BMJ 2006;332:931 (22 April), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7547.931-b
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Banning trans fatty acids will reduce risk of heart attacks, study says
Quebec David Spurgeon
Virtually eliminating the amount of trans fatty acids in industrially produced food could avert between 72 000 (6% of the total) and 228 000 (19%) coronary heart events each year in the United States, a new US and Dutch review study concludes (N Engl J Med 354;1601-13).
The amount of trans fats in packaged snack foods, bakery products, deep fried fast food, margarine, and packaged snacks such as tortilla chips increases consumers’ risk of cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and sudden death from cardiac causes, say the researchers, from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
“The evidence and the magnitude of adverse health effects of trans fatty acids are in fact far stronger on average than those of food contaminants or pesticide residues, which have in some cases received considerable attention,”
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