It was a good idea to ban transfats in New York

New York City's restriction on the use of trans fats in foods served at restaurants is helping the city residents cut down on the unhealthy fat, a new study shows.

Researchers compared purchase receipts from fast food restaurants in 2007, before the ban went into effect, to those from 2009, after it went into effect. Trans-fat intake decreased, said researcher Christine Curtis, director of nutrition strategy at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. “It's a substantial drop,” she noted. The average drop in trans fats per purchase — which included food for just one person — dropped 2.4 grams, Curtis said. It started at 2.9 grams of trans fat per purchase and dropped to 0.5 grams. Saturated fat increased a bit, to 0.55 grams per purchase. But overall, when the researchers looked at trans and saturated fats together, it was still a drop of 1.9 grams of unhealthy fats per person. On average, the diners saw a decline in trans fats of about 21 calories per purchase, Curtis said.