Monday, November 06, 2006

KFC Drops Trans Fat!

According to Los Angeles Times, US fast-food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) has announced that it would use a new soyabean oil to deep-fry most of its menu items without trans fat. The change is a watershed for the push to get partially hydrogenated oil - which contains trans fat - out of food.

New York Times also reported that If the Board of Health votes in favour of the ban next month, New York restaurants will have 18 months to stop using artificial trans fats. Such fats were once recommended as a substitute for animal fats, but researchers now believe they are a leading cause of heart disease.

Prof Dariush Mozaffarian, from the Harvard School of Public Health, described artificial trans fats as 'the most dangerous ingredient in our diet', contributing to abdominal weight gain, increasing levels of 'bad' cholesterol and worsening insulin resistance. He also claimed that consumption of artificial trans fats might account for anywhere between 6 and 22 per cent of heart attacks in the US.

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