Trans fat battle won by 100-year-old professor

February 16, 2016   |   Evidence in Integrative Healthcare

Fred Kummerow, a professor emeritus at University of Illinois, has been warning of the dangers of trans fat for almost six decades. He began publishing study outcomes in 1957 about the dangers of artery clogging trans fats after tests on lab rats demonstrated arterial clogging when eating trans fats. Rats that were denied trans fats did not develop arterial disease. Further, once the trans fat rats were taken off this diet, their arteries cleared. He petitioned the FDA to intervene and was ignored for years. Eventually, he hired attorneys to sue the FDA due to their very slow response to his requests. He eventually won his case against trans fats when the FDA announced plans in 2013 to “effectively eliminate trans fats by say that the substance no longer would be assumed safe for use in human foods”.