Hold the fat, please

City officials across the United States are considering prohibiting restaurants from cooking with trans fats, which many experts blame for the nation's rising obesity rates. New York and Chicago, for example, are considering legislation to ban trans fats in restaurants. Just this week, KFC Corporation and Burger King announced they are squeezing the trans fats out of their chicken and burgers.

Kristen Kurland, joint professor in Carnegie Mellon's School of Architecture and the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management, has teamed up with the local medical community to research how the way that modern cities are built has adversely affected people's health.

Kurland and Dr. Terence Starz, president of the Allegheny County Medical Society, are exploring ways that the architecture, medical and policy communities can collaborate on healthy lifestyle initiatives. They recently spoke about these collaborative research initiatives on KDKA-TV's Pittsburgh Today Live and KQV-AM radio in Pittsburgh. Identifying a lack of green space for physical activities, bad food choices and other risk factors, Kurland's research shows many of the reasons why our country is increasingly obese and solutions to get us out of this crisis. 

Eric Sloss