By Kyle LoJacono
A moment of frustration in a friend sparked a quest for local nurse David Burton.
It started while the Land O’ Lakes resident was on a hike in the Appalachian Trail with James Wenzel.
“He was looking at the ingredients of a granola bar and was complaining that something labeled as healthy had partially hydrogenated oil in it,” said Burton, 36. “I’m a nurse and I asked him how bad can it be? This was years ago and I hadn’t heard anything about it.”
Burton works at Community Hospital in New Port Richey and said few people there knew about it either. He started to look into the subject and found a wealth of information from Harvard University on the health effects of partially hydrogenated oils, or trans fats.
“This (trans fat) is really a toxic chemical that should not be in the food supply,” said Dr. Walter Willett, professor at Harvard’s school of public health and medical school.
Those findings were very troubling to Burton, as the substances are in many processed food.
“I learned about food labeling and it’s in almost everything, even ones that say they have zero grams of trans fats,” Burton said.
Burton said the Food and Drug Administration allows food manufactures to label anything with less than half a gram of trans fats as having zero by rounding that number down. He said most companies changed their serving size to ensure each had less than half a gram.
“Let’s say you eat some crackers with half a gram of trans fats in say four crackers,” Burton said. “If you eat 16 crackers, you just at two grams of trans fats on something labeled zero grams.”
He said the only way to see if trans fats are in something is to read the ingredients label. If partially hydrogenated oil or shortening are listed, then the food has the substances.
Burton has always had a passion for making movies, so he created “inGREEDients,” an hour-long documentary on trans fats. The name comes from the food industry ignoring the warning signs from research on the substance.
“It’s the same old story, follow the money,” Burton said. “That’s the big reason we partnered with Dr. Willett. He’s been doing the research for 30 years on trans fats.”
Willett’s research shows that eating any amount of trans fats increases the chance of heart disease, diabetes, cholesterol problems and many other health problems. The documentary also has several other doctors from various universities from across the country who tell a similar story.
Burton, his wife Robyn and 5-year-old daughter Jordyn have cut out all trans fats from their diet, along with other food additives such as monosodium glutamate (MSG), corn syrup and the artificial sweetener aspartame.
“We’re all in perfect health thankfully,” Burton said. “My wife has lost 30 pounds and we have a healthy little girl.”
Burton said it was not easy to cut all those things out of their diet, but they did it slowly during several years. He said a normal meal for the family is from whole foods, most of which do not have any labels to read, like fresh vegetables.
Burton said the first goal was to educate adults about their food choices, but that has changed.
“Adults usually have their food choices set, but when we teach kids then they go home and talk to their parents about it,” Burton said. “That’s why I go and talk with the schools. Then they can live healthy lives.”
Burton speaks to the schools for free. He has focused on middle schools in the past, including John Long in Wesley Chapel, but will be doing the same in high schools in the coming months.
Anyone interested in getting a copy of the movie should visit www.ingreedientsmovie.com, where they can also see more information from the experts about trans fats.
Burton is not finished making movies. He is in the process of making a similar film about corn syrup, artificial sweeteners and other similar food additives.
“That’s the other big thing we’re looking into,” Burton said. “Stay tuned.”
What is a trans fat?
A trans fat, also known as partially hydrogenated oil, is an unsaturated fat that has had hydrogen molecules added to it. Unsaturated fats are usually liquid at room temperature. Adding the hydrogen makes them solid, which makes them more shelf stable.
Film festival awards for “inGREEDients”*
–Gasparilla International Film Festival
–Naples Film Festival
–Florida Choice Award
–Honolulu International Film Festival
–The Indie Film Fest Awards
–Silk Fest City Festival
*All from 2009
