In the world of health-conscious superjocks trans fat has emerged as the new villain. The terror is real! Food with zero trans fats is the new trend. The need to avoid it in the diet is pertinent since it has many baleful effects on health. This spotlight on trans fat has raised awareness about healthy eating habits. Even the government has taken the matter of healthy diet seriously and launched several schemes to nutrify the people of India.
Trans Fatty acids (TFA) or Trans Fat
They are unsaturated fatty acids that are harmful to the body (They have one or more double bond hydrocarbon chain that is, they can take up additional hydrogen). They occur naturally but artificially produced fats are also consumed. Vanaspati or Margarine or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are artificially produced by the addition of hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them more solid while dairy products and meats have natural trans fatty acids. They are used as food preservatives and as a replacement for pure ghee. Since they are cheap they are used to increase profitability. They are responsible for high cholesterol levels and reduction off good cholesterol (HDL– high density lipoprotein).
Effects on health
They increase the risk of heart diseases, obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance and infertility. They are also known to cause certain types of cancers and compromised foetal development. Trans fat increases the amount of bad cholesterol (Low Density Lipoprotein) while reducing the amount of good cholesterol (High Density lipoprotein).
Government actions to tackle uptake of trans fatty acids
The World Health Organization made a clarion call to eliminate industrially produced trans fat by 2023. Denmark became the first country to ban trans fats In 2003. India too joined this initiative but did not ban the product entirely. The food safety and standards authority of India (FSSAI) put a cap of 3% for 2021 and 2% by 2022. Earlier permissible levels were 5%. The update took place in 2021 and is applicable to all the food producing enterprises using oils, Vanaspati, margarine, bakery shortenings, and other mediums of cooking such as vegetable fat spreads and mixed fat spreads.
Trans fat free logo was launched by the food regulator Food safety and standards authority of India (FSSAI) is an initiative to promote TFA-free food product. It is a voluntary action by the manufacturer. It can be used if the product does not have industrial trans-fat more than 0.2 g/100g of the food.
FSSAI also started a mass media campaign ‘Heart attack rewind’ to eliminate TFA’s in the food by 2022. It is descendant of the eat right campaign of 2018. It was launched when World Health Organization initiated the replace campaign in 2018 aimed at elimination of TFA’s by 2023 globally.
The government and the global community will do their bit but the actual onus lies on individuals themselves. They have to adopt healthy dietary habits like replacing trans fatty acids with other types of healthy fats like MUFA (Mono unsaturated fatty acid) and PUFA (Poly unsaturated Fatty acids). These are found in nuts, eggs, fish etc. In a nutshell, a balanced diet devoid of junk can promise a healthy life.
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