Letters from our readers
Re: Coronary disease on a plate, HealthSupplement, February 20th
Dear sir,
I read with interest Hélène Hofman's article Coronary heart disease on a plate. The article deals with the dangers of trans fats in common foodstuffs.
Ms Hofman bemoans the fact that levels of these fats are not shown on current food labels. Whilst this is true it is also somewhat misleading.
In the US, labels show whether or not packaged foods contain trans fats; here they do not.
Trans fats, however, are to be found in hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats and vegetable oils, and these ingredients are clearly listed on packaged foodstuffs in this country.
Therefore, anyone (sensibly, in my opinion) seeking to avoid these harmful substances need only check the list of ingredients. The higher up the list the ingredient appears, the more trans fats the product will contain.
The consumer does not need to await changes in legislation in order to avoid their consumption by means of packaged foods (although most fresh bakery products are sold with no clue to their contents).
Ms Hofman also states that trans fats are "really in foods that . . . we should be cutting down on anyway". This is also misleading as a simple check on your shopping basket will show that they are an ingredient in a very wide range of processed foods as well as many common brands of bread and even in some "health food products".
You do well to alert the population to this "unacceptable" ingredient in our food but the problem might be better understood if readers were told the names of those ingredients to avoid in our own food outlets.
Edward McCann, Greenhill Road, Co Wicklow
Re: Should Irish healthcare take Cuban lessons?, HealthSupplement, February 13th
Dear Sir,
I was interested to read the article Should Irish healthcare take Cuban lessons?
The article mentioned that all children in Cuba are immunised against Meningitis Group B and I was concerned that readers may be somewhat confused as one of Meningitis Research Foundation's messages is that we have no vaccine to protect us against Meningitis Group B and, therefore, awareness is essential.
Cuba had a problem with just one sub-type of Group B disease and the Cuban vaccine protects against that sub-type.
In Ireland about seven sub-types are important in causing disease, and the Cuban vaccine could not prevent the majority of them.
Meningitis Research Foundation is funding vital research into Group B vaccine.
However, until we have a vaccine to prevent this form of meningitis and septicaemia, the symptoms are important.
The charity operates a freefone 24-hour helpline in Ireland - 1800-413344 - and offers all callers free symptoms information.
More information is available on www.meningitis.org
Clodagh Brennock, Meningitis Research Foundation