Hospital French Fries Found Too Fat
The Center for Science in the Public Interest tested food served in top hospitals and found it to contain partially hydrogenated oil, the biggest source of artery-clogging trans fat. While serving deep-fried food like many hospitals do is not very healthy in the first place, the least they could do is to use any variety of oil that is known not to be so unhealthy. Like saturated fat, trans fat raises LDL “bad” cholesterol, which increases risks of coronary heart disease (CHD), but it also lowers HDL (the “good” one) so the National Academies’ Institute of Medicine recommends to eat as little as possible (eliminating it altogether is not realistic as small amounts are found naturally in meat and dairy products).
As of January 1, 2006, food manufacturers must list trans fat on the nutrition label so it is easy to identify where it is coming from in order to replace ingredients when possible. The Harvard School of Public Health is making handy recipe suggestions to serve healthier food in hospitals and other food service settings.
February 6, 2006 Related topics: Hygiene & Cleanliness