Trans Fat petition - Governement response

ash

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And here it is:-


<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">15 January 2008

We received a petition asking:

"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to place an upper limit on trans fats both in food and in oils and fats used in the preparation of food."

Details of Petition:

"Trans fats are stealth killers lurking in our food, causing the early death and debility of many thousands of people a year in the UK. They are mainly found in (partially) hydrogenated vegetable oil, common ingredients in thousands of food products. Research in the US has found that thousands of people are dying prematurely of coronary heart disease and this is likely to be the case in the UK too. And that's without looking at the role of trans fats in causing Alzheimer's disease, type 2 diabetes, omega-3 essential fatty acid deficiency and other disabling and life-threatening conditions. This petition calls on the Government to place an upper limit on trans fats both in food, and in oils and fats used in the preparation of food, as has already taken place in Denmark and about to be implemented in New York restaurants."

* Read the petition
* Petitions home page

Read the Government's response

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) reviewed the evidence of the health effects of trans fats in December last year, and its Board recommended to UK Health Ministers that voluntary measures to reduce trans fats in food had resulted in such low consumer intakes that mandatory restrictions are not necessary. The Board took into account the relative situations in the United States and the introduction of mandatory restrictions in Denmark when reaching its decision.

Voluntary action by the UK food industry has already delivered consumer benefits equivalent to the most restrictive legislation. As a consequence, average dietary intakes in the UK have come down to just one per cent of food energy - half of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition's (SACN) recommended maximum intake. SACN recommends that the average trans fat intake should not exceed two per cent of food energy.

In contrast, saturated fat poses a far greater health risk for the UK population than trans fat because the amount people eat is well above the recommended level of 11 per cent - at around 13.3 per cent. Saturated fat is a major contributor to heart disease, which is the leading cause of premature death in this country.

The FSA made its recommendation to Alan Johnson on 19 December 2007 and the Department of Health will make the final decision as to whether legislation is required in due course.

The FSA's recommendations can be found on its website. <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">


http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/Page14268.asp
 

Dennis

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11% is interesting - typical misleading information from government! 11% of what?

If it is 11% of fat intake then what is the target level for fat in terms of grams. Hey everyone I am really healthy because I consume 2 kilos of fat every day, but only only 200grams of that is saturated.

Surely it can't be 11% of total daily food intake?
 

Tormod

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Really drives me nuts [:(!]

We have packets of nuts with labelling that states "may contain nuts", or cups of coffee at McDs that warn against the obvious hot contents - and we can't even get a proposal to enforce labelling of trans fats - at least I could make an informed choice

Not been around much recently - looks like most folk are doing well, and the forum even better than before
 

Buachaille

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Had to visit an ASDA store today. Picked up a frozen pack of part baked Garlic Baguettes. Just noticed the label "no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives and no hydrogenated fat"
 

ash

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<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Buachaille</i>
<br />Had to visit an ASDA store today. Picked up a frozen pack of part baked Garlic Baguettes. Just noticed the label "no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives and no hydrogenated fat"
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Much of the Tesco finest range as well as M&S comes with this label

HBa1C 6.3 T2
 

Dennis

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I believe that M&S and Waitrose were the first stores to promise to stop using trans fats, but only in their own produce. Of course M&S only sell their own produce. They were followed (eventually) by Tesco and Sainsburys (not sure about ASDA and Morrisons), but the problem is that they all (except M&S) sell products other than their own brands, and they have no control over what the other brand makers are using.

If you pick up a cake, loaf of bread or any other pre-prepared food that isn't own-brand, it usually makes no mention of whether it is made using trans or cis oil.

The only solution seems to be shop only at M&S (if you can afford it) or refuse to buy anything except own brand goods in the other supermarkets.
 

Dennis

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Looking again at the Govt response to the TFX petition, I just realised they are telling us complete porkies. The research done by the Danish government in reaching their decision to ban trans fats shows that 1g of trans fat has the same effect on heart disease as 6g of saturated fat. So their statement that saturated fat poses a far greater risk than trans fat is just an out and out lie.

But then do we really expect to hear anything other than lies from politicians!
 

johnoswaldallan

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The worst days work I ever did was to listen to dieticians and other “healthcare professionals” Many years ago I was told that the new thinking was that as long as I stuck with the “good” carbohydrates (long acting) I could eat what I wanted. It was also suggested that I should drastically limit my fat intake, especially animal fat and substitute butter for a low fat spread (which turns out can be quite harmful because many of them use hydrogenated oil) avoid eating eggs and dairy produce be careful of eating meat with any sign of fat and of course to limit my salt intake. In other words most of the good wholesome foods that many of us where brought up on were now off the menu. It took me a long time to realise that carbohydrate was my worst enemy.

The diet that I am on now will no doubt make the low fat merchants cringe. I have good helpings of meat and eat all the fat; I don’t cut the skin off chicken. I eat loads of eggs and use dairy produce. I eat plenty of vegetables but avoid those with carbohydrate content and do you know what for the first time that I can remember I don’t feel constantly hungry. My blood sugars are now practically normal (5-6 mmol/l) although I do have to watch the odd hypo and believe it or not I have lost a couple of pounds in weight. I have considerably reduced my insulin. I now intend to cut out yet more carbohydrates from my diet and continue to reduce my insulin. As far as the hypos are concerned I now realise I don’t need to increase my intake of carbohydrate. I need to reduce my insulin. I am now 67 years old and for the first time in many years I am at long last learning to control my diabetes. I eat good natural foods and avoid all low fat products like the plague
Regards

John



JOA