If you haven’t heard of Trans Fats, hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils we are here to spread the word a little. Kim and I have both been on a more natural food diet and we are trying to bring you info as we find it. We recently talked about high fructose corn syrup and tried to share what we knew. We hope these very informal little blurbs help you on your healthy quest! We would love to know any info you have on trans fat so that we can stay as educated as possible!
Trans fat is basically something that (after a chemical process) is formed to basically keep our food on the shelves as long as possible. If you really think about it, having those packaged doughnuts look exactly the same three years later is quite disturbing. If most of the processed foods we eat can stay on the shelf for years to come, what are they doing to our bodies??!
What we have found through our research… Avoid trans fat, also called hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils! The easiest way to do that is to read your labels. I can guarantee once you do, you will begin to realize how trans fat is in SO much that we eat. When I first started cutting out anything that contained HFCS and trans fat, I thought I would not be able to eat anything again. However, the more I “practiced” checking my labels and seeking out new foods and brands I realized I can still eat pretty much anything! Of course, it is a lot less packaged and processed foods and more whole foods so I am cooking more from scratch, but you can still find healthy trans fat free packaged foods at your local grocery store. I have found that you just have to be a little more creative! I would recommend that as you start reading your labels, don’t just look at the “nutrition facts” label on the back of the product. Read the ingredients! Reason being, if the product contains less than 0.5g of trans fats per serving it is considered by the government to be trans-fat free! Thus, the nutrition facts label would read 0g. I know, crazy right?! A product that you are buying could say trans fat free, but actually have trans fat in it! You can check out the full explanation as to why the government can label food this way here.
In Dr. Sears book, The Healthiest Kid in the Neighborhood, he explains how bad trans fats can be for our bodies and our brains! He talks about how trans fats “fill up” the brain cells causing less room for healthy fats to enter which results in rigidity of the cells membrane and function. This can end up decreasing brain growth and function. He says “if there are not enough “smart” fats available to make brain cells and other key substances, the body uses lesser-quality fats and produces lesser-quality cells. The “dumb” fats, the kind that come from the trans fats in hydrogenated oils, clog the receptors in the cell membrane, and the brain cell does not function as well.” He also states that “besides causing mischief at the cellular level, diets high in trans fats do the following:
- raise LDL (bad cholesterol) in the blood and lower HDL (good cholesterol)
- decrease immunity
- interfere with nerve- cell function
- increase cardiovascular disease
- increase the risk of many cancers, especially colon cancer
- increase the incidence of type 2 diabetes”
It is very scary to me to read this because I don’t want this happening in my body, but it is even more scary to me that our kids, who have developing brains and bodies, could be consuming high quantities of these foods which contain trans fats. If you haven’t read this book, I HIGHLY recommend it. Easy read and very informative! You can find it in our aStore for $10! What a dealio :)
I don’t want to go crazy about this, but I do feel like if I can be a smart consumer and buy items that contain no trans fat, 90% of my diet will be trans fat free. Then, I don’t need to worry as much when we are at others houses or at a restaurant… everything in moderation right?! Over the years, our very popular fast food chains, other restaurants and some countries have caught on and tried to cut & or banned trans fats! I hope that I will see a complete removal of high fructose corn syrup and trans fats in our foods. Hey, a girl can wish :)
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