Trans fat revolt giving doughnuts new profile

For years, Becky Anderson was conflicted. Despite her vegetarian diet and a preference for organic food, she also indulged in occasional runs to the Winchell's Donuts in her Seattle neighborhood.

That changed when Anderson discovered Mighty-O Donuts — a small Green Lake shop that makes trans-fat-free doughnuts from an all-natural, vegan recipe.

"I'm not saying this is good for you," she said. "But it's definitely not as bad."

Doughnut lovers across the country could soon follow Anderson's move to less unhealthful treats as regulators and retailers pressure food companies to drop artery-clogging trans fats.

Rather than worrying the shift will gobble up their market niche, some natural-doughnut makers say they're happy to see the food industry abandoning ingredients that gave the industrialized doughnut a bad rap.

"It's nice to have been ahead of the curve," said Ryan Kellner, owner of the all-organic Mighty-O Donuts in Seattle. "But I think it's great for society in general that we're moving towards an alternative."

"Doughnuts have kind of gone through a renaissance," said Mark Isreal, who's been making all-natural doughnuts for a dozen years at the Doughnut Plant in New York.

Artificial trans fats, listed on food labels as partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, have drawn increasing criticism from health advocates in recent years because they are thought to boost "bad" cholesterol and decrease "good" cholesterol.

Health regulators have taken notice. New York recently agreed to institute a citywide trans-fat ban by mid-2008, and officials from Little Rock, Ark., to Los Angeles are considering similar measures.

In Franklin County, Ohio, officials have even suspended an annual contract to supply the county jail with doughnuts, citing concerns about trans fats and nutrition.

Some food sellers stopped using trans fats voluntarily after the Food and Drug Administration began requiring trans-fat content on food labels. That includes coffeehouse giant Starbucks, which recently announced it was halfway through a plan to purge trans fats from its U.S. food menu.

Top Pot Doughnuts, one of Starbucks' largest doughnut suppliers, switched to a trans-fat-free recipe in November.

"We'd been looking for the last couple of years at moving to a trans-fat-free product," said Amy Gundlach, spokeswoman for Seattle's Top Pot. "When Starbucks came to us and told us about their change, that put a little more urgency on our research."

Others are still experimenting with changes to their recipes.

Mainstream doughnut makers, whose products can have around 5 grams of trans fat apiece, are generally mum about their specific progress toward meeting New York's citywide trans-fat ban.

Dunkin' Donuts, a branch of privately held Dunkin' Brands, says it has tested 22 alternative oils since launching its own push against trans fats in 2004.

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts says it "will continue to work aggressively with outside supply partners to develop a zero trans-fat doughnut."

The big question is how consumers will react.

"I think you're going to see the heavy doughnut user, if you will, walk away from the Krispy Kreme with no trans fats and say, 'Hmm, tastes different,' " said food-industry analyst Phil Lempert, editor of SupermarketGuru.com.

Consumers shouldn't assume, however, that a trans-fat-free doughnut is necessarily healthful, said Marion Nestle, a nutrition professor at New York University.

"My feeling is that the whole trans-fat issue is a calorie distraction," Nestle said. "You think that because it's trans-fat-free, it doesn't have any calories. And whatever the substitute is going to be, it's going to have just as many calories."