"trans fatty acids" news and stories

New York City has already done it, and other cities are thinking about them too. Now Boston is the latest city to consider banning the dreaded trans fats.

It's nothing that's going to happen overnight, since they are just beginning to think about it after meeting with New York City health officials about the issue. They could make a decision as soon as this February, but even if they do that the ban would not go into effect until 2008.

We're not stupid. Sometimes we pretend or choose to ignore the fat in foods from McDonald's and KFC, but we know those evil trans fats are in there.

However, what you might not have known is that the trans fat content in French fries and fried chicken from McDonald's and KFC is higher in the US than in their counterparts in other countries. Researchers studied the trans fat content of foods at locations around the world and were surpised by how much variation there was for restaurants that are supposed to be standard from location to location. There were even differences among restaurants in the same city.

The differences come from the type of frying oil that is being used - partially hydrogenated vegetable oil is high in trans fast (and is also cheaper). At a New York City McDonald's, a large fries-and-chicken-nuggets combo had 10.2 g of trans fat, Spain, Russia and the Czech Republic had a mere 3 g, and Denmark nuggets and fries came in the lowest at 0.33 g of trans fat.