Marriott Joins Move to Ban Trans Fats - and Why It's Not Important

After eight years of work, over 2,300 hotels in the US and Canada will remove trans fats from their restaurants, Marriott International announced on February 1, 2007. Several of their foods are already trans fat free based on work started in 1998, but now all fried foods will also join the trend.

You should probably follow the trend too, banning trans fat from your own kitchen. Except that trans fat is found in all the foods that are bad for you anyway, so does it make a difference?

Food products at Marriott restaurants that are already trans-fat free include breads, salad dressings, pancake and waffle mixes, muffins, croissants and cookies. At least you now know that your bleached flour white bread is minutely better than before. Cookies - well, the three ingredients that make all cookies are sugar, white flour, and fat. Removing trans fats actually made a difference on your health, but staying away from the cookie altogether would do a lot more.

The health effects of trans fats are similar to those of saturated fat, although more detrimental. For example both saturated and trans fatty acids, popularly known as trans fats, have been shown to raise LDL or "bad" cholesterol levels. High LDL cholesterol levels contribute to heart disease and other common health risks. However, a Dutch group of researchers reported already five years ago that trans fats are worse for cardiovascular health than saturated fats.

In 2004 the FDA recommended that consumption of trans fats be kept below 2% of the daily diet, or 2 grams maximum in a 2000-calorie diet. Trans fats are created when a healthy vegetable oil is partially hydrogenated, a process to harden oils in order that they can better stand heat and keep longer without going rancid. Fully hydrogenated oils do not contain trans fats but are rich in saturated fat.