The New York Times published an article which points out that the Food and Drug Administrtion is banning food containing trans fat. It is also reported in other medical articles that this move will prevent approximately 200,000 heart attacks per year. The reason for this benefit, as explained in Prescription For Life, is because trans fats (as well as saturated fats and dietary cholesterol) cause your “lethal” LDL cholesterol to increase and the more LDL cholesterol you have floating around in your blood, the more damage you are causing to your arteries, especially of your heart and brain. The report that the FDA is banning trans fat is good news but the bad news is that the FDA is giving food companies three years to to get trans fats out of most foods and worse than that, they will consider manufacturers’ petitions to keep them in certain products.
The question proposed to me by a friend was: “Why not get these foods off the shelf now? Why wait three years?” Here was my answer: “That is what Prescription For Life is all about. Just because it’s on the shelf for three more years doesn’t mean you have to buy it and eat it. Trans fat is placed into foods to extend their shelf life. It is mostly in pastries, candy bars and foods that are wrapped and on sale at convenient food stores when we travel, as well as similar shelves at the grocery. From now on for snacks, buy a bag of nuts or some fruit instead — especially these next three years.” I add only one more bit of advice. When you are shoping in the grocery, look at the Nutrition Facts box on each item you put into your cart. If it shows any trans fat at all – put it back on the shelf. Go to Prescription For Life and learn more about the need to eat zero trans fat as well as zero saturated fat and dietary cholesterol. Prevent from happening what the New York Times is giving good medical warning about.
