WHO’s latest report is urging action by governments,
the food industry and the public to remove trans fats
from our food chain.
What kind of foods contain trans fat?
What does trans fat do to our body and how can we eliminate them?
Hello and welcome to Science in 5.
I'm Vismita Gupta-Smith
We are talking to Dr Francesco Branca, today.
Welcome Francesco.
Francesco, let's start with what kind of foods contain trans fats?
There are two kinds of trans fats,
natural trans fats and industrial trans fats.
The natural trans fats are contained in dairy products
or in the meat of ruminant animals such as cows.
Both trans fats are bad for our health.
The industrial trans fats are the largest proportion.
The value of this product for the manufacturers is the fact
that they have a longer shelf life and they're also cheaper.
Partially hydrogenated oils are used in products such as
margarine, vanaspati ghee and they're used in
baked products such as donuts or fried food or
baked food that you often find in street food.
Francesco, describe to us what trans fats do to our body
when we consume them.
So when trans fats enter our body, they're taken up by
certain compounds that transport fats in the blood flow.
And the more the trans fat, the higher the amount of bad cholesterol
that is produced and the lower the amount of the good cholesterol.
So you have more of this bad cholesterol,
which then means higher amount of hardening of the cell walls
and inflammation of the cell walls.
And this leads to a higher risk of clogging of the arteries and
therefore a higher risk of heart disease and stroke.
Consumption of trans fats at the current level
is estimated to increase that by 21% that is by one-in-five
the risk of getting heart disease. And by even more one-in-four times
the risk of dying from heart disease.
And so we calculate that with the current level of
consumption of trans fat, something in between
3 and 500,000 people every year die as a result of the consumption
of this toxic compound.
And if we remove this compound from the food system,
we will be able to save millions of lives.
Francesco, how can we remove trans fats from our food chain?
And has any country done it?
So let me start by saying that trans fats are bad for your health.
So removing them will give you health benefits and
you would not even realize that trans fat is being removed because
there's no change in taste, no change in the cost of food.
It's possible to remove trans fat and replace it with other ingredients,
vegetable oils such as canola oils or other
vegetable oils and manufacturers know how to do that.
It's important that countries nudge manufacturers through adequate regulations.
WHO has identified the most effective regulations
which imply limiting the amount of trans fat
below a certain very minimum level that comes
usually from all natural sources.
Or banning the sales and production of
industrial trans fats.
Now we have 43 countries who have passed legislation
in the last years, and this number has grown very quickly in the last
few years as a result of public health campaigns.
Largely, these countries are from the global north - high income countries.
But since last year, we've had countries such as India and Bangladesh
who have passed regulations in line with the WHO good practices.
And we have good expectation that other countries such as Nigeria
this year will also pass legislation.
At the moment we have 3 billion people in the world who are covered
by the risk of exposure to trans fat because
they live in countries where legislation is strong.
But we need to cover the rest of the world, and we really
count on the collaboration of all actors, government actors,
but also manufacturers of food, oil manufacturers
to all work towards what could be an impressive public health achievement
and in fact, the elimination of the first risk factor
for non-communicable diseases such as heart disease.
Thank you, Francesco.
That was Science in 5 today.
Until next time then,
stay safe, stay healthy
and stick with science.