The Price of Convenience
By Jason Lindekugel, DC
(Printed in “Concordia News”, March 2007)
I’ll admit it. I love processed foods.Anything artificially orange, I want it like a politician wants to win. Cheetos, Orange Crush soda, Doritos, Kraft mac & cheese…dig’em. Mac and cheese might make up a significant portion of my calorie intake if it weren’t for some carefully laid rules given to me by my mother long ago. She has always been an advocate of whole foods, much to my dismay as a child. The only place I could get Cheetos or a soda as a kid was at a friend’s house. Her rules concerning food have served me well through many diet fads. The more you process food, the more convenient it is, the longer you can store it, the more likely it will hurt your health. She taught me to worry less about too many carbs, too much fat, too many calories and focus on the quality of the meal. No other issue illustrates this point better than the controversies surrounding trans fats that has recently flooded the media.
Trans fats are a product of manufacturing vegetable oils into fats that are solid at room temperature. This makes vegetable oil look like butter (margarine) and creates food with an astronomical shelf life (most snack foods). As much as 40% of the oil may be turned into trans fat during this process. This happens by a slight alteration in the molecular structure of the oil when submitted to high temperatures and a catalyst.(this is great for space travel, but a poor choice for the raw materials used to repair ourselves on a daily basis.)
As it turns out, these damaged fats are very bad for our cardiovascular system.Much worse than the so often vilified saturated fats. So much so that the FDA has mandated new labeling on all processed foods, to show estimated levels of trans fats in a particular item on the supermarket shelf. There reasoning behind this decision stems from scientific studies showing that at least 30,000 premature coronary heart disease deaths each year can be attributed to the consumption of these processed fats.
Our elected officials are even stepping into the lead of this issue.You may have heard about the recent ban on trans fats in
Here are some simple ways for you and your family to avoid trans fats:
- Avoid foods with the words “hydrogenated fat” and “shortening” in the ingredients.
- Be wary of foods manufactured outside of the
US
- When eating out, ask the restaurant or bakery if they use hydrogenated fat or shortening in the preparation of their foods.
- Do most of your shopping on the perimeter of the supermarket.These areas tend to have foods that have not been made with trans fats.
My family may not have time to make whole food meals every night from scratch, but we enjoy them more often as we learn about the health benefits of undamaged food. I look forward to a day when our grocery stores are taken over by an abundance of whole foods, and there is a small section in the back of the store labeled “Convenience Foods”.
Resources
Anything written by Mary Enig, PHD – She is the lipid (fat) biochemist and nutritionist who did the first research in the 70’s showing that damaged fats were harmful.
Bantranfats.com – Website on all the new regulations and changes in the food industry relating to trans fats.
“Nourishing Traditions” – a cook book and primer on fats (by Mary Enig, PHD).
Weston A. Price Foundation – Organization began by a dentist who studied the diets of indigenous cultures who lacked many of the degenerative diseases of aging seen so abundantly here in the states.
www.hsph.harvard.edu/reviews/transfats - Good summary of the research related to trans fats.