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Depends on what the substitute foods are. If people start eating 100 percent less trans fat but 300% more sugar to compensate, then even though sugar has redee

Depends on what the substitute foods are. If people start eating 100 percent less trans fat but 300% more sugar to compensate, then even though sugar has redeeming qualities, it will be a bad thing, right?

meursault334 11y ago
The argument that we could end artificial trans fat with tons of sugar is a straw man. The most sensible replacement which in most cases only affects the cost and shelf-life of food is either healthy or less-damaging fats. Banning trans fat may be bad for orangutans but it's good for consumers' health.
- VLM 11y ago
  What possible corporation out there would intentionally increase direct and indirect financial costs, lowering profits, merely to not increase sugar/hfcs use to lure people into buying their product? Highly processed foods are now going to be much less greasy/oily and much more sugary to attract consumers. You need to do "something" get people to eat junk food, and if its not going to be the oily/greasy axis of evil it will be the HFCS/sugar axis of evil. Maybe 1% of the market, the green/organic or at least greenwashing segment, will increase prices and switch to saturated fats and dramatically lower shelf life, but on a population wide scale that is a rounding error. Higher carbs means more fat people and more diabetes and fat related illness including heart issues. So we're trading large number of heart disease related deaths for rather optimistically a slightly smaller number of obesity related deaths. Its probably a net win, but this is not the technological singularity where we'll all live forever...
  - maxerickson 11y ago
    Highly processed foods already switched over to using better packaging that keeps oxygen and moisture out (trans fats don't particularly taste better than other oils, they have better shelf life, improved packaging makes up for much of the difference). Proof that I am not rambling incoherently: http://www.pffc-online.com/technical-reports/5213-paper-product-protection http://www.pffc-online.com/technical-reports/5213-paper-prod... So no worries there.
venomsnake 11y ago
Margarine was developed as a replacement for butter. Just bring butter back (or any other saturated fat. coconut oil is also awesome)

meursault334 11y ago

The argument that we could end artificial trans fat with tons of sugar is a straw man. The most sensible replacement which in most cases only affects the cost and shelf-life of food is either healthy or less-damaging fats. Banning trans fat may be bad for orangutans but it's good for consumers' health.

VLM 11y ago
What possible corporation out there would intentionally increase direct and indirect financial costs, lowering profits, merely to not increase sugar/hfcs use to lure people into buying their product? Highly processed foods are now going to be much less greasy/oily and much more sugary to attract consumers. You need to do "something" get people to eat junk food, and if its not going to be the oily/greasy axis of evil it will be the HFCS/sugar axis of evil. Maybe 1% of the market, the green/organic or at least greenwashing segment, will increase prices and switch to saturated fats and dramatically lower shelf life, but on a population wide scale that is a rounding error. Higher carbs means more fat people and more diabetes and fat related illness including heart issues. So we're trading large number of heart disease related deaths for rather optimistically a slightly smaller number of obesity related deaths. Its probably a net win, but this is not the technological singularity where we'll all live forever...
- maxerickson 11y ago
  Highly processed foods already switched over to using better packaging that keeps oxygen and moisture out (trans fats don't particularly taste better than other oils, they have better shelf life, improved packaging makes up for much of the difference). Proof that I am not rambling incoherently: http://www.pffc-online.com/technical-reports/5213-paper-product-protection http://www.pffc-online.com/technical-reports/5213-paper-prod... So no worries there.

venomsnake 11y ago

Margarine was developed as a replacement for butter. Just bring butter back (or any other saturated fat. coconut oil is also awesome)