New York City banned trans fats a decade before the rest of the country. A new study finds eaters are healthier for it

The results don’t necessarily mean that the number of heart attacks in New York have dropped correspondingly. Trans fat intake is just one of many factors that shape an individual’s risk of getting heart disease. Still, the results are significant: The authors note that just “a 2% increase in calories from TFA has been associated with a 23% increase in coronary heart disease risk.” Surely, those declines are a good thing, and other studies provide additional evidence that New Yorkers are now healthier than they were before. A 2017 study found that the ban was linked to a decrease in hospital admissions related to heart attacks and strokes, compared to other jurisdictions in New York state that didn’t have a similar policy in place. A 2016 study found that jurisdictions with bans also saw fewer deaths related to heart disease.

The new study’s authors admit, though, that New York can’t take all the credit. TFA consumption has declined in America overall since 2004.

Think back to the aughts, which were a significant turning point in American food culture. The period saw new levels of attention to healthful eating and the role that food corporations play in shaping people’s diets. The nascent organic industry was beginning to blossom. The term “locavore” had just been coined. And muckraking food documentaries, like Morgan Spurlock’s 2004 film Super Size Me and 2008’s Food, Inc., were a huge hit with the public. (A Super Size Me sequel was axed in 2017 after Spurlock admitted to acts of sexual misconduct and acknowledged a date rape accusation.)

It was within that paradigm-shifting context that the health risks of trans fat consumption caught on for the first time. Though TFAs occur naturally in small amounts in many animal products, including butter, they were introduced en masse into the food system in the 20th century, after scientists discovered that adding hydrogen to vegetable oil could solidify it and lengthen its shelf life. This led to the birth of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, which were cheaper than solid animal fats and, thus, added to a wide range of food items, including breads, baked goods, and snacks. But at the turn of the century, scientists began to link the consumption of trans fat to an increased risk of heart disease.

And so the tide began to turn against trans fat globally. Denmark in 2004 became the first country to ban the ingredient. That same year, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group, began to lobby the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a similar policy stateside. In 2006, FDA didn’t go as far as to prohibit the use of trans fat in food, but instituted a rule to require that trans fat content appear on food labels. But in 2015, the agency officially ruled the ingredient unsafe to eat, and a nationwide ban finally took effect in June of 2018.

FDA’s decision, however, came much later than New York’s, and residents of the Big Apple seem to have genuinely benefitted from the city’s early action.

“Diners were at a distinct disadvantage because there were no labeling requirements in restaurants,” says Dr. Sonia Y. Angell, deputy commissioner at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and one of the study’s authors. “[In 2006], we found that about half of the restaurants in New York City were using trans fats for frying, cooking, baking, or in their spreads. That was problematic […] but it was also promising to us. Because while half of the restaurants were using it, half of them weren’t, which made us also realize that this was something that we could move out of restaurant foods.”

When the city’s health department enacted a citywide ban on trans fat use in restaurants in 2006, the regulation was wide-ranging, affecting all sit-down establishments, as well as catering, delivery, and take-out services. The policy prohibited food providers from using ingredients that contained more than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving (for reference, that’s how much trans fat a serving of butter contains). Pre-packaged foods—say, chips sold at delis—were exempt. The city’s ban was phased in completely in 2008.

Though other studies have examined the links between trans fats and health, the new research is notable because it highlights how a restaurant-level policy directly affected eaters’ bodies.

“Even though [TFAs are] moving out of the food supply at large, we think this is an important finding, because it really argues that restaurant foods are an important source of nutrition—particularly in New York City for a large group of people,” Angell says. “By developing policies like this that target the restaurant environment, we can have a really important direct effect on the nutrition of of diners.”

The trans fat ban is just one of many different policies that local jurisdictions can put in place to encourage residents to live healthier lives. Soda taxes and calorie labeling are well-documented, if contentious, examples. But they’re also a bit different.

“People don’t choose trans fat on the menu, whereas you choose a soda,” Wendy McKelvey, another author of the study points out. And, whereas calorie counts can incentivize eaters to pick certain foods over others, trans fats don’t need to be added to food.

“When you take trans fat out of the food supply, people don’t have to deliberate between whether or not they buy something that has trans fat in the product,” Angell says. “And therefore it takes that extra level of individual energy to try and eat healthy out of the formula. It makes sure that everybody can eat healthy and that that’s something that is really important.”

This study also gives us a glimpse into how much healthier all eaters in the U.S. may soon become, thanks to FDA’s nationwide ban. Ten years from now, New Yorker or not, you might be a little better off without even knowing it, too.