A sizzling steak with a pat of butter on top. Tuna, trout, or herring. A pile of crispy french fries. A flaky biscuit or delicate pie crust. Sure, all have some fat in them - but which fats are good, which are bad, and which are somewhere in between? Join Joe Palca and his guests in this hour of Science Friday as they try to sort out one fat from another and get the skinny on the latest nutrition research.

Plus, New York City is weighing a proposal to ban trans fats from the city's restaurants. Would such a ban save lives -- or is it, as some critics claim, just another case of the 'food police' getting unnecessarily involved in people's private lives?

Call in with your questions and comments at 1-800-989-8255 (3-4 Eastern). Teachers, find more information about using Science Friday as a classroom resource in the Kids' Connection.

Guests:
Dariush Mozzaffarian, MD, MPH
Cardiologist
Harvard School of Public Health
Boston, Massachusetts

Gail A. Brewer
Council Member--District 6 (Upper West Side and Clinton)
New York City Council
New York, New York

Sheila Cohn Weiss
Director, Nutrition Policy
National Restaurant Association
Washington, DC

Susan Allport
Author, "The Queen of Fats: Why Omega-3's Were Removed From the Western Diet and What We Can Do to Replace Them (University of California Press, 2006)
Katonah, New York

Books/Articles Discussed:

"The Queen of Fats: Why Omega-3's Were Removed From the Western Diet and What We Can Do to Replace Them" by Susan Allport. University of California Press, 2006.

(find books discussed on previous broadcasts)

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This segment produced by Anne Marie Cunningham