The banning process started on September 15, 2017, when the Minister of Health of Canada, Ginette Petitpas Taylor, made this announcement. She elaborated more about how Health Canada put the final measure into place in order to ban trans fats or partially hydrogenated oils used in Canadian foods. It should be noted that the ban covers not only foods produced within Canada but also foods that are imported from countries abroad. The banning process will also affect food products that are cooked in restaurants and other food preparatory places.
As CBC news reports, partially hydrogenated oils or trans fats lead to high levels of LDL (bad cholesterol) and low levels of good cholesterol in foods that can put our heart health under threat. Researchers state that this ban will result in the reduction in numbers of people who face heart attacks annually.
Interview with Dr. Mary L’Abbé on the Trans Fat Ban
Dr. Mary L’Abbé specializes in public health nutrition, nutrition policy, and regulation of food and nutrition. She is the Chair of the Trans Fat Task Force of Canada and the Trans Fat Monitoring Program. In the following interview, Dr. Mary L’Abbé shares her viewpoint on the banning of trans fat in Canada and explains what measures Canada has taken regarding this decision.
Interviewer: Dr. L’Abbé, we are glad to have you with us. Let us start with a very basic question. How crucial is this complete banning of trans fat to the Canadians?
Dr. Mary L’Abbé: It is an enormous achievement for public health in Canada. We have been working toward this goal for more than a decade now. With the banning of PHOs, the major cause of artificial trans fat will be totally wiped out from our food system. It is estimated that this one step alone will prevent hundreds of heart attacks and save many lives in the coming decades.
Interviewer: Can you tell us how you arrived at this decision? As far as Canada is concerned, haven’t you taken a phased approach in this regard?
Dr. Mary L’Abbé: Indeed, we have gone through a lengthy process in this regard. In the early 1990s and 2000s, studies found that Canadians consumed one of the highest amounts of trans fats among all nations—averaging 3.7% of total energy intake. I co-chair the Trans Fat Task Force, which was created in 2004. We recommended the mandatory use of trans fat restrictions at that time. The government, however, decided on adopting the voluntary strategy, requiring the food industry to voluntarily reduce the amount of PHO in their products. Fortunately, large companies responded positively and were successful in reformulating their products, but our Trans Fat Monitoring program found that trans fats decreased substantially. Nevertheless, voluntary measures were not effective for regulating the whole market because trans fats could still be found in cheap baked goods, some restaurant foods, and imported products.
Interviewer: For people who may be unaware of their composition, could you explain what partially hydrogenated oils are and why they’re so harmful?
Dr. Mary L’Abbé: These fats are synthesized in the lab through the addition of hydrogen into vegetable oils, which renders them solid at room temperature. They were great from an industrial standpoint since they were extremely inexpensive, increased the shelf life of food products, and made baked goods flaky. However, they’re terrible for your body. Unlike any other kind of fat, trans fats have an impact on heart health that is quite literally “two-pronged,” raising your bad cholesterol, or LDL, while reducing your good cholesterol, or HDL.
Interviewer: Would consumers be able to taste or see a difference in the food they buy in terms of how it tastes or costs?
Dr. Mary L’Abbé: Almost no consumer will notice a difference in taste or price due to ten-plus years of adaptation following our first Task Force recommendations. As a result, most companies have already reformulated their products to meet our guidelines.
One of our best findings from watching the food supply is the fact that when manufacturers eliminated PHOs, they were often substituting other healthy cis-unsaturated fats, not simply switching them out for saturated fats. Thus, the food has actually become better for your heart health, while still tasting as good as ever.
Interviewer: Since the trans fats debate has been solved, how does public health nutrition move forward from here on in Canada?
Dr. Mary L’Abbé: There is more work to be done. Our biggest priority right now involves dealing with the problem of too much sodium and sugars being added to our food products. We are also pushing hard for better labeling of packaged goods on the front of the packaging so that people can look at something and instantly tell whether it has too much sugar, sodium, or saturated fats in it. We need to keep moving forward because we’ve achieved a huge win here.