Fat Substitutions In Foods

To the Editor.—  The Food and Drug Administration should be congratulated for beginning to encourage better food labeling. We should hope that this is only the beginning. Yet, many food regulations work to force Americans to eat diets that are dangerous to health.Many excellent low-saturated fats can be substituted for our favorite high-saturated fat foods. The National Diet Heart Study and others have demonstrated their acceptability. Tragically, these foods are often unavailable to the public because of the effect of state and federal regulations. The consumer is denied free choice.For example, filled milk in which the highly saturated milk fat is replaced by unsaturated vegetable fat helps control cholesterol. But federal law forbids the shipment of filled milk in interstate commerce.¹ It may not be sold at all in certain states.Similarly, no grocery or supermarket may sell filled cheese without paying a special tax and prominently