Researcher campaigns to remove trans fats from the American diet, citing health risks

A nonagenarian researcher is waging a campaign to ban trans fats from foods sold in the United States, according to a news release from the University of Illinois. Fred Kummerow, an active 94-year-old University of Illinois veterinary biosciences professor emeritus and researcher on the health effects of trans fats in the diet, filed a 3000-word petition with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last month, requesting the ban. Research has reported that =trans fats displace essential fatty acids linoleic acid (omega-6) and linolenic acid (omega-3), substances the body requires for various functions.Kummerow's recent research, published last month in the journal Atherosclerosis, found that trans fats also interfere with the function of a key enzyme essential to blood flow regulation. Kummerow takes issue with current food labels. He believes the FDA's requirement that trans fats be included on food labels is inadequate and misleading because anything less than one-half gram of trans fats per serving can be listed as zero grams. This means that Americans are getting the mistaken impression that their food is trans fat-free, Kummerow said. Click here to see Kummerow's full petition to the U.S. FDA.