February 15: The World Health Organization (WHO) has praised Nepal for restricting levels of industrially produced trans-fatty acids in the food supply through a legislation, which the UN body said was a move aimed at promoting health and saving lives.

“Eliminating trans-fatty acids is a cost-effective measure with great health benefits in preventing premature deaths from cardiovascular diseases,” Saima Wazed, regional director of WHO South-East Asia, said in a press statement issued on Wednesday.

Prioritizing prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in South-East Asia Region, WHO has been supporting countries for elimination of trans-fatty acids from national food supplies, along with other measures. With Nepal’s legislation, now nearly 80% of the region’s population of 1.6 billion people will be potentially protected from the harms of trans-fatty acids, the statement added.

Globally, 540,000 deaths every year can be attributed to intake of industrially produced trans-fatty acids, the WHO added. High trans-fat intake significantly increases the risk of death from cardiovascular diseases. Trans-fat has no known health benefits, the WHO further said.

Non-communicable diseases cause 69% of the nearly 9 million deaths every year in the WHO South-East Asia Region. Cardiovascular diseases are a major cause of deaths, according to the WHO.

In 2018 WHO released REPLACE a guide of six strategies to help achieve the elimination of industrially produced trans-fatty acids. In collaboration with Resolve to Save Lives, REPLACE protocols are being implemented across the region, reads the statement issued by WHO.

By 2022 Thailand, India and Bangladesh had adopted regulations for elimination of trans-fatty acids in food supply. Indonesia had complementary policy measures. Sri Lanka issued a regulation in 2023. Nepal issued the legislation on trans-fatty acids on February 8, according to the WHO.

“Restricting trans-fatty acids is one of the measures under WHO South-East Asia Region’s ‘SEA HEARTS’ that emphasizes on united effort across all partners and all stakeholders for aligned and effective acceleration of actions to reduce deaths from cardiovascular diseases.”

According to the WHO, Nepal’s legislation on trans-fatty acids will add 30 million people to the SEA HEARTS  target of protecting two billion people from the harmful effects of trans-fatty acids through best practices or complementary policy measures of WHO REPLACE by 2025.

WHO has been urging countries in the region to focus on best-practice policies, monitoring and surveillance, to drive progress against trans-fatty acids.

The statement added that eliminating trans-fatty acids from the food supply will enhance the health and well-being of people and also help attain the SDG targets of reducing premature mortality by one-third from non-communicable diseases by 2030.