WHO wants to ban trans fats by 2023
The World Health Organization wants to eliminate artificial trans fats from foods. To this end, it has prepared guidelines for all countries to encourage governments to introduce appropriate restrictions step by step. The organization wants to see these compounds banned within five years.
The World Health Organization (WHO) launched a REPLACE campaign earlier this week. She thus called on governments around the world to eliminate artificial fatoin from food. According to the institution, trans fats are responsible for about pol million deathsoin each year, so the organization has prepared a 6-point plan to abandon these productsow. It is expected to be completed by 2023.
Most countriesoin Western Europe has already taken steps to reduce industrially produced fatoin trans in food. Denmark has a total ban on them. In the UK, pressure on processed food companies has resulted in a significant reduction in their use. Yet these fats are present in these markets in products imported from other countriesow.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that eliminating fatow trans will represent a victory in the global fight against cardiovascular disease. – This type of disease is the most common cause of death – emphasized.
Trans fats occur m.in. In hard margarines, confectionery fats, chips, fast food products, powdered soups or snacks. They also occur naturally in someoThe number of trans fats in the body has increased in many food products, such as dairy products and beef, but the amount of trans fats in these products is still highow is very small. Headoprocessed food is a major problem.
– Trans fats are an unnecessary toxic chemical thatora is killing us, and there is no reason why people around the world should continue to be exposed to it – said Dr. Tom Frieden, former head of the Center for Disease Control and Preventionob (CDC).
Artificial trans fats were developed in the early 20th century, when food manufacturers realized they could replace butter with partially hydrogenated vegetable fats, ktore have a long shelf life. For a while they were even advertised as a better alternative to fatoin saturated.
Trans fats increase levels of bad LDL cholesterol and lower levels of good HDL cholesterol. They increase the risk of developing chorob cardiovascular, strokeow and type 2 diabetes. A diet rich in these fats increases the risk of death by as much as 28 percent.
First reports of harmful productsow with trans isomers appeared in the 1950s. It was noted then during autopsies that these fats are deposited in the body in. In the 1970s. i 80. many health researchers began to realize that these fats could increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. There have been times when research indicating this phenomenon has been suppressed by the food industry. In the 1990s. It was already clear that they are harmful. This has been confirmed by several large and significant studies.
Denmark was the first to react. In 2003, a law was introduced there restricting the use of fatow trans in foodstuffs. Since then, mortality rates from diseasesob of the cardiovascular system has steadily declined. The statistics were so good that Denmark was followed by other European countries.
Attitudes are also slowly changing in Poland. In recent weeks, the Food and Nutrition Institute has opened an online database of harmful isomersoin trans fats, whichore included in many productsoin food. This is the first such free and publicly available database in Poland.
The database primarily serves informational and educational functions. It allows users to check the fat contentoin trans in someolnych food products, because food manufacturers in our country are still not required to state on their product packaging theoin the amount of isomeroin trans. The baseline can be found on the pages of the IOH.
However, trans fats are still widely sold in countries throughout Asia and Africa, where there is a lack of a banoin the law, and pressure from manufactureroin foods keeps partially hydrogenated oils in circulation.
WHO does not have the prerogative to ban anything in any country. However, representatives of the organization hope that the guidelines they have prepared will encourage governments to introduce such bansow.