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Restaurateur on leading edge of national trend  

 Aside from their continental evening cuisine, their lunch time famous corned beef reuben,  and their over the top traditional farmer’s breakfasts, James Place Island Grill, serves you something you probably don’t know about.   

Chef/Owner Michael Meerman is proud to tell everyone that since January 2006, “Our salad dressings, fryer oils, and butter substitute products contain zero, that’s right no trans fat”.  He adds, "Very few restaurants can make that claim and most have not yet even ventured to explore what it takes to do so. These are commonly used restaurant products that until now, neither the consumer or restaurant trade paid much attention to”. 

One of the hottest consumer trends today is the desire to reduce and/or eliminate trans fat from our diets. Since Jan.1, 2006, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has required food companies to list trans fat content separately on the Nutrition Facts panel of all packaged foods. 

New York is the nation’s first city to ban artery-clogging artificial trans fat at restaurants. Their board of health, which passed the ban unanimously, did give restaurants a slight break by relaxing what had been considered a tight deadline for compliance. Restaurants will be barred from using most frying oils containing artificial trans fat by July and will have to eliminate the artificial trans fat from all of their foods by July 2008.  Many other state and municipal governments are jumping on the ZTF band wagon.  In fact, the nations leading restaurant chains have recently announced their own intentions to move in the same direction.

The obvious and compelling rationale for these actions can be traced directly to studies conducted by the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and numerous other government, scientific, and academic organizations.

Scientific evidence shows that consumption of trans fat, raises low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad cholesterol," levels, which increases the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, more than 12.5 million Americans have CHD, and more than 500,000 die each year. That makes CHD one of the leading causes of death in the United States.

Basically, trans fat is made when manufacturers add hydrogen to vegetable oil--a process called hydrogenation. Hydrogenation increases the shelf life and flavor stability of foods containing these fats.

Meerman says that "many of the food products coming out of our kitchen are not trans fat dependent”.  Trans fat can be found in vegetable shortenings, some margarines, crackers, cookies, snack foods, and other foods made with or fried in partially hydrogenated oils. Unlike other fats, the majority of trans fat is formed when food manufacturers turn liquid oils into solid fats like shortening and hard margarine. A small amount of trans fat is found naturally, primarily in some animal-based foods.

From a practical stand point, Meerman adds, “We can’t eliminate trans fat from our diets, but we can certainly source and use ingredients that help reduce our consumption of them”

The FDA estimates that the average daily intake of trans fat in the U.S. population is about 5.8 grams or 2.6 percent of calories per day for individuals 20 years of age and older.

Health experts recommend that you keep your intake of saturated fat, trans fat, and cholesterol as low as possible while consuming a nutritionally adequate diet. However, these experts recognize that eliminating these three components entirely from your diet is not feasible because they are unavoidable in ordinary diets.

117 West Venice Ave., Venice, Florida  34285   941-485-6742
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James Place Island Grill
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