New York trans fat ban has cut consumption, study finds

[xchrom]

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-sci-trans-fat-ban-20120717,0,431029.story

New York City's pioneering ban on all but the smallest amounts of trans fats in restaurant food has led to a significant reduction in consumption, a change that should translate into better cardiovascular health in the nation's largest city, according to a new report. It also demonstrates that coffee shops, fast-food joints and other eateries can play a major role in improving the health of the public, the study authors said.

Officials from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene conducted the study to assess whether the regulation that took effect in 2008 — which prohibits all restaurants from serving food prepared with partially hydrogenated vegetable oil or dishes that contain more than 0.5 gram of trans fat per serving — was making a difference for diners.

Public health officials had zeroed in on trans fats because they pose a uniquely potent health risk. Adding fewer than 4.5 grams of them to a 2,000-calorie daily diet can increase the risk of coronary heart disease by 23%, studies have found.

Researchers fanned out across Manhattan in 2007 and examined the receipts of 6,969 diners as they left fast-food restaurants at lunchtime. (The researchers went to fast-food chains because the nutrition information on the items sold there was readily available.) In 2009, they repeated the exercise with 7,885 receipts. They found that diners consumed 2.4 fewer grams of trans fat per lunch after the ban went into effect, according to their study published in Tuesday's edition of Annals of Internal Medicine.

[Buns_of_Fire]

1. Well, yes, if you ban something, its consumption tends to drop.

Unless the Corleone family has switched from olive oil to trans fats, and there are shady-looking men wearing raincoats beckoning people with "hey, buddy, want some trans fats?"

[KurtNYC]

2. Study is flawed or can't reach the conclusion that it did with the methodogy it used

The study seems to assume that New Yorkers eat 100% of their meals in fast food restaurants. How would this study using its methodology know if the ban in restaurants has lead to more consumption from other sources such as super markets, street vendors and high end restaurants? This would seem the equivalent of going into bars and seeing no one smoking and reaching the conclusion that because of the smoking ban in bars that no one smokes anymore -- but of course the smokers are just outside on the sidewalk, smoking.

Some major sources of trans fat are left out of the ban -- cheese, milk, ice cream, margarine. So if they compare today's Hagen Daaz customer to the customer of 5 years ago they may find no difference.