A couple of different studies over the past few months have reached the same conclusion: cholesterol levels have been coming down for the first time in 20 years.
The first study , done in the US by the Center for Disease Control, looked specifically at cholesterol in children and found that, over the past decade, the average LDL (“bad”) cholesterol has decreased and the average HDL (“good”) cholesterol has increased. This is despite the ever-increasing rate of obesity in children.
Another study completed recently looked at cholesterol rates in adults, and also has seen a drop for the first time since the 1980s. This, too, has been despite increasing obesity rates and correcting for the increased usage of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs in the adult population.
So what could be causing these improvements? Both studies reached the same results: trans fat intake has been going down. It all began in 2003 with a “ Ban Trans Fat ” campaign through whose efforts at litigation and via other mechanisms, have successfully lobbied to:
The word is out about the dangers of trans fats, and I’m pleased to see, in my own practice at least, that most people I encounter do look for these on the labels of food they purchase.
You might be wondering where we are at in Canada. Calgary is currently the only city to have a complete ban on trans fats in restaurants and fast food places. In June 2006, the Canadian government’s Trans Fats Task Force put forth the recommendations that to limit trans fat intake:
In June 2007, Health Canada adopted the recommendations of the task force and was going to give the food industry 2 years to voluntarily comply with them, and if that did not occur, regulations would be put in place. (So that would take us to 2009, right?)
The recommendations and process are all documented on their website, if you’re interested.
Here we are nearing the end of 2012 and it turns out that Health Canada (ie. the Canadian government) has decided not to pursue the recommendations of it’s own task force and has let the entire issue drop. “(Federal Minister of Health) Aglukkaq made the decision even though senior officials had briefed her on a cost-benefit analysis commissioned by Health Canada showing a “significant net benefit to Canadian society” of up to $9 billion over 20 years if trans-fat caps were imposed.”
Sigh. This is an echo of their treatment of the Sodium Working Group whose recommendations to decrease salt intake in Canada were also ignored.
You should commend me for resisting the urge to get any more political at this point.
So the take-home message: read your labels, and be careful of what you eat when you’re out. Restaurant food can be loaded with trans fats, so unless you know that you’re purchasing at a place that is using trans-fat free oils, you might just want to pass on the fries and go get them from McDonalds!
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