Comment by knowtheory | Hacker News Reader

Comment by knowtheory | Hacker News Reader

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The FDA's ban on transfat is almost entirely after the fact. Transfats have been on the outs for a long time, and their use has declined in accordance.

The rise in the use of palm oil has more to do with people thinking that because it's natural, it's "healthy" for you (which is really only true if your baseline for comparison is eating tubs of margarine) thanks to folks like Dr. Oz.

So, since you can't see my eyeroll at the downvotes, here are citations:

NPR piece noting that transfat usage has dropped by 86% before the ban: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/06/16/414906829/fda...

And somewhat surprisingly the wikipedia article on the nutritional & health effects of palm oil is pretty well cited: https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Palm_oil#Nutrition_and_healt...

tl:dr; Transfats are bad for you. That's why they don't sell them. Palm oil isn't vastly healthier than other oils. Eat less fat.

I think what you might be missing is that your 86% number is from the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which is an industry trade group. I would not take that number at face value. I also wouldn't assume that group speaks for restaurants or even all grocers.

Also, the use of an oil doesn't contribute linearly to the trans fat content of whatever is fried in it. Users of hydrogenated oils for frying, for example, are purchasing gallons and gallons of the stuff on a regular basis, with most of that being discarded as waste. Yes, most of the big name fast food chains in the US have switched to other oils, but it's not clear whether all have or to what extent. There may still be a sizable bump in purchases of replacement oils, including palm.

Finally, even if the 86% number is ironclad and extends across the entire prepared food and food service industry, it represents a relative drop against an unknown whole. It says nothing about the absolute volume of hydrogenated oils still in use. IMO this validates the parent's concern.

This plus the general flippant snark of your comment and the weird Dr. Oz reference is why I downvoted you.

for what it's worth, that was neither flippant, nor snark. A lot of people listen to Dr. Oz and he has promoted the use of palm oil as healthy.

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