Kentucky Fried Chicken Fast Food

Kentucky Fried Chicken has recently changed their name to KFC because of the word "fried". The issue lies in should trans fats be banned from fast food restaurants? There has been a lot of controversy with what should be done about it. Is it the consumers choice to eat there or should the restaurant put out warning labels. Fast food is so convenient and with the busy lives people hold it's just easy to go through the drive thru.

What is a trans fat? It is when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil to preserve shelf life and add flavor stability to an item. Trans fats have a long and unhealthy history. For years people have used saturated fat when cooking. It wasn't until many years later that scientist discovered that saturated fat increased the risk of Coronary Heart Disease. They needed to find a substitute to eliminate the risk of this terrible disease, so they turned to trans fats. Recently there has been studies that prove trans fats raise the "bad cholesterol" causing people to get coronary heart disease (CHD). According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, more than 12.5 million Americans suffer from CHD, and more than 500,000 Americans die each year from it. Trying to solve this problem the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires that by January 1, 2006 trans fats are to be listed on the Nutrition Panel on the back of food.

In 2002,McDonalds promised to eliminate the use of trans fats when cooking America's most loved food. Four years later the promise still isn't fulfilled. In 2004,a law suit sprang up against McDonald's in California by BanTransFats.com, INC for misleading the public. In 2005 McDonald's agreed to pay $7 million to the Heart Association but no movement towards reducing trans fats have been made. Not only is McDonalds in a pickle but Kentucky Fried Chicken, or better known as KFC, has a suit against them. They feel the court should force KFC to eliminate the use of trans fats or at least post signs warning customers it causes heart disease. The Center for Science in the Public Interest are trying to send a wake up call to other fast food chains telling them something has to be done about the millions of people dying each year from heart disease.

Fats