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Nutrition, Vitamins & Supplements for Seniors
New Website Can Help Senior Citizens Better Manage
Bad Fats in Diet
American Heart Association launches Face the Fats
April 10, 2007- Senior citizens, the age group most
endanger of heart attack death, have a new source of expert information
available online to learn more about minimizing the dangerous trans fat
in their diets, without falling back on compensating with more saturated
fat. The American Heart Association has launched "Face the Fats," an
education and entertaining Website where the Bad Fats Brothers – Sat and
Trans – come to life. It also provides an interactive fat calculator and
recipes by celebrity chef Alton Brown.
Among the campaign's top priorities is to encourage
replacement of trans fat-laden partially hydrogenated vegetable oils
with oils high in unsaturated fats -- monounsaturated and
polyunsaturated -- as stated in today's Circulation: Journal of the
American Heart Association. The journal includes the proceedings of a
trans fat conference that the American Heart Association convened to
better understand the challenges the country faces as it moves to oils
without trans fat.
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"Trans fat has received a lot of well-deserved
scrutiny -- at the same time, while it's critical that we continue to
push aggressively to minimize its consumption, trans fat is just one
part of the 'big fat picture,'" said Robert H. Eckel, M.D., immediate
past president of the American Heart Association, chair of its trans fat
task force and professor of medicine at the University of Colorado
Health Sciences Center at Denver.
"It's equally important that we avoid increasing
saturated fat in its place. Both trans and saturated fats raise LDLs,
the bad cholesterol, and increase the risk of developing heart disease."
Translation Needed: New Website Offers
Personalized Help
On average, American adults consume approximately
2.2 percent of total calories from trans fat and four to five times as
much saturated fat a day(1) --
far more than the limits recommended by the American Heart Association.
To help consumers better understand the recommended fat limits(2) and
make smarter choices, the new campaign features a personalized tool, My
Fats Translator, on
http://www.americanheart.org/FaceTheFats , the campaign's new
Website. Users can input their age, gender, height, weight and level of
physical activity into the simple calculator tool, and in return receive
their personal daily limits for total fat, saturated fat and trans fat
consumption.
"Our bodies need some fat, but it's clear that many
of us consume a lot more than we need. And all too often we load up on
fats that aren't very good for us, passing up more healthful varieties,"
said campaign spokesperson and celebrity chef Alton Brown, who developed
recipes that also are featured on
http://www.americanheart.org/FaceTheFats . "I'm taking part in this
campaign because I want to help people to make better food decisions
whether in the market, their kitchens or in restaurants."
The American Heart Association's campaign helps
break down complex fat information, focusing initially on the bad fats
and healthier alternatives. It's important for consumers to eat all fats
in moderation, and eat foods with the "bad" fats as treats only -- once
in a while -- rather than often.
BAD fats: Trans and saturated fats
● Trans fat is found in many foods, but
especially in commercial baked goods (doughnuts, pastries, muffins,
cakes, pie crusts, biscuits and cookies), fried foods (French fries,
fried chicken, breaded chicken nuggets and breaded fish), snack foods
(crackers), and other foods made with partially hydrogenated vegetable
oils, vegetable shortening, or hard margarine. (Soft margarines
typically do not contain trans fat.)
● Saturated fat occurs naturally in many
foods. The saturated fat we eat comes primarily from animal sources,
including beef, lamb, pork, poultry with skin, beef fat, lard and cream,
butter, cheese, and other dairy products made from whole or reduced-fat
(2 percent) milk. These foods also contain cholesterol. Some plant
foods, such as palm oil, palm kernel oil and coconut oil, also contain
saturated fat.
BETTER fats: Monounsaturated and
polyunsaturated fats
● Major sources of monounsaturated fat include
olive oil, canola oil, peanut oil, avocados, and many nuts and seeds.
● Major sources of polyunsaturated fat include
a number of vegetable oils (soybean oil, corn oil, safflower oil and
sunflower oil), fatty fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel, herring and trout)
and some nuts and seeds.
●● Calories from fats: Regardless of the type
of fat, all fats have the same number of calories -- every 1 gram of fat
contains 9 calories.
●● "Trans fat-free" doesn't automatically mean
"healthy": Foods marked "trans fat-free" may still contain saturated
fat, the other bad fat, and be high in calories.
Introducing the Bad Fats Brothers: Don't Let
Them Break Your Heart
As part of its launch and to help viewers remember
the information, the American Heart Association is introducing the
nation to two characters -- literally and figuratively -- named Sat and
Trans, the Bad Fats Brothers.
The brothers have been created to personify the bad
fats and to give consumers a new way to look at and remember which fats
are bad, why they're bad and where they can be found. The two
heartbreakers come to life in their debut Webisode on their own virtual
"edutainment" center,
http://www.badfatsbrothers.com/ .
Consumers also will find "meet me" profiles of each
brother; Sat is the older brother who's been around and living large for
quite a while and Trans is the younger charmer who's a little sneakier.
There also are examples of foods where Sat and Trans are found, as well
as downloadable icons and wallpaper with the characters.
In 2006, the American Heart Association updated its
Diet and Lifestyle Recommendations, advising consumers to limit their
consumption of trans fat to no more than 1 percent of daily caloric
intake. The association also encourages removal of trans fat from
packaged goods and foods prepared in restaurants and bakeries, and
supports related local regulatory efforts, provided that the
availability of healthier alternatives and practical guidance to food
service establishments are taken into consideration.
The association believes in a comprehensive
phased-in approach to the replacement of industrially produced trans fat
to ensure that a sufficient supply of healthier alternative oils and
shortenings are available to restaurants and bakeries to prevent the
substitution with unhealthy alternatives.
Editor's Notes:
The American Heart Association's trans fat
education campaign is funded by a class action lawsuit settlement
against McDonald's. The American Heart Association has the sole judgment
as to the most effective use of the funds.
Founded in 1924, the American Heart Association
today is the nation's oldest and largest voluntary health organization
dedicated to reducing disability and death from cardiovascular diseases
and stroke. These diseases, America's No. 1 and No. 3 killers, claim
about 870,000 lives a year. In fiscal year 2005-06, the association
invested over $543 million in research, professional and public
education, advocacy and community service programs to help all Americans
live longer, healthier lives. To learn more, call 1-800-AHA-USA1 or
visit
http://www.americanheart.org/ .
(1) Harnack L et al, Trends in the trans-fatty
acid composition of the diet in a metropolitan area: The Minnesota Heart
Survey, J Am Diet Assoc, 2003;103:1160-1166.
(2) The American Heart Association recommends total fat intake to be
25 to 35 percent of total daily calories and limiting daily intake of
saturated fat to less than 7 percent and trans fat to less than 1
percent of total calories. As much as possible of the total fat intake
should come from sources of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats.
Cholesterol intake should be limited to less than 300 mg a day.
Source: American Heart Association
Web site:
http://www.americanheart.org/
http://www.americanheart.org/FaceTheFats
http://www.badfatsbrothers.com/
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