No Trans Fats In New York City

No Trans Fats In New York City in General Healthcare

Starting July 1, 2008, no food vendors — including restaurants, bakeries, delis, and food chains — inside New York’s city limits will be allowed to cook with trans fats.

It’s the final phase of the trans fat ban in New York City, and when in effect, violators will face up to $2,000 in fines, reported The New York Times.

(There is an exception, though: Partially hydrogenated oils, which contain small amounts of trans fats, can be used in when there’s less than half a gram per serving.)

For the most part, the transition away from trans fats for New York restaurateurs and bakers has been pretty easy.

But still, there are some who argue foods don’t taste up to par without trans fatty ingredients.

To combat this problem, New York City health officials created a “Trans Fat Help Center” to assist chefs and food makers to make the switch away from trans fats, wrote the NY Times article.

The Help Center provides information on how to re-create recipes for foods such as chocolate chip cookies and pie crusts using real butter rather than trans fat oils and shortenings.

It’s good news trans fats are on the outs, but a big controversy is whether replacing trans fatty oils with butter is really any better.

Trans fats are artificially made, raise your bad cholesterol, and lower your good cholesterol — but butter has high amounts of saturated fat. So it’s important to also avoid saturated fats.

“It’s not a matter of which is better or which is worse. The American Heart Association is concerned with both types of fats,” said former AHA president, Dr. Robert H. Eckel.

And we all should be concerned, too.

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