The Wages of Hype

A very wise person once said that there’s no such thing as helpful hysteria. Case-in-point the madness surrounding trans fats these past few years, which has had some very odd consequences. For cow’s milk — any cow’s milk — contains trans fats, as I explained below. That means that organic butter contains trans fats, local hormone-free milk contains trans fats, free-range grass-fed artisan heavy cream contains trans fats.

In any non-food neurotic society that wouldn’t be any big deal. But in ours, where the label “Contains Zero Grams of Trans Fat” has become the most coveted in the food industry, a mad rush to scrub every last gram of trans fat off the ingredients list has meant that some food makers — especially wholesale bakeries — are now substituting processed ingredients for natural ones because (you guessed it) they contain no trans fats.

I doubt this is what anti-trans fat crusaders had in mind when they began their campaign against the demon fat a decade ago. Such, however, are the consequences of fueling mass hysteria. A panicked mob doesn’t do anything halfway.