It seems today’s shoppers need a college degree to understand product labels. The object of today’s manufacturing exercise is to make cheaper “foods” with a use by date of forever. A bonus for the manufacturer is that the oils used in making these products make them taste good. The person eating the food craves more of it.
In order to make “foods” last longer, they are made with oils that have been injected with hydrogen gas. This is the scientific explanation: oil is heated. Hydrogen is added. The molecules in the oil are no longer joined. They are joined to the hydrogen. The oil is now saturated, and nothing else can be added to it. Partially mixing the two results in trans fats.
Adding hydrogen to the oil makes whatever results from the recipe harder. Think margarine and shortening. When the oils are in solid form, the foods they are used in don’t spoil as quickly. Adding these oils to other “foods” increases the shelf life indefinitely.
Avoiding these types of “food” is as simple as making everything yourself. Why would anyone eat something the ingredients of which they have no idea? Manufacturers hide these harmful oils from the public by saying “no trans fats!” and “diet” something, among other things.
True wellness is knowing exactly what goes into the food we eat. Making your own food yourself ensures the damages from hydrogenated fat don’t happen to you. No stroke, no heart attacks, no diabetes. Want a a piece of cake? Bake one. Craving a sandwich? Make the bread yourself. You can even make your own potato chips, pizza crust, and candies.
1. Ready To Use Dough
Trans fats result when oil is only partially hydrogenated. Either fully or partially, hydrogenated fat increases the bad cholesterol or LDL and destroys the good cholesterol or HDL. You’ll find hydrogenated fat or oil contained in cans of biscuits, cans of cinnamon rolls and cookie dough, cans of pizza crust, ready to bake frozen dinner rolls and frozen bread dough, frozen pie crusts and frozen pies. If it’s a solid and needs to be baked, then avoid it.
Harvard Medical School advises us that these solids might look perfectly harmless, but they contain hydrogenated oils. If the solid morphs into ready to use dough like phylo pastries for your pot pies, then make your own pie crusts. Dozens of recipe sites online will tell you how to make them both healthy and cheaply.
It will take some effort and groceries you never bought before, but avoiding hydrogenated fat is tasty and better for you. Using coconut or almond flours, coconut sugar or Stevia, as well as leavening like the protein Xanthan gum, you can make breads, cakes, cookies, pizza crusts, and anything else requiring a bread-like base. Make sure you use good oils like extra virgin olive and coconut oils.
[nextpage title=“Next” ]2. Margarine
The battle between butter and margarine continues to rage. The Mayo Clinic reminds us that real butter is a saturated fat or a bad fat. It also says that margarine, for the most part, is made from unsaturated vegetable oils or good fats. The Mayo Clinic tells us the softer the product, the less trans fats are included.
Stick margarines, therefore, would contain more trans fats than liquid or tub margarine. Keep an eye out, though, for hydrogenated fat labeled as “saturated fat”. The general public still isn’t quite aware of the difference between saturated, unsaturated, poly- and mono-unsaturated fats.
[nextpage title=“Next” ]3. Packaged Snacks
Perhaps the biggest culprit in the war against obesity and illnesses is pre-packaged, pre-cooked, and prepared “foods.” These prettily packaged snacks are pure poison. They contain all the sugars, hydrogenated fat, preservatives, colorings, and other things that give us empty calories. Empty calories lead to diabetes, obesity, heart disease and other nasty disorders.
Avoiding packaged snacks is as simple as picking up a bag or can of mixed nuts. Try dried and fresh fruits, granola bars, popcorn, whole grains like Chex or Cheerios cereals, and trail mixes with fruits and nuts. “Good for you” doesn’t have to taste like cardboard.
[nextpage title=“Next” ]4. Fried Foods
Fried chicken. Doughnuts. Fries. They taste like a piece of heaven. The snag is that these wonderful tastes come from hydrogenated fat. Restaurants and fast food joints use these fats because they can be reused at least once, they cost less, and they add to the taste of the “food.”
Avoid the adding up of trans fats by frying your own chicken, fries, and doughnuts at home. Extra virgin olive oil and extra virgin coconut oil are expensive. We get that. Better paying extra for cooking oil than paying extra for a hospital stay when you have a heart attack.
[nextpage title=“Next” ]5. Coffee Creamers
Hydrogenated fat in coffee creamers? It wasn’t long ago that powdered coffee creamers were introduced. When hydrogenated fat was proven to enhance flavor and give food a respectable shelf life, manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon.
Even if the label on the coffee creamers says “0 trans fats,” read the ingredients box anyway. When you see hydrogenated fat or partially hydrogenated oil, put it back. The FDA alerted manufacturers they could round up the amount of trans fats in products. If it says “0 trans fats,” look at the amount of saturated fats on the ingredients label. There’s your trans fats.
[nextpage title=“Next” ]6. Baked Foods
Home bakers and manufacturers use vegetable oil to hold cake mix together. Lard or vegetable shortening is used to hold pie crust together. Hydrogenated oil is added to commercially prepared baked foods like cookies, pastries, cakes, breads, pies, and other baked goods. It enhances flavor and adds shelf life to the product.
The secret to avoiding hydrogenated fat in baked foods is to read the ingredients list. When you see “partially hydrogenated fat or oils” and/or “vegetable shortening,” put it back. If you want to avoid an all-expense paid vacation at the nearest cardiac unit, make the baked foods yourself.
