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Does It or Doesn't It Contain Hydrogenated Oil?

FitSugar — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 04:30:00 -0800

Hydrogenated oil is a huge buzz world in the food industry. It's a type of trans fat that many companies and fast food chains are removing from their products because hydrogenated oil has been linked to heart problems, miscarriages, obesity, and belly fat. Let's see if you know which foods to avoid.

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Oreo cookies

Sweet Potato Fries: Are They Healthy?

FitSugar — Thu, 03 May 2007 15:45:00 -0700

OK, so you remember I told you that you should try to avoid French Fries - aka "Cancer Fries." Now the question has come up: What about sweet potato fries?

The reason you should avoid French Fries from a restaurant is because most are deep-fried in hydrogenated vegetable oil. Besides causing cancer, hydrogenated oils clog your arteries, promote heart disease, interrupt metabolic processes, and cause belly fat that crowds the organs and strains the heart. Things like brain cell function, hormones, gland function, oxygen transport, cell wall function, and digestive tract operation, are negatively affected.

Not only that, but acrylamides are formed when starchy foods are subjected to high heat. A Swedish study found that these can cause cancer in rats.

Do you think they have a separate vat of heart-healthy canola oil waiting to fry up your sweet potato fries? No such luck.

While sweet potatoes do contain a great source of Vitamin A, I'm sorry to break the news to you, but they're still deep-fried (just like Twinkies). For that reason, you're better off ordering a baked potato or better yet, a side salad, with your meal.

Fit's Tips: If you love the taste of French fries, why not bake your own? Cut up some taters, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with some dried rosemary, salt, and pepper, and bake. I think they taste better, because I know they're healthier for me.

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5 Foods to Try to Avoid

FitSugar — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 10:15:00 -0700

We all know that certain foods are bad for you but what about certain foods that could be linked to cancer? The key to avoiding cancer-causing foods is knowing which ingredients are carcinogens and then reading food labels to permanently avoid consuming those ingredients (specifically hydrogenated oil, sodium nitrate, and acrylamides). Here's the top five potentially cancer causing foods you should avoid from NewTarget.com:

Processed meats and bacon: These meats almost always contain the same sodium nitrite found in hot dogs. You can find some without nitrites, but you'll have to look for them in natural grocers or health food stores. Bacon is also high in saturated fat, which contributes to the risk of cancers, including breast cancer. Limiting your consumption of processed meats and saturated fats also benefits the heart.
Hot dogs: The Cancer Prevention Coalition recommends that children should not eat more than 12 hot dogs per month because of the risk of cancer. If you must have your hot dog fix, look for those without sodium nitrite listed among the ingredients.
Doughnuts: Doughnuts contain hydrogenated oils, white flour, sugar, and acrylamides. Essentially, they're one of the worst cancer foods you can possibly eat. Reader's Digest calls doughnuts "disastrous" as a breakfast food, and many experts agree it's probably one of the worst ways to start the day.
French fries: Fries are made with hydrogenated oil and fried at high temperatures. Some chains even add sugar to their fry recipe to make them even more irresistible. Not only do they clog your arteries with saturated fat and trans fat, they also contain acrylamides. They should be called "cancer fries," not French fries.
Chips / crackers / cookies: These generally contain white flour and sugar as well as trans fats, but it's not enough to simply look for these ingredients on the label; you have to actually "decode" the ingredients list that food manufacturers use to deceive consumers. They do this by hiding ingredients (such as hiding MSG in yeast extract, or by fiddling with serving sizes so they can claim the food is trans fat free, even when it contains trans fats (the new Girl Scout cookies use this trick).

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The New Trans Fat: Interesterified Oil

FitSugar — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 08:45:00 -0700

As you know, I have been pretty thrilled about all the bans on trans fat happening worldwide, but of course food makers are finding a way to still make food cheap and unhealthy, without the trans fat. Enter Interesterified Oils.

Being confused about it myself, I decided to look to Mr. Seth Braun, natural health expert and author of healthyfastandcheap.com, because he's really done his research on this new type of oil:

Food manufacturers are getting around the trans fat labeling by mixing small amounts of fully hydrogenated oil with liquid polyunsaturate oils and calling “interesterified oil.” They claim that fully hydrogenated oil is healthier. Since there is less trans fat, they can sell this product to food manufacturers for use in commercial dressings, baked goods, candies and anything else that used to have partially hydrogenated oil in the ingredient list.

In plain english, interestification means mixing fully hydrogenated oil with liquid polyunsaturate oil to produce a consistency similar to partially hydrogenated oil, which is the source of trans fats. The solution to the trans fat problem; from the manufacturer perspective!

So what's the moral of the story? Read those labels folks. Food makers are in the business of not only making food, but also in the business of making money. If it has interesterified oils listed, chances are it has trans fat too.

Earth Balance: A Natural Margarine

FitSugar — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 02:30:00 -0700

Who doesn't love the taste of melted butter on a freshly baked muffin? Although that creamy taste is unforgettable, we all know that butter isn't exactly healthy for us because it contains artery-clogging saturated fat and cholesterol.

Margarine is in no way a better option because most of them are made with hydrogenated oils that are high in trans fat. Why are trans fats so bad? They actually raise the bad cholesterol in our bodies and lower the good cholesterol.

I've got a better choice. Have you ever tried Earth Balance? It comes in a tub like other butter alternatives, but it contains no trans-fat whatsoever. It's not made with hydrogenated oils, but rather is a blend of natural vegetable oils including canola and olive.

Ok, so it's healthier for you, but does it taste good? Yes!! It really does. It has a light buttery flavor, that melts just like butter on warm bread. Plus Earth Balance is dairy-free, so it's a great alternative if you are lactose intolerant. You can use it in place of butter when spreading, cooking, or even baking.

Fit's Tips: Look for it in the dairy section next to the butter and margarine. Most health food stores carry it, and I've also been happy to see it on the shelves of mainstream grocery stores.

The Skinny On: Vegetable Oil

FitSugar — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 15:05:00 -0800

A common misunderstanding is that vegetable oil comes from oily veggies. When really vegetable oil is the name typically given to any oil product that comes from a plant of any description (fruit, veggie, etc.). So oils like olive oil and sunflower seed oil are vegetable oils.

So is it good for you? Well, pure vegetable oils, such as olive oil, have been in use for thousand of years and their benefits to our diets are currently documented and understood. Vegetable oils are far better for you than animal oils.

The problem comes in when they are chemically altered, as hydrogenated vegetable oil (or partially hydrogenated) in the various forms like margarine, shortening and some liquid oils.

Check the ingredients for the chemically altered form.

Fit's Tip: A new trend in vegetable oil is to convert your car's gas tank so that you can run it on vegetable oil rather than gasoline.

5 Things: You Should Avoid Putting Into Your Body

FitSugar — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 02:30:00 -0800

Of course everyone eats this stuff sometimes. A brownie here, a Coke with lunch - nothing wrong with moderation. But if you're consuming these ingredients daily, it'll affect your mood and your health. Check the labels. These ingredients are in everything these days.

1. Hydrogenated oil (often labeled as trans fat) - A process that turns free flowing oil into a lard-looking solid at room temperature. The food industry uses it to increase shelf life of products and maximize profits. Eating this stuff increases the bad cholesterol (LDL) in your body and is bad for your heart.

2. Enriched flour – All the grain’s nutrients are destroyed in the refining process. Companies add a little bit of the lost nutrients back and label it “enriched” so it seems nutritious.

3. High Fructose Corn Syrup – Your body processes this differently than good old-fashioned cane sugar. It contains more fructose than sugar and converts to fat more easily, which adds to weight gain.

Are you ready to learn the rest? Then