Say Goodbye To Deadly, Disgusting Trans Fats

Via Atrios, who rightly points out that margarine was heavily marketed as the "healthy" alternative to butter.  I remember those days well. And while the dangers have been obvious for years, the FDA has dragged its feet.  Kudos to Bloomberg for moving faster on trans fats than the Feds.  And kudos to whomever at FDA decided to finally do the right thing.

Shared from the Digg iPhone app:

The move concluded three decades of battles by public health advocates against artificial trans fats, which occur when liquid oil is treated with hydrogen gas and made solid. The long-lasting fats became popular in frying and baking and in household items like margarine, and were cheaper than animal fat, like butter. But over the years, scientific evidence has shown they are worse than any other fat for health because they raise the levels of so-called bad cholesterol and can lower the levels of good cholesterol. In 2006, an F.D.A. rule went into effect requiring that artificial trans fats be listed on food labels, a shift that prompted many large producers to eliminate them. A year earlier, New York City told restaurants to stop using artificial trans fats in cooking. Many major chains like McDonalds, found substitutes, and eliminated trans fats.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/08/health/fda-trans-fats.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1383836737-gsH0cr1jwRI940/v5cJpwQ

Typos courtesy of my iPhone