World Is Encouraged To Ditch Trans Fats By 2023 In Sweeping New WHO Plan

A new initiative launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) has the potential to save millions of lives from the dangers of artery-clogging food.

On Monday, the WHO outlined a plan that will urge governments around the world to eliminate trans fats from ingredients lists by 2023, which would save roughly 10 million people from preventable deaths.

Industrially-produced trans-fats have long been valued for their inexpensive price tag and resilient shelf life. According to the WHO, the ingredient is commonly “found in baked and fried foods (e.g. doughnuts, cookies, crackers and pies), pre-packaged snacks and food, and partially hydrogenated cooking oils and fats which are often used at home, in restaurants (and) by street vendors.”

The fats have been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, which was the number one leading cause of the world’s noncommunicable deaths in 2016.

As former New York City health commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden told The New York Times:

“If the world replaces trans fats, people won’t taste the difference, food won’t cost more, but your heart will know the difference.”

There have been a lot of positive steps to reduce this nasty ingredient that we, at Good News Network, have reported over the past decade, such as Dunkin' Donuts abandoning it ten years ago.

But, according to Barry Popkin, a professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill:

“...global food companies have done an amazing job reducing trans fats in rich countries but they have largely ignored Asia and Africa.”