No Trans Fats: Retirement Community Changes Its Health Recipe.

By Felicia Cousart Matlosz, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

Apr. 3–The dishes at San Joaquin Gardens retirement community in Fresno still have inviting names, such as braised mahi-mahi with couscous, Tuscan white bean soup with pepper puree and banana caramel souffle. The variety of tastes still is pleasant and welcoming.

And all without the dreaded trans fats that can trigger major health problems.

In the past year, the staff has cut out those fats while maintaining a high regard for culinary quality and flavor. Residents such as Harriet Hanson didn’t even realize a switch had happened.

“I didn’t even know they made the change,” she says. “It tastes wonderful.”

The decision to eliminate trans fats — also called trans fatty acids — follows a national trend to rid meals of these man-made fats that medical experts say increase bad cholesterol and contribute to major health problems, such as coronary disease.

New York City late last year approved a law that will phase out artificial trans fats in all its restaurants by July 2008. In February, Philadelphia passed legislation to ban the fats from its restaurants. Major fast-food and coffee chains, such as KFC and Starbucks, have announced they are reducing or eliminating trans fats. Cities, school districts, ballparks and other agencies have done so or are considering it.

It seemed a natural step for San Joaquin Gardens to take as well. The community, just north of the Fresno Street and Barstow Avenue intersection, is home to about 350 residents whose average age is about 83 to 85.

“Our residents are becoming much more savvy and knowledgeable to improve their nutrition and lifestyle,” executive director Keli Swales says.

Swales says San Joaquin Gardens dwellers wanted more information about nutrition, and they wanted healthier meals: “We’re responding to our own residents.”

The conversion began last year. Yannick Himber, San Joaquin Gardens’ director of dining services, says the community partnered with Sodexho. That company — a giant in the food services industry with more than 6,000 clients in North America, including The Fresno Bee — completed in January 2006 its switch to zero trans fats. It began offering many zero trans-fats products, such as salad dressings, sauces, soups, bakery goods, cereals and pasta.

Ridding dishes of trans fats is just part of San Joaquin Gardens’ push for fitter lifestyles. Staff members have tried to educate residents about making healthier choices in their diets, such as eating at least three daily servings of whole grains, eating five to nine daily servings of fruits and vegetables, watching their portions and limiting their sodium.

Staff members also encourage other nondiet choices to bolster healthier living, such as exercising regularly and spending quality time with family and friends. As Himber says, “vitality and wellness” are some of the “most important aspects of life as you age.”

Residents Ted and Mary Nii take these suggestions to heart. He is 76, and she is 75.

Mary says they both have family histories that include diseases such as cancer and hypertension. So they keep an eye on what they eat and take advantage of San Joaquin Gardens’ fitness center. They also enjoy ballroom dancing.

Mary says, “We are hoping that by eating properly and exercising — that if the life that we’re going to have is prolonged — then we would like to have a healthier life rather than end up with problems that we could have avoided.”

As for the change to dishes without trans fats, Ted says they didn’t notice it: “We really didn’t miss the fats.”

Trans fats, which come from partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, often are in foods such as cookies, french fries, cakes and salad dressings.

“Partial hydrogenation is an industrial process used to make a perfectly good oil, such as soybean oil, into a perfectly bad oil,” according to the BanTransFats.com Web site, a California nonprofit corporation aimed at reducing and eliminating partially hydrogenated oils from all food products.

“The process is used to make an oil more solid; provide longer shelf life in baked products; provide longer fry-life for cooking oils, and provide a certain kind of texture, or ‘mouthfeel,’ ” the Web site says. “The big problem is that partially hydrogenated oil is laden with lethal trans fat.”

Eating foods with trans fats in them can increase the risk of heart disease, says Mollie Smith, a registered dietitian and a lecturer at California State University, Fresno.

While there is much focus these days on childhood obesity, people in their mature years can benefit just as much from dietary changes, especially those with ailments and health problems.

“Nutrition is very important at that point,” Smith says.

In making the changes, the San Joaquin dining staff wanted to make sure that taste and flavors would be satisfying. They meet with the dining room committee and welcome input from other residents.

Johnnie Sowell, 79, is chairwoman of the dining room committee. She says the staff has made good choices and that the food is wonderful. She also says that when you know trans fats are no longer in the dishes, “then you’re more at ease. You don’t have to be concerned, ‘Am I eating something that’s going to hurt me?’ “

Harriet Hanson, who hadn’t noticed the change, and her husband, Harold, had been mindful of their dietary habits even before the switch. Harriet, 78, is a retired pediatrician, and Harold, 80, who’s also president of the Resident Council, is a retired surgeon. Harriet says, for example, that they try to stay away from potatoes, and “we never eat ice cream.”

But it also helps that the staff at San Joaquin Gardens is looking for ways to improve the food choices that they serve.

“We all appreciate their efforts to make this dietary change,” Harold says. “We may not taste it, but we know it affects our health. And we appreciate that.”

The reporter can be reached at fmatlosz@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6428.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Fresno Bee, Calif.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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