Goodbye to trans fats

Before sitting down tonight to enjoy a movie with a bag of popcorn drenched with melted margarine, consider that this edible feast is made possible by the existence of something called trans fats.

Delicious, perhaps, but these fats, which are nothing more than the addition of partially hydrogenated oils to foods, are extremely unhealthy.

To put it simply, they increase the bad cholesterol and reduce the good.

“There really is no safe level of consumption of trans fat,” according to one of the commissioners of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which announced plans this week to eliminate the ingredient from foods sold across the country.

The presence of trans fats poses a serious health threat in the United States, where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that some 5,000 people die each year from heart diseases directly related to the consumption of trans fats.

This as well as the consequent obesity and other diseases such as diabetes also pose a threat to the economy given the high cost of health care and the loss of time at work. We must remember too that obesity is a problem of epidemic proportions in the Latino community.

The good news is that trans fats are already disappearing from our favorite foods. Many companies began to remove trans fats over a decade ago when their harmful effects became known and cities such as New York and San Francisco prohibited their use in restaurants.

This next step, announced by the FDA, is welcome but we shouldn’t wait for the government to do what we already know is right: Choose healthier options.

Instead of popcorn with melted margarine tonight, apples for everyone!