Students looking to stay healthy in the dining halls may want to stick to the salad bar.
According to an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, many college campuses have followed the lead of New York City and begun to ban unhealthy trans fats in their dining halls. Though Tufts Dining Services (TUDS) is not planning to eliminate trans fats in its foods, according to TUDS Nutrition and Marketing Specialist Julie Lampie, the university is looking to reduce its use of unhealthy fats and oils.
"Tufts is not thinking about completely banning trans fats, but we are looking to cut back on the use of them," she said.
Trans-fatty acids, which are found in many processed and fried foods, behave more like saturated fats than unsaturated fats, according to the textbook "Understanding Nutrition." According to Professor Lynne Ausman of the Friedman School of Nutrition, some manufacturers are trying to remove trans fats from their processed foods in response to consumer pressure over its unhealthy properties.
Ausman said, however, that some companies have substituted the use of trans fats with tropical oils that are almost as unhealthy. Lampie said that trans fats are also found naturally in many dairy products, such as milk and cheese, and that these natural trans fats are not as harmful as synthetic ones.
In fact, Ausman said, manufacturers were only recently required to disclose the use of trans fats, or "hydrogenated oils" on products' nutrition labels.
"If you go down the peanut butter aisle of the supermarket, there are the natural peanut butter brands, and then there's JIF and Skippy," Ausman said. "Because peanut butter needs something to solidify it in order to prevent separation of the peanuts and oil, companies ... have replaced trans fats, which used to hold them together, with palm oil."
"I'd say buy the natural stuff, mix it up with a spoon, and put it in the refrigerator," she added.
Student opinion on the use of trans fats in the dining hall was split. Students who said they who knew a fair amount about trans fats generally wanted them banned from Tufts dining halls, and those who said they were unknowledgeable were unsure how they felt.
Freshman Becky Gallagher said that while she tries to think about the amount of fat in foods she eats, she does not know much about trans fats beyond that they are unhealthy.
"I think about fat in general when I eat, but I don't necessarily think about it just in terms of trans fats," she said. "I think I'd need know more about them in order to say whether or not I'd want the university to eliminate them."
On the other hand, freshman Benjamin Filippo said that because his mom is a nutritionist, he knows a lot about the negative effects of trans fats. He is very conscious of the foods he chooses to eat.
"When I buy products or eat in the dining halls, I try to think about the amount of trans fats and saturated fats they have in them," he said.
Filippo says that he thinks trans fats should be eliminated from the dining halls.
"I would definitely want Tufts to get rid of trans fats. It would just be so much better for students' health," he said.
Ausman felt similarly. She stressed that students are old enough to worry about the effect the food they eat can have on their body.
"When you eat too many trans fats, they deposit in the body in plaques in your arteries," she said. "This leads to heart disease ... Everyone should be concerned with trans fats."
According to Ausman, the type of margarine or oil used in cooking makes a marked difference in a person's cholesterol level.
In the late 1990s, Ausman, along with Senior Scientist Alice Lichtenstein and other colleagues at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, completed a study on the effect of different products on cholesterol levels.
In order of increasing amounts of trans fats, she studied soybean oil, soybean margarine, liquid margarine, soft solid margarine, hard margarine and butter. As the amount of trans fats in a product increased, the consumer's cholesterol level increased as well.
"The cholesterol level of those who used butter was highest, the level of those who used soy bean oil was the lowest," Ausman said.
While the study proved that hard margarine, which contains trans fats, is unhealthy, Ausman said that consumers should still choose margarine over butter, which is composed of saturated fat.
Lampie said that TUDS has been committed to decreasing the use of trans fats in the dining halls for some time.
"Three years ago, we changed our frying oil from hydrogenated oil containing trans fats to trans fat-free canola oil," she said. "For students who eat any kind of deep-fried food, this oil is much healthier."
Ausman agreed that the switch to canola oil was a good decision on the part of Dining Services.
"Canola and soybean oil have Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids, both of which you need in your diet," she said.
Lampie added that Dining Services is continuing to improve its healthiness.
"This year, we changed to trans fat-free the oil we use on our grills to prevent sticking," she said.
While Tufts is making an effort to improve the healthiness of the food served in the dining halls, Ausman said that it is up to students to permanently stay away from foods high in trans fats.
"We have to get used to maybe having jelly on our toast instead of butter, or just using different recipes," she said.
