Trans Fats in The Atlantic

One of my favorite magazines, The Atlantic, has an article on trans fats in the March 2007 issue called Fat City* by Corby Kummer.

…starting in the 1970s, a time of general fat panic related to heart disease, trans fats began to look as bad for cholesterol levels as the dreaded saturated fats, and in the 1990s the picture got worse. Trans fats, long-term studies reported, not only raise “bad” cholesterol (LDL); they also lower “good” cholesterol (HDL)—which not even saturated fats do. They look about as bad for the arteries as a fat can be. A 2002 consensus report from the National Academies of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine called the relationship between trans-fat consumption and coronary heart disease “linear” and stated that the only acceptable level of trans fats in the diet was zero.

*The article is by subscription only but if you want to read it, send me your email address and I can send you a link that’s good for a few days.

Photo: Ofamily

Tags: donuts, doughnuts, trans fats, trans-fatty acids, heart, heart disease, illness, health, diseases, cardiovascular disease, cholesterol, ldl, hdl