Food Fats in Transition

Newswise — Even as shoppers ride out the remnants of the wave of the low-carb craze, concern about fat content in food is the number one issue among the 85 percent of Americans concerned about their diets, according to a recent survey presented here at the Institute of Food Technologists.

The study by the International Food Information Council comes in anticipation of new food labeling standards that will add trans fat content to all nutrition labels beginning January 1, 2006. And it comes at a time when new research sheds a new look on what's considered a healthy fat.

Larry Rudell of the Wake Forest School of Medicine presented results of studies on the effects of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats on coronary heart disease and monkeys. And his findings cast a shadow of doubt on the healthfulness of olive oil, maybe the most popular monounsaturated fat.

In the experiment, Rudell's researchers fed monkeys monounsaturated fats in the context of a normal American diet.

"Something like the Mediterranean diet is quite unlike that. There's more fiber, legumes, and vegetables."

While the monounsaturated fat had the best ratio of good to bad cholesterol, it performed as poorly as the saturated fat when it came to protecting the primates from heart disease.

"My instinct is that a (Mediterranean) diet is successful not because of the olive oil but despite it," he said.

Rudell believes that reported positive effects of monounsaturated fats have everything to do with the context of the consumption.

The IFT Annual Meeting + Food Expo®, to be held June 24-28, 2006 in Orlando, is the world's single largest annual scientific meeting and technical exposition of its kind. Rated among the largest shows in America*, the meeting delivers comprehensive, cutting-edge research and opinion from food science-, technology-, marketing- and business-leaders.

More information is available online at http://www.am-fe.ift.org.

* According to Tradeshow Week® 200 magazine.

Founded in 1939, and with world headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, USA, the Institute of Food Technologists is a not-for-profit international scientific society with 26,000 members working in food science, technology and related professions in industry, academia and government. As the society for food science and technology, IFT brings sound science to the public discussion of food issues. For more on IFT, see www.ift.org.