GENEVA, Switzerland (RTV/CNN) – The head of the World Health Organization along with a former chief of the CDC declared war on trans fats Monday.
The World Health Organization, or WHO, said trans fats kill over a half-million people every year.
Trans fats are popular with producers of fried and baked snack foods because of their long shelf life, but they increase heart disease by over 20 percent. The WHO wants to take them out of the food chain. Several rich countries have already banned trans fats.
The former head of the CDC said trans fats are toxic.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “Today we are launching a replace and action package to help governments eliminate trans fats from their nation’s food supply.
“With the replace package, I am confident we can eliminate industrial trans fat acids from the entire global food supply by the year 2023, which is in five years from now.
“They (trans fats) are cheap and easy to work with, which makes them popular with food producers but trans fats are responsible for more than half a million deaths around the world each year, most in low and middle-income countries.”
Tom Frieden is the former head of the CDC. He stated, “The bottom line here is that this is the beginning of the end for industrially produced trans fats. The days of trans fats are numbered.
“Governments of the world now have the tools and the knowledge and the responsibility to protect their people from this toxic chemical by replacing artificial trans fat with healthier fats and oils.
“Artificial trans fat is a toxic compound, it kills an estimated 540,000 people around the world each year. Replacing trans fat with healthier oils will save an estimated at least 10 million lives in the 25 years after global elimination.”
Trans fats are made from partially hydrogenated oils.
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