Hydrogenation.
That’s an entire 5 syllables telling you that someone added hydrogen to some vegetable oil to turn it into Crisco. Well, not just vegetable oil—any liquid fat, really. And it’s not just made into Crisco. Hydrogenation is used for nearly every single product containing trans fatty acids (trans fats). Manufacturers use this process to make a great many things scores of people consume on a daily basis:
Just to list a few.
Trans fats were created to decrease the amount of saturated fats in people’s diets, because someone got it in their head that saturated fats were bad. Then, manufacturers discovered that their new baby made products last longer. Today, trans fats can be found in about 40% of the products you see on typical grocery store shelves.
Sounds good, right? Yeah... not so much.
While saturated fats do a fairly decent job of it, trans fats contribute their own fair share to clogging your arteries, by raising the level of LDLs (the “lousy” cholesterol) in your blood, as well as lipoproteins and triglycerides. Clogged arteries contribute to other medical complications. Like death.
Trans fats also seem to increase risk for diabetes, as well as the chance of heart disease and heart attacks.
I’m not saying to remove trans fats from your diet. I know I didn’t. I happen to like cookies and ice cream. However, be aware of what you’re consuming. In general, you should try to limit the amount of both saturated and trans fats you’re ingesting. If your doctor tells you to lower your LDLs, you might want to lay off dipping Keebler cookies into ranch dressing.
Stick, mainly, to the “good” fats. Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats raise the amount of HDLs (“healthy” cholesterol) in your bloodstream. HDLs remove LDLs from your blood. In high numbers they protect you from heart attacks, help unclog arteries, and make Chuck Norris cry his miraculous cancer-curing tears. Pretty neat, n’est-ce pas?
You can find these fats in products like canola, olive, and peanut oils. Also, nuts, avocado, and peanut butter are good, heart-healthy snacks.
If you really need some margarine-type product, Smart Beat makes a trans-fat-free one that’s actually pretty decent (as in, it melts like butter and not like plastic).
I’m not saying to go chug a bottle of olive oil, though. That’s gross. I’m just saying to try to pick good fats over bad ones. Saturated and trans fats should be listed on the nutrition label of your food (unless you’re hoarding stuff from before 2006). And, even then, you should limit all fat intake to about 30% of your diet.
Trans Fats: The Science and the Risks
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"I'm not saying to remove trans fats from your diet."
Well, if you don't say it, I will... People: remove trans fats from your diet. Your body will thank you!! Trans fat is completely nasty and deadly. There is absolutely nothing good about it.
Sure, it might be hard to eliminate it from your diet at first, but just read labels. Focus on fresh foods and the healthy fats mentioned in this blog. Many restaurants are eliminating the use of trans fats in their cooking. As awareness of this poison continues to increase, living trans fat free will become easier and easier.
To learn more about trans fat, visit http://www.bantransfats.com/index.html.
I couldn't say it because it would probably make me a hypocrite... though I did look at my ice cream after writing this and it doesn't have any trans fats. Neither does my reeses puffs cereal. And I make my cookies with butter (I don't use Crisco or Margarine in anything), so they probably don't have trans fats either.
I think I might not actually consume very many trans fats. Hmmm
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Yeah, I've discovered that it's not too difficult to live without trans fats. Lots of things are being made without them these days.
That's a quote from my partner, which I thought you would appreciate. She just finished Michael Pollan's new book. She heard the word trans fat and off she went...Here's what I've just learned in the past two minutes:
Trans fats also occur naturally sometimes in meat. It happens anytime one hydrogen ion jumps to another atom, which can happen randomly, apparently. Those are not labeled.
Also, trans fats release free radicals in our blood, which contributes to cancer.
That was all I caught. I'd ask her for further clarification, but every time she starts talking about this book, I sign on for a good fifteen minutes of listening, and we both have to get to work.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
There was something in that article about that, as well. I did think it was interesting; before I thought it was only a man-made thing. It's a really small amount though.
What's the name of that book? I might have to check it out. I'm going to completely fail the book review bonus opportunity. I keep finding other things to read instead. ;-)
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You should also read The Omnivore's Dilemma. Good stuff.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
Many foods also are coming out wih 0 Trans fats. So this is a good thing. Another thing people should take into account is switching to light, fat free, or reduced fat milk,sour cream, and other things.
People get fat free confused, but fat free means that there can not be more than 1.5 grams of fat. reduced fat means there can not be more than 3 grams of fat. it is something along those lines. We switched to light because it has fewer calories, fewer fat, and fewer everything. I have gotten so used to it that I have tasted the other and it made me very sick.
Some people get fat confused and want to cut all fats out of their diet. This is actually bad for you in a sense. Like you were talking about we need monosat. fats and polystat. fats. :) but could do with out trans and saturated. I am guilty of eating some of this also.
http://www.progressiveu.org/032913-lupus-uncureable-wait-what
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I learned about the fat free and reduced fat label rules in my nutrition class a million years ago. Reduced fat stuff needs to have at least 25% or something less fat than the original product and fat free is... yeah pretty much 1.5 grams of fat or less per serving. And to put low-fat on the label, I think each serving has to have less than 20% of the total calories be from fat. Don't quote me on any of those numbers. That class was a few years ago and my book isn't exactly open in front of me. I'm just agreeing with you that labels for such things are actually regulated.
I love learning about nutrition stuff. I just registered for my grad classes and one of them is a semester-long seminar on public nutrition and food politics. I'm really excited for it. I think I might end up going into some kind of nutrition teaching with my public health nursing education. :-)
My mom and I switched to reduced fat products, as well. We go by flavor and texture with things, so reduced fat is what we normally stick to, rather than fat-free. Sour cream and cottage cheese just loose their appeal when you take all the fat out of them. Fat just makes things taste good and feel good in your mouth.
I will admit I switched from skim to whole milk and I'll never go back. :-P
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I am taking a nutrition class right now actually I need to be taking the final exam. Don't quote me on what i said either. lol. I retain information pretty well, but sometimes it is wrong.
Yeah I tried fat free sour cream, cheese, and cottage cheese and I about barfed. I like fat free milk but my dad won't buy it because he thinks it is gross so I guess 2% is fine. Whole milk is really good, but since I switched my stomach is sensitive to fat. Hell I don't even need Alli my body rejects fat itself!
http://www.progressiveu.org/032913-lupus-uncureable-wait-what
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In many cases fat free = taste free!
It's just as well. It is very harmful to cut all fats from your diet. Sure, cut all trans fats as best as you can. But as far as becoming ultra non-fat, that's no good. Our bodies need a certain amount of naturally-occurring fats found in diary products and nuts. However, beware of dairy - cow's milk products can be incredibly harmful as well.
Basically, get rid of the nasty human-made fake fats, and keep the natural stuff. Reduced fat is fine, but non-fat isn't good for your body either.
Great title to this entry. It's also good to know that peanut butter is good for me! Just another excuse to like eating peanut butter sandwiches.
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thanks :-) my friend and I have been going back and forth with things like "I miss you like the Nets missed the playoffs" or "I miss you like a bad sunburn when I don't use sunblock." The title was one of my nerdier ones :-P
Peanut butter is pretty much my favorite food. I'll look for any excuse to eat it. My favorite one is "Oh, look! Peanut butter!" :-)
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You have really limited yourself there with that excuse. MY favorite excuse to eat peanut butter is peanut butter time, which happens at o'clock. Any o'clock.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
Maybe I'll edit it to say "Oh look! Peanut butter! That magically appeared on a spoon. In my hand. I wonder how it mmmmffpphhhmmm"
maybe "mmmmffpphhhmmm" is all the excuse I need...
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is the perfect excuse!
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
The rule for trans fat is that any food that has less than .5 grams of trans fat can be marked as 0g of trans fat on the nutrition label. If you really want to avoid trans fat you will need to scan the ingredients. Anything that has hydrogenated -insert ingredient- contains trans fat regardless of what the nutritional label reads.
It's said that trans fat not only increases LDL cholesterol but also lowers levels of HDL cholesterol. With that being said, the NAS does not recommend any intake of trans fat. I got this from Wikipedia so it might not be credible.
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