Web Publisher Thinks NYC Based Trans Fat Ban on Junk Science
by Mary Rettig
December 12, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The publisher of the website JunkScience.com says the Big Apple's ban on trans fats is based on dubious research by two Harvard scholars. The New York City Board of Health barred the use of trans fats in its restaurants last week, but Steve Milloy says Harvard researchers are using weak statistics to try to link these fatty acids with heart disease. Trans fats are a type of unsaturated fat that occur naturally in some meat and dairy products, in small quantities; but most trans fats consumed in the U.S. today are created industrially as a by-product of the partial hydrogenation of plant oil.
As early as 1988, scientific literature began to appear suggesting that trans fats could be responsible for an increased incidence of coronary artery disease; however, Milloy believes promoters of flimsy research have exaggerated the facts about a class of common food ingredients into a sort of "trans fats hysteria."
It is "kind of odd," the JunkScience.com spokesman asserts, that New York City would declare trans fats unsafe and then ban them when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers them to be safe. "You know, you can go to a grocery store and buy foods with trans fats," he observes. "Now, if they were really bad, would you be able to do that? Of course not."
Milloy believes New York City's decision to ban trans fats can be directly traced back to the "research" of Harvard University investigators Alberto Ascherio and Walter Willett. "And if you look at some of their other research -- which, in my view, is on a par with what they've done for transfats," the web publisher notes, "New York City ought to be banning potatoes and red meats, and Indian restaurants would have to change cooking oils, various things like that."
Statistical research from Ascherio and Willett has suggested that trans fat causes heart disease or is related to heart disease, Milloy says. However, he points out, those same two researchers also found an increase in heart disease among people who consume orange juice, grapefruit juice, peas or beans; yet the New York City Board of Health does not seem to be in any hurry to ban those foods from restaurants.
New York City's Board of Health basically dictated public policy based on the two Harvard researcher's rather dubious work, Milloy says. However, he insists there is no reason why a city should declare dangerous and ban something that the FDA has approved as safe for consumption.
Mary Rettig, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
