Avoid trans fats and pre-prepared products
was recently announced in the news that the FDA (The United States Food and Drug Administration) has put out a call to rephrase their commentaries and recommendations on the use of trans fats and their previously negative view of saturated fats. While this hasn’t gone into effect as of yet, it is underway and based, apparently on a court case that was raised against them. Interestingly, it seems that the previous recommendations were based on nonscience and lobbying from the manufacturers of the types of oils and fats that the FDA had approved.
Basically, what this news means is that the old recommendations that trans fats were safe, now will change into trans fats being totally unsafe, and in effect banned. For those who don’t know, trans fats are fats like: hydrogenated vegetable fats (like Crisco (yes, it’s true, Crisco is bad for your health) and Clara (which is the vegetable shortening brand sold in Kuwait and other countries), and margarines (no matter how healthful they claim to be, margarine is a glorified version of hydrogenated vegetable fat, and you need to stay away from them like the plague, no matter what the labels say).
No matter how low the manufacturers claim these products are in cholesterols, don’t listen to them. Stay away from these items. Also, stay away as much as you can from processed vegetable oils like corn oil (made with GMO corn and processed into a dangerous form of fat), sunflower oil (over processed), canola oil (over processed), soy oil (GMO soy and also over processed) and any other oil that is over processed or goes through a manufacturing process that involves heating or hydrogenation.
Production
Staying away from obvious trans fats in your home or at the supermarket is fairly easy when the trans fats are in their original forms. But, when the trans fats are being used in the production of other readymade or pre-prepared products, that is when the problems begin. I am talking about products that are found in every grocery store, every supermarket, every corner shop, almost every restaurant, particularly fast food restaurants. If the FDA approved its new law, this tremendous task will be made easy for you. But, right now, you are still going to have to do the footwork yourself. It’s not a straightforward issue, but with a little effort, you can banish trans fats from your life forever.
The important information that you need to know is that whenever you buy anything from any- where, including restaurants, you need to know what the ingredients are. Sometimes this is going to easier than other times. For example, in the supermarket you can read the ingredients easily. Everything is right there on the package. But in restaurants, this isn’t as easy. Nothing is written anywhere, and the restaurant is probably not going to be very forthcoming with the information, particularly if they think that by telling you that information you might just not buy food from them.
Detective
Once the FDA makes a decision on that issue, these companies might just be forced to put all the information in plain sight, but until that time, you are going to have to be more of a detective.
Anything that says “partially hydrogenated oil or fat” is a trans fat and should be strictly avoided. Any of the GMO oils (corn, soy, for example) should be avoided strictly.
All vegetable oils found in processed foods should be avoided at all times (only organic cold processed oils, not using GMO crops should be eaten at all, ever). If you want a safer oil, look for products that contain pure creamery butter, tallow (preferably organic or grass fed), or organic palm oil, organic coconut oil, or ghee.
If that sounds too complicated for you, there is an easier way, but it will take an effort on your part. That is to make your own food at home and never eat any processed foods at all. Yes, I know this sounds monumental and that it will certainly cut into your day. But, isn’t your health worth it? I think you will agree that it is. At least until manufacturers become more conscientious and care enough about peoples’ health to incorporate healthful fats into their recipes and products. I , for one, look forward very much to this new development, and sincerely hope that it will be a positive move overall.
Now if they would just do something similar in amending their recommendations for saturated fats (which are mostly good for us), and refined carbohydrates (which are almost entirely bad for us), then the world populations will become much healthier than they are now, and we would be certain to see major reductions in heart disease, cancers, diabetes, and a lot more.