Better Butter: Trans fat limits becoming more popular in fight against disease

Trans fatty acids – or trans fats – are one of the best-researched but least-regulated health risks. We know they raise the risk of heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and cancer. One recent studied tied high trans fat consumption to a higher risk of death from any cause.

And yet, unlike substances such as lead and arsenic, which have been largely removed from the food supply through national and local laws, trans fats remain a staple in the food supply. That’s starting to change. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration declared in 2013 that one of the chief sources of trans fats – partially hydrogenated oils – is not “generally recognized as safe.” That was the first step toward potentially limiting or banning their use, but very little has happened since then.

In Europe, however, trans fats have been disappearing since the early 2000s. And so, over a few posts, I’m going to explain what has been happening there and why.

Let’s start with Denmark, where you can lounge in a chair designed by a genius and snack on cheese made from very happy cows.

The country set a limit that went into effect in January 2004 that no more than 2 percent of the fat content in a food product could be industrially produced trans fatty acids. About a decade into this policy experiment, Dr. Soren Langkilde from the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Fisheries of Denmark testified for a European Parliament committee in 2013 that the government’s hope had been to save between 400 and 500 lives every year in a country of 5 million people. They went into the law with some key assumptions, including:

Well-established link between trans fatty acids and cardiovascular disease and no safe upper level.

No benefits for the consumers. However, removal would be a substantial health gain for the population.

Easy to remove and replace for the industry – when given proper time to adapt.

These are important themes that will come up in future posts. The food industry usually raises two main concerns when food or additive limits are suggested. Food prices will go up, they say. And certain foods will disappear from the market.

In Denmark’s case, neither happened.

Langkilde said that “the ban had not caused a significant rise in the price of the food products involved, nor had it impacted their availability.”

What did happen? Gradually, the amount of trans fats in foods declined. The government conducted a survey before and after the law took effect and found that there was a huge drop right after the new limits and a slower decline since.

In a 2002-2003 survey, they found that 26 percent of the foods assessed – including fast food, desserts, frying oils, and shortenings – contained industrially produced trans fats at levels higher than 2 percent of all fat content. After the law, that number was more than halved to 11 percent. And by a survey in 2012-2013, the number had fallen to 6 percent, which Langkilde said exclusively consisted of imported foods.

To get even more specific, when the government assessed the food at a McDonald’s in Demark before the law, it found the fat content of the food contained 8 percent trans fatty acids. After the new limits were imposed, there were no trans fatty acids in McDonald’s food there.

More importantly, the country saw a reduction in cardiovascular deaths. The age-standardized death rate for cardiovascular disease fell from 379 deaths per 100,000 people in 2000 to 211 deaths per 100,000 in 2012.

It should be noted that Denmark also tried to tax foods high in trans fats in 2011 and then repealed the tax a year later under pressure from the business community.

Obviously there are many factors at play in death rate trends, and a more detailed analysis would be required to link the reduction more closely to the trans fat limits. But the evidence is strong enough for other European governments to be taking note and putting their own guidelines in place. I’ll write more on these efforts in later posts.