Hopefully, you are already aware of trans fats and partially hyrdrogenated ingredients. Simply put these ingredients are very bad for anyone to eat, they increase heart disease, obesity, decrease in your good chloresteral, it clogs arteries, and can lead to many other serious problems in your health.
Trans fats or partially hydrogenated oils come from the process of the process of adding hydrogen to oils in order to harden them and give them a longer shelf life. Keep those slim jims on the shelves for another decade, because the oil is pretty much plastic at this point.
(question & answer borrowed from American Heart)
What is the difference between partially hydrogenated oils and fully hydrogenated oils?
Hydrogenation is the process by which liquid vegetable oil is turned into solid fat. Partially hydrogenated oils contain trans fats. However, when liquid vegetable oil is fully hydrogenated, almost no trans fats remain. Full hydrogenation increases the amount of saturated fats, mostly in the form of stearic acid. Stearic acid does not raise levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol. This makes fully hydrogenated fats less harmful than partially hydrogenated fats.
(question & answer borrowed from American Heart)
The Trans Fat monster is in just about all of your junk food, chips, cookies, crackers, fast food and there are no safe levels of consumption. Trans Fats are simply bad for you.
If you notice, now it is becoming manditory for the food companies to reveal the amount of trans fat in their products. Many companies are switching away from trans fat and boasting about it on their packaging.
Spread the word....trans fats are horrible for you.
It seems the only good strategy is to eat your vegetables and healthy oils, like fish, olives, nuts and flax seed and stay healthy.
The other source for this blog was the San Francisco Cronicle
Also learn why Soda is so bad for you, and my tips for kicking the soda habit.
1 comment:
Trans Fat is freaky stuff. So is HFCS (high fructose corn syrup). I would recommend checking out the books fast food nation and the omnivore's dilemma if you haven't already.
I try to eat as clean as I can, no sodas, as little packaged foods as possible, tons of fresh fruits and veggies. It often feels like a full time job, but your body feels so much better as a result.
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