Is the Food and Drug Administration banning sprinkles in 2015? No, but that didn’t stop “Fox & Friends” fill-in host Clayton Morris from saying so.
“Say goodbye to your favorite sprinkled donuts,” Morris said in a segment that aired on the Fox News program on Tuesday. “They’re getting rid of donuts like these. The agency’s now regulating America’s intake of trans fats [which are] at such high levels, the amount needed to make something as small as a sprinkle on your donut may be banned.”
That’s right. Morris went from insinuating that the FDA definitely is banning sprinkles, to “may be” banning sprinkles in the same breath.
Fox News sounded the alarm after hearing reports that new regulations to further limit the amount of partially hydrogenated oils, the primary source of trans fat, are expected in 2015.
While those regulations may arrive, a simple Google search should have led Morris to use another desert topping as an example of what Americans may be missing — or maybe just say “trans-fats” — because there are a number of manufactures offering non-hydrogenated sprinkles, like the Paulaur Corporation or India Tree.
“But doesn’t the FDA have more important things to do than regulate sprinkles?” Morris added, before introducing his guest, food and agricultural economist Jayson Lusk.
All evidence points to the answer being “yes.”
According to non-profit medical research group the Mayo Clinic, trans fat is widely considered to be the worst kind of fat you can eat, because it both raises your LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and lowers your HDL (“good”) cholesterol. While small amounts naturally occur in meat and dairy products, most is formed through an industrial process that adds hydrogen to vegetable oil. The fat is especially high in snacks, fried food, baked goods and non-dairy butter and creamers.
There’s good news for sprinkled donut lovers, though. Dunkin Donuts hasn’t used trans fat in their food since 2007, and the company has yet to crumble.