Ummmm…Yay, I guess

Posted By elissa on Jul 14, 2010 | 4 comments

According to researchers from the University of Minnesota, fast food chains have “…significantly decreased trans fats in the oils they use to cook food.”

By using the School of Public Health’s Nutrition Coordinating Center’s proprietary database — which catalogs the nutritional values of more than 18,000 foods — researchers looked at trans fat and saturated fat levels in french fries from five major fast food chains: McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, Jack in the Box and Dairy Queen.

The researchers found that three of the restaurants — McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s — significantly decreased the trans and saturated fatty acid composition of French fries between 1997 and 2008. For these three restaurants, saturated fats either went down or stayed level. While the remaining two restaurants didn’t show a decrease in trans fats during the time period studied, current nutritional information illustrates that the chains have decreased both trans and saturated fatty acid composition since 2008.

So trans fats in fast foods are down, and it took only… oh, about 11 years to accomplish it.  Bravo!  At this rate, we should expect to see “significant” reductions in the amount of high-fructose corn syrup/sugar and sodium in fast food meals by 2025 – 2030.