Author: Aimee Cunningham / Source: Science News
New Yorkers fond of eating out in the last decade weren’t just saved from doing the dishes.
Residents’ blood levels of artificial trans fats, which increase the risk heart disease, dropped following a 2006 citywide policy that banned restaurants from using the fats.Researchers analyzed blood samples of adult city residents from before and after the ban, taken as part of a health and nutrition survey that queried participants on their dining habits. The samples, 212 from 2004 and 247 from 2013–2014, revealed a drop from 49.2 to 21.3 micromoles per liter, suggesting that trans fat levels plunged by about 57 percent overall among New Yorkers.
For people who dined out frequently, the decrease was even greater: Levels of the fats declined by about 62 percent for New Yorkers who ate out four or more times per week, the team reports online February 21 in the American Journal of Public Health.
An estimated 1 in 5 city residents eats out that frequently, says study coauthor Sonia Angell, deputy commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in Queens. “We think [the ban] has just been a win overall for…
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