2008, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill banning the use of trans fats in restaurants in the state. The bill will officially take effect in 2010. United States In 2005, a U.S. non-profit organization that promotes the ban on trans fats sued Kraft Foods, demanding that the company stop using trans fats in Oreo cookies. Kraft dropped its complaint after the group agreed to seek materials to replace trans fats. In 2006, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based nonprofit, sued KFC for using trans fats in the preparation of its food. KFC announced in 2006 that it would replace trans fats used in its U.S. restaurant chain with soybean oil by April 2007; its Canadian restaurant chain also announced similar measures. In January 2007, McDonald's announced that the restaurant chain's American fries were experimenting with using non-trans fats for frying. If the results are good, they will be promoted to the entire United States. In the face of a complaint from the Center for Science in the Public Interest in May 2007, Burger King announced that it would switch to non-trans fats in all U.S. stores starting from the end of 2008.

Asia

A few Japanese, Hong Kong, and Taiwanese media and websites have mentioned the impact of trans fats on health. However, generally speaking, the Asian region has not paid much attention to the legislation banning trans fats. There are still a lot of processed foods on the market that contain trans fat. The Department of Health of Taiwan's Executive Yuan stipulates that from January 1, 2008, nutrition labels on commercially available packaged foods should indicate saturated fat and trans fat under the fat category. At China’s Two Sessions in 2008, members of the Hangzhou CPPCC submitted a proposal to “restrict the sale of carbonated drinks and high-calorie and high-fat snacks in primary and secondary schools.” The proposal calls for restrictions on the sale of snacks and drinks rich in trans fats. "A nutritionist from Harvard University pointed out: "We conservatively estimate that if Americans replace 'partially hydrogenated vegetable oil' with natural, non-hydrogenated vegetable oil, 30,000 deaths from premature coronary heart disease can be avoided every year. There is even evidence that this The number reaches nearly 100,000 per year. "That is, about 82 to 274 premature deaths can be avoided every day." - Hong Kong Ming Pao Information Room, June 15, 2006 "Some restaurants boast that they only use "pure vegetable oil", but they cannot tell you what they use Oils can contain up to 40% trans fat, but peeking into the kitchen you can see that these oils are being delivered in a semi-solid state, which is when the oil has been hydrogenated. A hint of high pressure forcing hydrogen into the oil (unless that barrel of white fat is lard, which is another story). To make matters worse, small amounts of trans fat are also formed when we fry food at high temperatures. You may already be making your own trans fats at home.

——"Lactobacilli, are you still alive? 84 scientific mysteries related to food", Robert Walker