Now and then, Tai Chi Man emails me snippets of info that he’s acquired from the emails/blogs/websites he reads. This is the latest…
Remember trans fats? Those are the nasty things which are created when you take vegetable oil and hydrogenate it. You’d have to have been living under a rock in the desert not to have heard about those!
Well, now that most people know that trans fats are bad for your health and consumers are voting with their dollars, it’s become a selling point to be able to label your food product “No Trans Fats”. Woo hoo, good thing….er, no.
The money-grabbing, power-hungry, inconsiderate, uncaring, idiotic people who run companies that make pretend junk non-food processed food products have come up with something else instead. (Did you know that over 90 percent of the money spent on food is spent on the processed stuff? What are people thinking?)
Rather than listening to the consumer response, getting a conscience and starting to use healthy fats in their products, the food industry is using something worse….interesterified fats. In fact, these fats have been used for over 50 years in the US and over 80 years in Europe already, but as long as the public doesn’t know about them, then they can go on using them. These fats have been chemically altered. So they will do as much harm as trans fats because they contain free radicals that cause cell damage.
How can you avoid these fats? Assume that they are in all the products that previously would have been assumed to have trans fats – crackers, cookies, french fries, doughnuts and a ton of others – stop eating them – and start making your own food from scratch using healthy whole foods.
The thing that really annoys, astounds and scares me is that it is so obvious that we cannot trust the people who are making “food” for us. They are in it only for the money, with the full knowledge that the products they are making are going to cause disease. Ah, light dawns! The people who make these “foods” obviously are the SAME people who own the pharmaceutical companies, so it’s a win-win situation for them. Make people sick, sell them drugs. There’s big money in bad health.
Here are some links, but if you Google “interesterified fats” you’ll find plenty more sources.
http://heartdisease.about.com/od/cholesteroltriglyceride1/a/interesterified.htm
NICOLA KNITS 
The ‘Industries’ never cease to shock and amaze me–in a bad way–especially when they do stuff like this. I’m vegan, and try to eat as few processed foods as possible, but this is still an eye opener; I didn’t even know about it! Thanks so much for posting this information.
You’re welcome.
We all need to take responsibility for our own health, but we need to do it with the right information in our hands, otherwise how can we possibly make the best decisions!
Have you seen the film The Future of Food? We watched that a few weeks ago and found it quite compelling. But I’ve never heard of these interes…whatevers. Makes me glad I’m so neurotic in the grocery store.
No I haven’t seen that film Sheila. I drive my kids crazy with my lectures on food and drink and conspiracy theories!