In the case of food “bad guys” we take a good idea too far in this country. We were terrified of fat when I was a kid, and then later, when I was in college, nobody was eating carbs. …sigh. I’ve already covered that, so let’s move on.
It’s amazing to me that after Denmark and Canada banned foods containing hydrogenated oils, and health researchers all over the world came to the same conclusion about them, that they have only kind of became a “bad guy” in America. People are talking about them, but nobody really seems to understand. We all cried wolf over fats and carbs, so now trans fats seem like just another silly thing to blow over. Trust me, people, this is NOT another silly fad. This one is a REAL bad guy.
Trans fats are the real monsters in our food, and many of us are shoveling them down our throats with reckless abandon. If you’re eating chips, or crackers, or cookies, or snack cakes, then chances are you are eating them. WIKIPEDIA had this to say about it:
“Unlike other dietary fats, trans fats are neither required nor beneficial for health. Eating trans fats increases the risk of coronary heart disease. For these reasons, health authorities worldwide recommend that consumption of trans fat be reduced to trace amounts. Trans fats from partially hydrogenated oils are generally considered to be more of a health risk than those occurring naturally.”
To close, I will just leave you with this description of precisely what hydrogenated means. Keep in mind, if you’re eating like most Americans, you put LOTS of this in your body every day.
“First they take vegetable oil, soy, corn or cottonseed, of a cheap quality. The oil may be already rancid from the extraction process. Then they mix it with tiny metal particles, usually nickel oxide, a toxic substance, and then they subject the mixture to hydrogen in a high pressure high temperature reactor. Next, in order to remove the unappetizing odor of the mixture and give it a better consistancy, soap-like emulsifiers and starch are squeezed in, and the oil is, yet again, subjected to high temperatures like steam cleaning. The resulting mixture is an unattractive grey color. In order to make the hydrogenated solid oil mixture look like butter, the original gray is removed by adding bleach and coal tar dyes. Finally, strong flavors are mixed in to make it taste like butter. And this mixture is compressed into tubs or blocks which the consumer buys as margarine.”