[GqArtguy]

Originally posted by BamaDave:
Well, a review of various websites with nutrition guidelines to help avoid heart disease shows widespread advice to avoid trans-fats. I doubt that the concerns about these fats are baseless.

Look up actual studies for yourself and see whats out there. Many of these websites have agendas or they are wording things in such a way to be technically imprecise. And just because an article has a bunch of references doesnt mean that the study was used in proper context. Berardi has been called out on this on some forums.

I agree that it's really hard to separate out intake of trans-fats from other risk factors of human diet and behavior. It looks like there are animal models being developed to study metabolism of different fat sources and effects on incorporation into cell membranes, blood lipid profiles, etc. Hopefully those will help sort out our understanding of how these and other fats behave in the body.

Maybe, but know that animals are not humans and what happens in a rat does not necessarily happen in a human. Plus, animal studies have their own abusive use. People got crazy over aspartame because rat studies showed that it could cause cancer among other things. What they forgot to tell you is that they fed rats an amount equivalent to a human drinking 100 cokes a day or some other absurd amount. Hmmm, whodve thought that overdosing to an unrealistic amount would have negative effects? Like Ive said, if all you ate was natty pb for a month, you would die from aplhatoxin-B poisoning, strangely you dont see anyone freaking out about PB though.

THe most important thing to remember is that correlation does not equal causation. High protein diets are "correlated" with kidney failure (yeah if you consume 20g per lb of bodyweight) but no one is throwing away their whey.

Meanwhile, I see nothing wrong with recommendations to avoid intake of trans-fats and mandatory labeling. Most foods containing trans-fats are junk food anyway, not to mention that the trans-fats contained in those foods can easily be replaced with fats of less concern.

You have to think about price and individual choice. If all of this really bothers, go to a vegan store or something and get your "natural" food and let the rest of the world pay lower prices for a snack. Theres nothing magical or detrimental about junk food by itself, just eat it moderation. To worry about a taco shell is just as anal as the guy worrying about the carbs in his sushi.

I would rather know that there is evidence linking these fats to heart disease, so I can decide what I want to eat and influence my own family to eat. I don't really care what other people eat.

Again, look up the "evidence." They are not as satanic as you think. This is the same BS that people used to freak out abou tevery gram of saturated fat in their diet back when that was the craze. Again, there is evidence that you can die from protein and natural pb, you should stop eating those too or do the rational thing and consume everything (protein, transfat, etc.) in moderation so that you dont become obese.