BOSTON, April 16 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers suggest that if Britain banned trans fats thousands of heart attacks could be prevented.
Researchers at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston wrote in the British Medical Journal that trans fat bans in Denmark and New York City may reduce heart health risk without reducing food availability, taste or affordability.
Unlike other dietary fats, trans fats -- found in margarine, commercial baked products and fast-food -- are not essential and increase the risk of coronary heart disease by raising levels of low-density lipoprotein, the "bad" cholesterol and lowering levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol.
Reducing consumption of trans fats by just 1 percent of total calorie would prevent 11,000 heart attacks and 7,000 deaths annually in England, the researchers estimated.
