Did you watch any news this week? I did and I saw so many stories about the banning of transfats, how nobody should be eating them ever, etc.
it was rather alarming listening to them.
So, I straightened up my pantry and went on a hunt there for the transfats.
I think we eat more healthy food than unhealthy food, even so, our pantry had about 3 kinds of store bought cookies, chips, assorted crackers, assorted Helper mixes, Spam, Crisco shortening, microwave popcorn, stone canned soups, granola type bars, cereals.....
Guess what? I found ZERO products with transfats in our pantry.
Do any of you know of any specific foods that still contain transfats? besides the transfats that naturally are in meats? I am just wondering.
When I straightened the pantry, I found a nice assortment of nuts. I set them out on the counter, a sort of snack station, for my husband to get some extra protein while he continues to heal.
I did not make the patchwork placemat but I am fortunate to have 2 sets of them,
This set with the green borders belonged to my grandmother and I think she made them. I also have a set with red binding that was a wedding gift (33 years ago) from a very sweet honorary Aunt.
I have used both sets a lot and some of the bindings are getting worn though. But I am going to keep using them as I like them so much.
The only thing I can think of that has trans fats is some margarine. I only use butter...so I don't know which ones do. Seems like most everything is free from that nowadays! I can't imagine a ban on it changing our lives much.
ReplyDeleteThe Aldi margarine in my fridge has no transfats. I am not thinking this ban is going to change our groceries much either.
ReplyDeleteAny food item can state they do not have trans-fat...its a bit hard to explain...something about the amount. ******BUT, if any food item has the ingredient "hydrogenated" or "partially hydrogenated", once that ingredient is inside your body, your body turns that into trans fat. So do not look for "no trans fat" on the label, look at the ingredient list. But again, the 'partially' amount is probably so little that I do not believe it will cause trouble. Trans-fats happen in meats and dairy 'naturally', its the pre-packaged food you really need to look out for. I have been reading, studying, researching about health and nutrition for years as I hope to be a nutritionist someday. I learned about trans-fats at least 10 years ago, so why the ban now is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteblessings, jill
The news this week was saturated with the trans fat ban. On every feature that I saw that pictured possible trans fatty foods, one of the items they showed, but didn't talk about was Lays Potato Chips. I checked the bag of Lays chips here at our house and it said it had 0 trans fats. The news said that sometimes there is just a small enough percentage that they can label it 0, but to check for hydrogenated oils or fats on the label. The Lays label listed sunflower/corn/or canola oil, but didn't mention hydrogenated on the label, so I don't know if those oils are hydrogenated. I do know, of course, that potato chips are not a healthy food, and probably none of us should be eating them, but if I was the Lays corp., I wouldn't appreciate my product being shown every time they were discussing the trans fat ban.
ReplyDeleteI also heard one of the channels mention that the food manufacturing corporations were working on some sort of wood resin product for use instead of the trans fats for longer shelf life, mouth texture, etc. That, I suppose, would buy the corporations extra time until the new chemicals were proven bad for us, too.
I guess it is just me, but it is starting to seem like every food we eat or prepare for our families is a possible time bomb just waiting to be discovered, fats, hormones, antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides, plastic toxins , genetic modifications, bacteria, (and that was just my dinner), something new to worry about every week. I don't understand this seemingly sudden ban on trans fats when there are many other dangerous ingredients in our food and water. For example, GMO products are considered perfectly safe here, but not in many parts of Europe. It seems like it wasn't too long ago that we were supposed to be eating margarine instead of butter, and many people started using Crisco instead of lard (I know, lard is bad for you, too) for baking. This complete ban almost makes me wonder if there is something even worse about the trans fats than they have told us.
I am your newest follower.
Best wishes for your husband's speedy recovery.
Susie @ Persimmon Moon Cottage
I know that margarine has trans fats. I normally buy butter but I'm low on grocery money for the next two weeks so we're using margarine. The 93 year old lady I cared for has used margarine her entire life and is still going. :-) I do prefer butter but I have a dairy allergy so.. not sure what to do there.
ReplyDeleteI personally didn't see the news this week due to work, but I have to say that as a heart patient I am always reading labels. It amazes me that there are a lot of products that claim that they don't have trans fat, but will contain TONS of saturated fat. Polly and mono fats are the best fats to consume if you consume fat. I haven't touched butter or margarine in 2 years unless it was in something that I didn't cook. I do think that we should be concerned with the food in our country though. Antibiotics shouldn't be in our meat and GMO products shouldn't even exist. This is just my humble opinion.
ReplyDeleteWell it's good to know your search was fruitless in this case. I had Crisco which contained NO transfat but I should look to see how Aldi brand stacks up. I've got to do an inventory. I have 1 chicken breast and no spaghetti. That tells me I've not paid close enough attention to my stock lately. Would like to get it all sorted out NOW instead of post holidays.
ReplyDeleteI have been studying food and nutrition for several years now simply because it's something that has always interested me. I'm very much into healthy and "clean" eating. I read the ingredient list on every product I buy - I particularly watch out for any trans fats, high fructose corn syrup, MSG, food colorings, carageenan, high sodium and sugar content, and anything I can't pronounce! Thus said, I am not perfect - I still occasionally eat some M&M's or homemade baked goods (where I can control the sugar amount). I can guarantee you that if you have store-bought cookies, chips, crackers, commercial granola bars, microwave popcorn, and anything else that's a convenience item, it has trans-fat and other ingredients that are harmful to your health. I'll include a link to a web page that explains all this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/understanding-trans-fats
You might want to ditch the microwave popcorn, too:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-chameides/the-chemical-marketplace_b_1943728.html
Hope this helps, Rhonda! :-)