New York City fast food chains cut trans fat under regulations

July 16, 2012|By Genevra Pittman | Reuters
(Paul J. Richards, AFP/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Fast-food patrons in New York City are eating far less unhealthy fat since restrictions on its use by restaurants were imposed four years ago, a report sponsored by the city said.



"It's a small step forward," said Alice Lichtenstein, a nutrition science researcher from Tufts University in Boston, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study in the Annals of Internal Medicine

"This is just trans fat. It doesn't have any effect on calories. It doesn't mean that you can eat as much of it as you want," she told Reuters Health.




Those chains included McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, and Yum Brands Inc restaurants KFC and Pizza Hut.



What's more, there was no spike in the amount of saturated fat in fast-food meals during the study period — as some had feared — so the total amount of "bad" fats in the average purchase dropped substantially.

Trans fat is "fully replaceable with healthier oils, so we knew that was something that could be changed," said Christine Curtis, from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, who worked on the study.

"We were really pleased," she told Reuters Health. The study "really demonstrates that local regulation can reduce exposure to trans fat."

Curtis said the trans-fat regulation could end up leading to health benefits down the line. "It does have the potential to have a really big impact on cardiovascular disease risk," she said.

(Editing by Christine Soares and Xavier Briand)