Philadelphia city council has passed an ordinance that would get rid of artificially produced and heart-attack-inducing trans fat.
Like New York City’s similar move, this will further accelerate the pace of partially hydrogenated oil’s departure from the food supply, and we hope Mayor John Street promptly signs it into law.
Councilman Juan Ramos, who sponsored the bill, said it would have a clear and quantifiable impact on the health of Philadelphia residents.
In recent years, nutritionists have vilified trans fats as a largely artificial, artery-clogging fat with no dietary benefits. Think Crisco or margarine: inexpensive, semi-solid fats with long shelf-lives.
Trans fat is an unsaturated fatty acid produced by the partial hydrogenation of vegetable oils and present in hardened vegetable oils, most margarines, commercial baked foods, and many fried foods. An excess of these fats in the diet is thought to raise the cholesterol level in the bloodstream.