Hydrogenated Oil Review

In light of my last post concerning a quadruple heart bypass, I thought it appropriate to REVIEW and take a fresh look at the dangers of hydrogenated oils and trans fats.

At one time when margarine appeared on the scene promising to replace the dangers of real butter, the situation for us was made WORSE. Margarine contains chemically altered oils which give them a LONGER SHELF LIFE and you a SHORTER LIFE. It creates "trans fats" which ends up clogging your arteries.

Everyone knows the phrase, "The world runs on Dunkin" representing Dunkin Doughnts. Almost all doughnuts are high in hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils and trans fats. Stopping every morning on the way to work for a couple of donuts (even the plain donuts) is detrimental to your health. The good news is that the word is getting out and more and more products and companies are making steps to eliminate these harmful oils and trans fats. They shorten your life span and it is as simple as that.

Here is a Dunkin Donut" link showing that they are moving in the right direction. As for me, I can live without them and prefer to substitute healthy foods and learn to develop a taste for what is good for you. My typical breakfast is oatmeal with two scoops of organic cold pressed ground flax seeds and fresh fruit for fiber and Omega 3's.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-08-27-dunkin-donuts_N.htm

EXCERPT:

Dunkin' isn't claiming it will become "trans fat free," but does say any trans fat in foods including doughnuts, croissants, muffins and cookies will fall below half a gram per serving. Federal regulations allow food labels to say they have zero grams of trans fat, provided levels fall below the half-gram threshold.

A nutrition advocacy group welcomed Dunkin's addition to the list of restaurant chains that have recently shifted away from trans fat.

"It's good news that they're dropping most, if not quite all, trans fat," said Jeff Cronin, spokesman for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based non-profit. "If Dunkin' Donuts can do that, anyone can."

But Cronin cautioned that when it comes to Dunkin's doughnuts, "we're still talking about a food that's mostly white flour, sugar, and fat."

Dunkin' isn't positioning its namesake product as health food — a shift that would involve more disbelief suspension than might be possible for a treat synonymous with portly, doughnut-gobbling Homer from television's "The Simpsons."

"The goal was not to make a healthy doughnut, it was really to create a doughnut that was better," said Joe Scafido, Dunkin's chief creative and innovation officer. "Certainly, we did not create a healthy doughnut."

Although its coffees are by far a bigger seller, the New England-bred, 57-year-old chain was founded on the reputation of its doughnuts. Now, Dunkin' claims to be the first major chain to introduce a zero grams trans fat doughnut, although smaller doughnut makers have already done so. Mainstream doughnut makers' products can have around 5 grams of trans fat apiece.

The main source of trans fats is partially hydrogenated oils, formed when hydrogen is added to liquid vegetable oils to harden them. Evidence suggests that artificial trans fats boost "bad" cholesterol and lower "good" cholesterol, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Dunkin' is ahead of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, which has yet to roll out a zero gram trans fat doughnut but hopes to do so. Brian Little, a spokesman for the North Carolina-based chain, said, "We continue to work aggressively with outside supply partners, and our goal is to get to zero trans fatty acids while maintaining great Krispy Kreme taste."

Other Products:

Smart Balance spread is another product indicating it is free of hydrogenated oils and trans fats. You NEED to become a SMART SHOPPER and learn to READ LABELS.

**I am NEITHER condoning or Condemning Smart Balance Spread. I am simply NOT SURE if we are talking the "less than .49% of trans fats per serving deceptive advertising here or if it is truly hydrogenated oil and trans fat free"

i GREW UP with the "Mouseketeers" and the advertisements featuring Annette Funicello telling us the "Choosy Mother's Choose Jiffy Peanut Butter".

Today I look for ALL NATURAL peanut butter with an ingredients list that you can understand such as peanuts and salt. MOST of the whipped peanut butters like Jiffy, Skippy  and others use hydrogenated oils and contain trans fats.

To top it off most of the bread and crackers and munchies chrunchies in your grocer's isles are also full of hydrogenated oils and trans fats. and often high fructose corn syrup to boot.

You end up spreading your hydrogenated oil peanut butter onto hydrogenated oil and trans fat bread and crackers and get a double whammy.

I THINK there is evidence that the trend is changing out there. manufacturer's are listening. They are motivated by the profit motive. I RAN A BUSINESS OF MY OWN FOR OVER 35 YEARS AND I UNDERSTAND profit and loss. IF as consumer's we educated ourselves and began to read labels and stopped purchasing products that are clogging the pipes and destroying our health, the manufacturer's producing these products would STOP MAKING THEM and switch gears to produce tasty, HEALTHY products.

You will also find hydrogenated oils and trans fats in canned and frozen products. The best permanent move we can make is to simply get off almost all of the over processed, potato chip, pretzle, chrunchy/munchy stuff and replace those products with fresh fruits and veggies and perhaps some home made healthy dip.

In addition if all dropped out of the "Pepsi Generation" so to speak and learned to drink more water and develop a taste for fruit and veggie green smoothies, we would all be better off.

Dan

Hydrogenated Oil Review

It has been a while since we looked at the dangers of hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils and their detrimental effect on the health of the human race. I have several previous posts on trans fats and hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils. Of all our food vices, eating processed food with hydrogenated oils and partially hydrogenated oils and trans fats probably cause more human misery than anything else.

Look at this link from one of my favorite writers and that is Dr. Mercola:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/11/16/scientists-unlock-how-trans-fats-harm-your-arteries.aspx

EXCERPTS:

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Mice fed a diet high in trans-fats had a four-fold increase in markers of early lesions of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, which in turn increases your risk of heart attack and stroke.

The fats appeared to suppress the responsiveness of TGF-beta, a protein that controls growth and differentiation in cells. This is likely one of many ways in which trans-fats harm your heart health.

If you value your heart function, check all of the foods you eat on a regular basis and make sure trans-fats are NOT a part of them. Even the Institute of Medicine said your intake of trans-fats should be "as low as possible." They were given the opportunity to establish a "safe upper limit," but declined doing so because, quite simply, there isn't one!

Why Trans-fats Should Not be in Your Diet

There are only a handful of foods and beverages that I recommend you NEVER eat … and foods with trans-fats are among them.

Trans-fats are formed when hydrogen is added to vegetable oil during food processing in order to make it solidify. This process, known as hydrogenation, makes fats less likely to spoil, so foods stay fresh longer, have a longer shelf life and also have a less greasy feel.

Trans-fats are common in fried foods like French fries, fried chicken, and doughnuts -- as well as cookies, pastries and crackers. In the United States, French fries typically contain about 40 percent trans-fatty acids and many popular cookies and crackers range from 30 percent to 50 percent trans-fat. Doughnuts have about 35 percent to 40 percent trans-fatty acids.

These completely unnatural man-made fats cause dysfunction and chaos in your body on a cellular level. Studies have linked trans-fats to:

• Cancer: They interfere with enzymes your body uses to fight cancer.
• Diabetes: They interfere with the insulin receptors in your cell membranes.
• Decreased immune function: They reduce your immune response.
• Problems with reproduction: They interfere with enzymes needed to produce sex hormones.
• Obesity
• Heart disease: Trans-fats can cause major clogging of your arteries. (Among women with underlying coronary heart disease, eating trans-fats increased the risk of sudden cardiac arrest three-fold!)

Trans-fat is also known to increase blood levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad" cholesterol, while lowering levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL), or "good" cholesterol. Trans-fats even interfere with your body's use of beneficial omega-3 fats, and have been linked to an increase in asthma.

Beware of Trans-fat Labels or You Will Be Fooled!!

The negative health effects of trans-fats are so widely known that in recent years many food manufacturers have removed them from their products, while several cities, like New York City and Chicago, have implemented citywide bans.

The fats are also listed on labels, but there's an important caveat you should know … the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allows food manufacturers to round to zero any ingredient that accounts for less than 0.5 grams per serving.

So while a product may claim that it does not contain trans-fats, food manufacturers have lobbied to allow the food to contain up to 0.5 grams per serving.

The key here is the serving size. What is the serving size of a box of cookies?  There is no hard and fast rule and if they decide that one small cookie is a serving size and not the "typical" quantity most people eat, you could wind up with up to 10 grams or more of trans-fat, which is  clearly going to be associated with health complications.

So to truly avoid trans-fats, you need to read the label and look for more than just 0 grams of trans-fat. Check the ingredients and look for partially hydrogenated oil. If the product lists this ingredient, it contains trans-fats and pay careful attention to the serving size.

Know How to Avoid This Similar Trans-fat Replacement

While pulling trans-fats from foods is a great move, the food industry has been widely replacing trans-fats with intersterified fat, another unnatural fat that you'd be wise to avoid.

The interesterification process hardens fat, similar to the hydrogenation process, but without producing oils that contain trans-fats. The end product, like trans-fat, is less likely to go rancid and is stable enough to use to fry foods.

However, like hydrogenation, which generates unnatural trans-fats, interesterification also produces molecules that do not exist in nature.

The highly industrialized process of interesterification may result in a product that is trans-fat-free, but that product will still contain chemical residues, hexanes, and other hazardous waste products full of free radicals that cause cell damage.

These fats are in virtually all the foods that trans-fats are, so by avoiding trans-fat, and processed foods in general, you will also avoid interesterified fats. If a processed food product is labeled "0 grams trans-fats" or "no trans-fats" but is made from vegetable oils, you can be certain it contains either interesterified fats or fully hydrogenated vegetable oils, both of which you'll want to avoid.

Have You Been Eating Trans-fats for Years?

Not long ago, the FDA estimated that up to 95 percent of cookies, 80 percent of frozen breakfast foods, and 100 percent of crackers contained trans-fats.  Most pizza dough is also loaded with trans-fat.

So if you've eaten these processed foods in the past, there's a good chance you've also eaten trans-fats. Even now, although many food manufacturers have removed them, they still exist widely in baked goods. And since it's not always possible to check labels, such as in foods at restaurants, schools, cafeterias, etc., it can be difficult to detect them.

Generally speaking, foods that are likely to contain trans-fats include deep-fried foods, processed baked goods, snack foods and processed foods, including fast foods.

However, even if you know trans-fats have been in your diet, don't panic. By switching to a healthier diet now you may be able to make up for some of the damage.

In the mice study, in fact, when the animals switched from a high trans-fat diet back to their regular diet, markers of atherosclerosis began to decrease and even return to normal.

So the take-home message is, if you've been consuming trans-fats for years with no ill effects, count yourself lucky but don't press your luck. The sooner you switch to a healthier diet, the better.

If you want to avoid dangerous fats of all kinds, your best bet is to eliminate processed foods from your diet. From there, use these tips to make sure you're eating the right fats for your health:

• Use organic butter (preferably made from raw milk) instead of margarines and vegetable oil spreads. Butter is a healthy whole food that has received an unwarranted bad rap.
• Use coconut oil for cooking. It is far superior to any other cooking oil and is loaded with health benefits.
• Be sure to eat raw fats, such as those from avocados, raw dairy products, and olive oil, and also take a high-quality source of animal-based omega-3 fat, such as krill oil.

Following my comprehensive nutrition plan will also automatically reduce your trans-fat intake, as it will give you a guide to focus on healthy whole foods instead of processed junk food.

(MY INPUT)

Being a type 2 diabetic further adds to your risk of heart attack and both have their roots in hydrogenated oils, and trans fats and the detrimental effect on your heart and cardiovascular health. 

Here is another link on hydrogenated oil dangers:

http://www.naturalnews.com/010095.html

EXCERPT:

How shocked would be you be to learn that the U.S. population is being slowly poisoned by a single ingredient deliberately added to the human food supply?

At first, it sounds like nonsense. But then you realize, after learning more, that the World Health Organization tried to outlaw this ingredient decades ago. You find out that hundreds of doctors, researchers and scientists are blatantly warning us about the detrimental health effects of this ingredient. And you learn that this substance causes cancer, birth defects, heart disease, diabetes and many other fatal diseases.

In fact, this substance causes a cell-by-cell failure of the human body by destroying the porosity and flexibility of healthy cell membranes. It's like tearing your body down from the inside out.

What ingredient am I talking about? Hydrogenated oils, of course. For decades, food companies (and even our own government regulators) have lied to use about hydrogenated oils, telling us this disease-causing substance was not merely safe, but actually better for your health than other sources of fat like butter. But today, we know this was nothing more than a global deception, a hijacking of science by the food manufacturers in a blatant attempt to get people to buy their high-profit products like margarine, shortening and snack crackers.

But today, the deception is exposed in a new report, authored by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger. It reveals the deadly truth about hydrogenated oils. Inside, you'll learn:


The disturbing truth of how hydrogenated oils cause cancer, birth defects, heart disease, diabetes, liver disease and much more.
The inside story of corruption, and how Big Business has conspired with our government to keep this deadly ingredient 100% legal to use in the human food supply.
How hydrogenated oils alter the structure and flexibility of cell membranes throughout your body, causing cell-by-cell disintegration of your health.
How and why you've been lied to about the dangers of this ingredient, and how you can immediately protect yourself and your family from this disease-inducing substance.
The real reason why food companies use hydrogenated oils (hint: it has everything to do with profits and nothing to do with your health).
Named: which grocery store products are the most likely to contain hydrogenated oils, and how to shop for healthy alternatives.
The link between hydrogenated oils and diseased children: ADHD, aggressive behavior, learning disabilities and more.
Why feeding hydrogenated oils to pets would be animal cruelty.
How you can rebuild healthy cellular structures throughout your body, one cell at a time, starting today.
Which healthy oils you should be consuming instead of hydrogenated oils.
How avoiding hydrogenated oils will dramatically improve your brain function: memory, creativity, clarity of thought and much more!
Why eating vegetable shortening or popular margarine products is the same as committing slow suicide.
Hydrogenated oils and the diabetes link: just a 2% increase in trans fats calories boosts your risk of diabetes by 39%.


... plus, we include dozens of citations from respected doctors and authors who speak on hydrogenated oils. You'll read some of the most eye-opening quotes ever printed about this deadly ingredient.

Just how bad is this ingredient for your health? Consider this list of detrimental health effects caused by hydrogenated oils, published in this report:

Directly promotes heart disease
Promotes cancers: breast cancer, prostate cancer, colon cancer
Results in low birth weight infants
Raises LDL (bad) cholesterol and lower HDL (good) cholesterol
Raises blood sugar levels and promotes weight gain
Interferes with the absorption of essential fatty acids and DHA
Impairs brain function and damages brain cells
Accelerates tumor growth
Accelerates the progress of type-2 diabetes
Raises serum cholesterol
Impairs immune system function
Promotes attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Impairs development of the brains of fetuses
Causes gallbladder disease
Causes liver disease
Causes 30,000 deaths per year in the United States alone
Clogs blood, makes blood cells stick together
Blocks the body's creation of natural pain-reducing hormones (eicosanoids)
Causes the creation of free radicals that promote inflammation
Creates nutritional deficiencies of healthy oils and essential fatty acids (EFAs)
Promotes cystic fibrosis
Lowers essential fatty acids in the breast milk of nursing mothers
Clogs artery walls and promotes atherosclerosis
Cause gum disease and rotted teeth
Lowers tissue oxygen intake
Causes infertility
Directly damages blood vessels
Causes high blood pressure
Weaken cell walls and compromises cellular structure
Causes dandruff and acne



Remember almost all crackers, potato chips, pretzels and almost all baked goods and processed snack foods on your grocer's shelves are detrimental to your health. Add to that that most of us are washing those foods down with Coke and Pepsi further destroying your Insterstitial fluid's PH balance and you have a deadly combination.

I have relied on information from Mike Adams known as the "Health Ranger" and articles from Dr. Mercola for years. The closer you can stay to a diet fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, green smoothies, healthy oils and fats like extra virgin coconut oil, real butter, breakfast foods like Quaker Oats, ground flax seed, etc. the healthier you will be in the long run.

Dan