Misplaced Blame
"I call [trans fats] the panic du jour."—University of Pennsylvania professor David Kritchevsky in The New York Times, August 14, 2005
Trans fats aren't the only fat in our diet associated with health issues. In fact, they make up only 3 percent of the average American diet. Meanwhile, saturated fats, which most research indicates have the same negative health effects as trans fats, make up 14 percent of an average diet.
"What's Public Enemy No. 1 with respect to cholesterol raising? From a dietary standpoint, it's saturated fat," explained Dr. James Cleeman, coordinator of the National Cholesterol Education Program of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, in The New York Times.
Unfortunately activist groups, the media, and many others have grown tired of talking about saturated fats and have instead turned their rhetoric on trans fats, despite the fact that they constitute such a small portion of the American diet.