根據世界衛生組織（WHO）最新報告，全球80億人口中，約有50億人仍處於攝取過多反式脂肪的風險中。多反式脂肪有害健康，世衛指出，全球每年50萬人因冠狀動脈心臟病而過早死亡，反式脂肪是主要病因。
反式脂肪（又稱反式脂肪酸）是一種不飽和脂肪。雖然在肉類和乳製品中也存有天然的反式脂肪，但含量非常低。經食品部分氫化過程所形成的反式脂肪才是健康問題的主因。
美國知名機構妙佑診所（Mayo Clinic）指出，反式脂肪會增加血液中的「壞」膽固醇並降低「好」膽固醇，是所有食用油脂中「最糟糕」的一種。
鑒於反式脂肪對健康的不良影響，美國食品暨藥物管理局（FDA）已禁止食品和飲料使用人工反式脂肪。
部分高收入國家已限制食品中的反式脂肪含量不得超過2%，但仍有許多國家未加以規範。在北非、中東和南亞，許多家庭和街頭小販仍在使用富含反式脂肪的食用油。
世衛報告指出，世衛從2018年開始呼籲全球淘汰人工反式脂肪，希望在2023年達標。43個國家已實施減少反式脂肪的「最佳實踐」政策，全球28億人受到保護。2018年至今，「最佳實踐」政策涵蓋的人口數增加近六倍。
儘管進展顯著，全球80億人口中，仍有50億人處於攝取過多反式脂肪的環境中，因而增加罹患心臟病和中風的風險。
這份世衛報告名為「2023年倒數計時：世衛2022年全球反式脂肪消除情況報告」（Countdown to 2023：WHO Report on global trans fat elimination 2022）每年追蹤實踐進度。
「最佳實踐」有兩套選擇，一是強制性國家限制：所有食品每100克總脂肪的反式脂肪含量不得超過2公克；二是國家禁止生產或禁止於食品添加部分氫化油。（部分氫化油是反式脂肪的主要來源。）
反式脂肪可能導致心臟病死亡。死亡人口占比最高的16個國家中，有九個國家尚未提出最佳實踐政策，包含澳洲、亞塞拜然、不丹、厄瓜多、埃及、伊朗、尼泊爾、巴基斯坦和韓國。
歐美的高收入國家大多已實施限制反式脂肪的政策，越來越多的中等收入國家也加入這行列，如阿根廷、孟加拉、印度、巴拉圭、菲律賓和烏克蘭等。但至今還沒有低收入國家導入這些政策。
Five of every eight people on Earth, five billion people, remain unprotected from harmful trans fats in their food, increasing their risk of heart disease and death, a new status report from the World Health Organization, WHO, has found. In fact, trans fat intake is responsible for up to 500,000 premature deaths from coronary heart disease each year globally, the UN health agency concludes.
Trans fatty acids, or trans fats, are a type of unsaturated fat that can occur naturally at very low levels in some meat and dairy products. But it’s the manufactured kind, the partially hydrogenated oils, that are the health concern.
The renowned Mayo Clinic in the United States considers trans fat “the worst type of fat to eat.” Unlike other dietary fats, trans fats raise “bad” cholesterol and also lower “good” cholesterol in the blood.
Trans fats are so unhealthy that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has banned food manufacturers from adding artificial trans fats to foods and beverages.
Some higher income countries have limited trans fats in foods to two percent, but many countries have not. In North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, partially hydrogenated cooking oils that contain trans fat are used in the home and by street vendors for frying and baking.
Since WHO first called for the global elimination of industrially produced trans fat in 2018, with an elimination target set for 2023, population coverage of best-practice policies has increased almost six-fold, the UN health agency reports.
Forty-three countries have now implemented best-practice policies for tackling trans fat in food, with 2.8 billion people protected globally.
Despite substantial progress, roughly five billion of the eight billion people now living on the planet are at risk from heart attacks and strokes in people whose blood vessels are blocked with trans fats.
The report, called “Countdown to 2023 WHO Report on global trans fat elimination 2022,” is an annual status report that tracks progress towards the goal of trans fat elimination in 2023. It is published by WHO in collaboration with Resolve to Save Lives, a $225 million, five-year initiative to prevent epidemics and cardiovascular disease. Its funders include Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Gates Philanthropy Partners, which is funded with support from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation.
There are two best-practice policy alternatives:
1 – mandatory national limit of 2 grams of industrially produced trans fat per 100 grams of total fat in all foods.
2 – mandatory national ban on the production or use of partially hydrogenated oils, a major source of trans fat, as an ingredient in all foods.
Today, nine of the 16 countries with the highest estimated proportion of coronary heart disease deaths caused by trans fat intake do not have a best-practice policy. They are Australia, Azerbaijan, Bhutan, Ecuador, Egypt, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and South Korea.
While most trans fat elimination policies to date have been implemented in higher-income countries in the Americas and in Europe, an increasing number of middle-income countries are adopting these policies, including Argentina, Bangladesh, India, Paraguay, Philippines and Ukraine.
No low-income countries have yet adopted a best-practice policy to eliminate trans fat.
※ 全文及圖片詳見：ENS
