Interview with U of I pioneer scientist
GUESTWORK | U of I News Bureau
Editor’s note: University of Illinois comparative biosciences professor Fred Kummerow, now 100, first reported a link between dietary transfats and heart disease in 1957. Trained in lipid biochemistry, Kummerow later determined the mechanisms by which transfats contributed to atherosclerosis in patients with heart disease. In 2009, he petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to ban transfats from the American diet. Four years later, when the FDA had not responded to his petition, Kummerow filed a lawsuit to force the agency to make a determination on his petition. Three months after the lawsuit was filed, the FDA announced a “tentative determination” that transfatty acids “are not generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for any use in food.” This month, the FDA is expected to revoke the GRAS status of transfats.
What key findings led you to the conclusion that transfats in food were contributing to heart disease in humans?
I had read a paper in the Lancet in 1952 by H. M. Sinclair that suggested there was a relationship between the consumption of hydrogenated fats and the increased incidence of atherosclerosis. In collaboration with a local hospital, I was able to obtain and examine the arteries of people who had died of heart disease, and I found transfats in this tissue. This led to my study on rats that developed atherosclerosis in their arteries after being fed transfats. When transfats were removed from the rats’ diet, the atherosclerosis disappeared from their arteries.
How long have you advocated for elimination of transfats from the diet?
Since 1968. At that time I was on a subcommittee of the American Heart Association and found out how much transfat was in the margarines and shortenings that were available from the grocery stores. By pressuring the oil industry, we were able to get the transfat content in these products lowered from an average of 43 percent to 27 percent. Heart disease also started to decline after 1968.
Why do you think health authorities were so slow to recognize the dangers?
The industry told the health authorities that transfats were not dangerous. The industry liked the properties that transfats brought to their products. Transfats added a pleasant texture and extended the shelf life of their products that the public liked.
In your earlier career, you were a professor of food science and human nutrition at Illinois. Speaking from that area of expertise, how difficult do you think it will be for the food industry to eliminate transfats from their products?
The industry wants us to believe that it is difficult to remove transfats from their products. They want the FDA to allow them years to make the change. There are already products available to replace transfats, however. The industry is working on their formulas so that the texture and taste remain the same. Some manufacturers have already changed their products, and those products are on grocery stores’ shelves now.
When you first petitioned the FDA to ban transfats, did you expect success?
Yes, because I had the science to prove that it was harmful to people and caused atherosclerosis.
Fred Kummerow spoke with University of Illinois News Bureau life sciences editor Diana Yates. To watch a video of Kummerow talking about the FDA’s transfat ban go to illinoistimes.com.