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What to eat and how to eat healthy

Danes against trans fat

Margarine, confectionery, fast food or powdered soups are among the products consumed too often. In addition to their low nutritional value, their main disadvantage is their high content of trans fats. Thanks to the addition of trans fats, mass production of food becomes cheaper, and food items have a longer shelf life. Unfortunately, the downside of trans fats is that they increase the risk of heart disease. There is a huge database proving that it is the consumption of trans fats that raises this risk. This translates into higher mortality rates.

Denmark has succeeded in significantly reducing the incidence of cardiovascular disease through an extensive prevention program. Part of this program was the 2003 ban on artificial trans fats in manufactured and marketed foods. Today it is known that this decision saved the lives of nearly 1,200 people with heart disease, over a 16-year period. That's what a study by researchers from the University of Copenhagen, the Danish University of Technology and the UK's University of Liverpool shows. They determined the health benefits of Denmark's regulations on trans fats in food by quantifying the relative contribution of changes in dietary intake, other risk factors and treatments to the decline in ischemic heart disease (CHD) mortality between 1991 and 2007.

The average energy intake associated with saturated fats decreased tenfold in Danish families between 1991 and 2007, falling from 1.1 percent to 0.1 percent in men and from 1.0 percent to 0.1 percent in women. Lower consumption of trans fats translated into a decrease in deaths from cardiovascular disease (1191 fewer). The largest decrease in mortality was observed among the poorest, which is not surprising, as this group is the most likely to consume highly processed foods containing trans fats, large amounts of salt and sugar. Adopting the Danish model could significantly reduce mortality in Poland as well.