trans fats

This post relates to the previous blog post about cholesterol. On December 17, 2013, The New York Times ran a profile of nutrition scientist, Fred Kummerow. At the University of Illinois in the 1950s, Dr. Kummerow studied the relationship between artificial fats (trans fats) and heart disease. The 1950s and 1960s was the era when the American public was literally force-fed margarine and other hydrogenated oils as a “healthy” alternative to butter.  He discovered that these artificial fats filled the arteries of patients who had died of heart attacks.