DEPUTATION BY DERYK JACKSON
DEPUTATION BY DERYK JACKSON
TORONTO BOARD OF HEALTH
APRIL 16, 2007
TOPIC: ARTIFICIAL TRANS FATS IN DAYCARES IN THE CITY OF TORONTO
POSITION: TO RECOMMEND THAT ALL ARTIFICIAL TRANS FATS (HYDROGENATED, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED, MODIFIED AND SHORTENING OILS) BE ELIMINATED COMPLETELY FROM DAYCARES IN TORONTO
Point 1—Variability in Serving Sizes
A key complication in assessing and managing the amount of artificial trans fats ingested is due to the manipulation of serving sizes listed in nutritional information. Current legislation allows most foodstuffs to be labelled as “trans fat free” if it contains less than 0.2 g of trans fats per serving. Some manufacturers, while only reducing the amount of trans fats in their products slightly, have more greatly reduced what they consider to be a serving size for their products so as to take advantage of the inadequate regulation for “trans fat free” status. The result is that these products are now listed as having 0 g of trans fat per serving for what are, in fact, unreasonably small suggested serving sizes.
Misleading serving sizes will greatly complicate the efforts of the Joint Working Group(Municipal Daycares) and officials in other daycares as it/they will need to
a) determine what constitutes an average serving size for children from infants to school age children and,
b) be hampered by the fact that manufacturers hide the true amount of trans fats in their products by simply changing the serving size and thus trans fat data will not be available for these products.
Even if the recommendations of the Federal Trans Fat Task Force were adopted, manufacturers would still be in a position to add artificial trans fats to their products and to have their products labelled as “trans fat free” by manipulating suggested serving sizes. Given the difficulties then of determining reasonable serving sizes and calculating total trans fat load for any particular serving, the best option to defend and promote the health of children in is to choose products which truly contain no trans fats.
Over…
Point 2—Health and Financial Implications
On the website for Toronto Public Health it is written that: “There is no safe level of intake,” when answering the question, “How much trans fat is OK?”1 Given the overwhelming amount of research into the health and financial implications of trans fats, the statement seems on point. Why then are we recommending a limitation on artificial trans fats and not a ban on them?
Following up on the comment of no safe level, Toronto Public Health writes: “Any increase in trans fat intake is accompanied by an increase in heart disease risk.” Although the Task Force’s recommendations, if implemented, would place strict limits on trans fats in our food supply, their continued use would still be linked to heart disease and its associated human impact and financial burden—“These is no safe level of intake.”1
More than heart disease, trans fats are increasingly being associated with disorders in other human body systems. In an article entitled Trans Fats: The Health Burden prepared by the Parliamentary Information and Research Service (Science and Technology Division), links are made between ingestion of trans fats and diabetes(insulin resistance), neurological disorders(impedance of proper electrical activity of neurons), cancer(breast and colon) and developmental problems in foetuses and infants(many and profound problems)2. What is the human impact of these health problems? What is the financial impact? Furthermore trans fats are only one of a cocktail of chemicals to which our children are exposed, including bisphenol A and phthalates(from plastics and cans), pesticides(from produce), & antibiotics and hormones(from meat derived products); only with a total ban on these “toxic” fats can we eliminate their health and financial burdens and reduce overall negative chemical exposure in our children’s food.
Adults, given nutritional information and a choice, can choose what they eat—we all do so everyday. We also choose for our children what we believe to be healthy and nutritious for them. When our children are in the care of a daycare provider, it is the duty of the provider to do what is best for them and to feed them the healthiest and most nutritious food available. We should not be speaking about limiting or almost eliminating “toxic” trans fats, we should be removing them. We should be able to say to the current generation of children in daycares that we made a decision in their youth that may save their health if not their lives. Please recommend to Children’s Services, to the Joint Working Group and to other daycare providers in the City that all artificial trans fats be completely eliminated from the food fed to our children.
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1 Toronto Public Health, viewed Sunday, April 15, 2007, http://www.toronto.ca/health/transfat.htm
2 S. Norris, Library of Parliament, Ottawa, Ontario, site revised January 26, 2007, viewed Friday, April 13, 2007, http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/PRBpubs/prb0521-e.htm