Unilever – the maker of soft margarines like I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter and Shedd’s Spread Country Crock – says it plans to remove all partially hydrogenated oils – artificial trans fats – from its soft-spread brands. The change will begin next month and be done by the second quarter of 2010.

Why are trans fats so bad? Watch the video here.

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After looking at nearly 200 studies that included millions of people, there are still some questions about how some foods affect the heart. Researchers found vegetables, nuts and the Mediterranean diet made the list of foods that are heart-healthy, while the list of foods bad for the heart featured starchy carbs like white bread and trans fats, which are in many cookies and French fries. But the study says there is no strong evidence yet about whether foods like meat, eggs and milk are good or bad for the heart.

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You probably know you should avoid artery-clogging trans fats. But do you know where they lurk? A new report finds out of 1,000 U.S. adults surveyed in 2007, 92 percent said they had heard of trans fats, and most knew they may raise the risk of heart disease. But when they were asked to name three foods with trans fats, only 21 percent could do so.

Can you name three types of foods that contain trans fats?

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Another restaurant dumps the artery-clogging trans fats. Burger King Corp. says all of its restaurants across the country are now using trans-fat free cooking oils. And the chain says all its menu ingredients, including its baked goods, will have zero grams of trans fat by November 1. There’s more info on the BK changes here.

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She’s so dedicated to changing food in our schools that she got the leading role in a movie about the actions she’s taking.

Meet Dr. Susan Rubin. As a parent, she got involved with traditional programs in public schools to try to bring in healthier food options. Years later, she says all she got was frustrated by all the bureaucracy. So she started the nonprofit group, Better School Food (BSF). Here’s how the program is Making a Healthy Difference.

It started with candy wrappers
Yes, candy wrappers were making their way home from school with one of Susan Rubin’s daughters. Rubin was a dentist at the time, and was immediately concerned.

“I was really shocked to find out the stuff was coming out of the cafeteria,” Rubin recalls.

But it wasn’t just about cavities. Rubin was worried about the overall health of her children because of the food schools offered. She wanted to do something about it, so she left dentistry to become a holistic nutritionist. Now she and BSF are reaching out to schools across the country to try to stem childhood obesity.

“Every school has a bureaucratic system and you have to play by those rules,” says Rubin. “So I decided to form this organization outside of the schools because then there were no rules.”

Better School Food’s mission
Like the name says, it’s about better school food – specifically, BSF wants every school-age child to have access to whole foods and fresh fruits and vegetables. Its goal is to also get rid of unhealthy ingredients, like trans fats, High Fructose Corn Syrup, and potentially harmful preservatives, from schools and from kids’ daily diets.

BSF is made up of health professionals, educators, and concerned parents. The group supports pretty much anyone across the country who wants better food in schools – from the cafeterias to the food sold for fundraisers.

“We’re just kind of creating an army of advocates,” Rubin explains. “It’s not just K-12. I really believe we’ve got to hit it earlier in child care centers, pre-schools, and after school programs.”

Back in time
To move forward, Rubin says we have to go back to how things used to be. We went from growing our own foods long ago to buying processed foods, and now there’s a push to eat organic, whole foods again.

Rubin believes a way out of the obesity epidemic is for students to go back to eating foods they’ve grown themselves in school gardens. This lets kids learn about fruits and vegetables by doing, instead of just reading about them in textbooks. She says because they would actually see where their food comes from, they’d be more likely to connect with and want to eat fruits and vegetables they have planted and nurtured themselves.

No More Sweets?
Don’t worry – she’s not saying sweets should be banned. But when you have them, why not have the good stuff made with all natural ingredients?

“My kids eat cookies,” says Rubin. “They make chocolate chip cookies from scratch with the best ingredients. So I’m not saying, never do this. I’m saying, bump up the quality and have less.”

Movement turns into movie
Rubin’s passion caught the attention of filmmaker and mom, Amy Kalafa, who featured BSF in the documentary, Two Angry Moms. Rubin and Kalafa became two angry moms when they saw the poor diets their kids were eating in schools and how it affected their health, behavior, and learning.

“It’s a real story about school food and the challenges and the successes that are out there. So we always joke that Two Angry Moms is the movie and Better School Food is the movement.”

More on Two Angry Moms right here.

How you can get involved
Want to make a difference in your community’s schools? Find out more about what you can do and how BSF can help you along the way.

Making a Healthy Difference
With grim news about the obesity epidemic constantly making headlines, it’s refreshing to know there are people out there working hard to try to reverse the trend. Thanks, Better School Food for Making a Healthy Difference!

Check out all of FFTV’s Making a Healthy Difference honorees here.

If you know of someone you think we should profile, we want to hear from you. Just send us an email at sahar [at] fatfightertv [dot]com

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Last year, Dunkin’ Donuts dumped most of its trans fats. Now the chain is going to debut its better-for-you DDSmart menu August 6, featuring two new flatbread sandwiches made with egg whites. You can choose either turkey sausage or a vegetable one. Dunkin’ Donuts says both will be under 300 calories with 9 grams of fat or less.

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Last year, Dunkin’ Donuts dumped most of its trans fats. Now the chain is going to debut its better-for-you DDSmart menu August 6, featuring two new flatbread sandwiches made with egg whites. You can choose either turkey sausage or a vegetable one. Dunkin’ Donuts says both will be under 300 calories with 9 grams of fat or less.

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California is now the the first state to ban restaurants from making food with trans fats, which can clog arteries and raise the risk of heart disease.
On Friday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the legislation, which also includes keeping trans fats out of retail baked goods. The law does not apply to packaged foods.

New York City and Philadelphia are among cities in the U.S. that have passed bans against trans fats, but California is the first state to do this.

The law goes into effect January 1, 2010, for oil, shortening and margarine used in spreads or for frying. Restaurants could continue using trans fats to deep-fry yeast dough and in cake batter until January 1, 2011.

Do we need food laws?

This month, New York City went trans-fat free as well as started requiring chain restaurants to post calorie information on their menus – a first for a U.S. city.

Health inspectors can fine fast-food and casual-dining chains up to $2,000 if calorie counts are not displayed on their menus in the same font and format as the name or price of food items.

What do you think of these new laws? Do you think we need them… or should we be able to decide for ourselves what we eat, even if it’s not healthy?

Photo Credit: stock.xchng

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From the burger joints to the fancy eateries, New York is now the first city in the country to go trans-fat-free. About a year and a half ago, the Board of Health voted to ban the artery-clogging fat from the city’s restaurants. Today, the ruling goes into full effect.

The ban covers almost all prepared foods in restaurants, bakeries, even hot dog stands. For months, chefs have been busy changing recipes to eliminate the fat from their menus.

I say, go New York! This is an awesome move to get more trans fats out of our diet. The first step was in 2006 when the FDA began requiring food manufacturers to list how much trans fats are in their products (see the FFTV video). Many companies took it a step further and got rid of trans fat altogether.

Why are trans fats so dangerous? They increase your risk for heart disease like no other fat because while they raise bad cholesterol, they also lower good cholesterol.

And check this out – I just stumbled across this cartoon that’s designed to help us all learn how to eat fewer foods with trans fat without replacing them with saturated fat. Meet the Bad Fats Brothers – Sat and Trans are their names, of course. The American Heart Association (AHA) launched this campaign which features an “edutainment” website where the two bros come to life. Check it out.

Sat is the older brother who’s been around and living it up for quite a while. Trans is the younger charmer who’s a little sneakier. Hey, whatever works, right?

Interestingly, the Bad Fats Brothers campaign is funded by a class action lawsuit settlement against McDonald’s for misleading the public. Here’s a tiny snippet from it:

“McDonald’s announced in September 2002 that it was voluntarily changing to a cooking oil with less trans fat and that the change would be completed by February 2003. However, McDonald’s encountered operational issues and the oil was not changed. Plaintiffs claimed in the lawsuits that McDonald’s did not take sufficient steps to inform the public that it had not changed the oil.”

Back to the New York trans fat ban… there will be a three-month grace period before restaurants that don’t play by the rules will be fined a hefty $2,000 – that starts October 1.

Me, I hope New York starts a trend across the entire country. How about you – what do you think of the ban?

Photo Credit: stock.xchng

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As more companies jump on the trans-fat-free bandwagon, you’ve probably heard a few fast food restaurants talk about how they’ve ditched the dangerous fats in their French fries. But just how much of those trans fats are really gone?

Consumer Reports (CR) decided to find out.

First, the claims from the fast food chains:

According to the CR report, Arby’s and KFC say their fries are free of trans fats (”free” officially means less than 0.5 grams per serving); Wendy’s says a large serving has 1 gram; McDonald’s and Burger King have larger amounts but say they’re cutting back in some markets like New York City and Philadelphia where restaurants must be trans-fat-free by this summer.

For each of the chains, CR bought and analyzed fries from five to nine restaurants in five states.

CR says Wendy’s and Burger King missed their mark. But McDonald’s met its claims, although they are high – 8 grams in most locations; 0 grams in New York City.

If you want to cut out trans fat from fast food fries, CR recommends going to Arby’s or KFC (see chart below) and ordering a small serving.

Here are the complete findings from Consumer Reports:

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