When Trans Fats Were Healthy
11th November 2013
On Thursday the FDA proposed changing its classification of trans fats to no longer “generally recognized as safe,” which means food companies would have to prove that the partially hydrogenated oils are harmless before using them. This new, higher bar could mean that trans fats will disappear from our diets altogether, since the most recent research shows that they contribute to plaque buildup in the arteries and heart attacks.
But surprisingly, science has only been against trans fats for the past few decades. Through the late 1980s, animal fat substitutes like Crisco and margarine were all the rage, and for a brief moment were even considered a health product. Here’s the story of how America fell in love with, and then quickly slid away from, hydrogenated oils.
Trying to keep up with the fads in ‘food science’ can be a full-time job.
In the 1980s, some scientists began to associate heart disease with saturated fats, and in response, groups such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the National Heart Savers Association (NHSA) began to hound manufacturers for “poisoning America … by using saturated fats,” and as a result “nearly all targeted firms responded by replacing saturated fats with trans fats,” as David Schleifer wrote in 2012 for the journal Technology and Culture.
At the time, many restaurants used beef fat for frying, which groups like CSPI believed was far worse than hydrogenated oils, based on the research of the time.
Which wouldn’t matter, except that the government sticks it’s fingers in and starts mandating stuff. ‘The science is in! There’s a consensus!’ Until it changes, and the previous ‘fact’ goes down the Memory Hole.
Surprisingly, it was the same organization, CSPI, that later urged the FDA to add trans fats to food labels, and nutrition panels have been required to list the substance since 2006. Though American consumption of trans fat has declined precipitously in recent years, it’s still common in food such as microwave popcorn, margarine, and some coffee creamers. But probably not for much longer.