Humayun for creating awareness about negative health impacts of trans fat

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DHAKA, Feb 13, 2020 (BSS)-Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun today underscored the need for creating awareness among the people about the negative health impacts of trans fat.

“Trans fat is a type of unsaturated fat that we eat every day with food. The unsaturated fat or trans fat increase the harmful cholesterol in our body and lower the beneficial cholesterol. It increases blood pressure and lower insulin excretion. The result is a stroke and increases the risk of developing diabetes. It can also cause of death,” he said.

The minister said this while speaking as the chief guest at a discussion on ‘Eating Trans Fat, Heart Risk and Doing: Consumer Perspectives’ at Centre on Integrated Rural Development for Asia and the Pacific (CIRDAP) auditorium in the city.

Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB), National Heart Foundation of Bangladesh and PROGGA (Knowledge for Progress) jointly organised the discussion.

Referring to a data, Humayun informed, around 300,000 people die every year in Bangladesh for heart disease, which is alarming.

He said the World Health Organization (WHO) has suggested restricting the maximum amount of trans-fat to 2 percent of total fat in industrialized food products by 2023 and prohibiting the production and use of partially hydrogenated oil (PHO) as food items.

He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced the visions to build an industrial-rich middle-income country by 2021 and to build a prosperous Bangladesh by 2041.

“For implementing the visions, we require talented and healthy people. The goal can be achieved by reducing the amount of trans-fat in the diet,” he added.

The industries minister said the government is also working to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. “The goal-3 of the SDGs is to ensure good health and wellbeing.

In this regard, our government has set a target of reducing non-communicable pathological deaths in one-third by 2030.

Achieving this, we also require healthy and sound manpower,” he added.

Among others, CAB Chairman Golam Rahman, Founder of National Heart Foundation of Bangladesh National Professor Brigadier (Retd) Abdul Malik and Director General of the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) Md Muazzem Hossain were present on the occasion.