
How We Won the Fight to Ban Trans Fat
What was the secret to the public health community’s triumph when past attempts to regulate the food industry failed?
Topic summary contributed by volunteer(s): Randy
The Harvard Nurses’ Health Study (HNHS), started in 1976, is considered to be a key long-term population study on women’s health.
The studies have identified important health risk factors including: persistent organic pollutants consumed through contaminated food may be linked to diabetes; eating meat or eggs before pregnancy may raise gestational diabetes risk; taking in less than a single alcoholic drink per day may still raise the risk of breast cancer; daily consumption of the amount of cholesterol found in one egg may shorten a woman’s lifespan as much as limited smoking; meat intake may be an infertility risk factor; there’s a positive association between teen milk intake, especially skim milk, and teen acne; and nut consumption does not lead to expected weight gain.
Study findings have also suggested specific steps women can take to improve their health including: nut and grapefruit consumption may help prevent breast cancer; getting enough Vitamin E may reduce asthma risk; eating berries, along with cruciferous and green leafy vegetables may reduce cognitive decline; sufficient magnesium intake may help prevent heart attacks; getting enough plant-based omega-3’s may reduce depression; and, eating more plant protein and reducing refined carbohydrate intake may reduce heart disease risk.
The information on this page has been compiled from the research presented in the videos listed. Sources for each video can be found by going to the video’s page and clicking on the Sources Cited tab.
What was the secret to the public health community’s triumph when past attempts to regulate the food industry failed?
Does the link between white potatoes and diabetes extend to non-fried potatoes without butter or sour cream?
Is the brain damage associated with milk consumption due to the banned pesticide heptachlor or the milk sugar galactose?
Randomized controlled studies put nuts, berries, and grape juice to the test for cognitive function.
What are the effects of dairy products, sugar, and chocolate on the formation of pimples?
The food industry fought tooth and nail to retain partially hydrogenated oils, even though they were killing 50,000 Americans a year.
Of all the components of a healthy Mediterranean diet, which are associated with a longer lifespan?
Diets centered around whole plant foods may help prevent Crohn’s disease through the benefits of fiber on the maintenance of intestinal barrier function and the avoidance of certain processed food additives such as polysorbate 80.
Within hours the blood of those fed walnuts is able to suppress the growth of breast cancer cells in a petri dish. Which nut might work best, though—almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, peanuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, or walnuts?
Farmed Atlantic salmon, the kind of salmon most commonly found in restaurants and supermarkets, may be the single largest source of toxic dietary pollutants.