Executive Summary
- A bill that bans trans fats in the Canadian food supply has passed the House of Commons.
- Trans fats were created as a healthier replacement for saturated fats.
- The evidence against their use is based on epidemiology, statistical correlations of data that do not demonstrate cause and effect.
- Metabolic studies of trans fats are ambiguous and epidemiological calculations of relative risk can mislead.
- In the rush to publish, researchers are liable to present confidence intervals in the worst possible light and exaggerate their import.
- The relative risk numbers for trans fats from a number of studies are too low to cause alarm.
- Extrapolations of already wobbly risk factors into human body counts are completely unjustifiable.
- The ban will make food more expensive and open Canada to trade retaliation. A better recourse is to encourage a healthy lifestyle and a balanced diet.
