Trans fats are bad for you!

[The Guardian]

http://atkins.com/Archive/2003/7/14-379496.html

Atkins has been saying this for years. Well...the FDA finally seems to be going along on the risk trans fats pose.

[CaptainKirk]

izzat like hydrogenated vegetable oil??

is so thats everywhere! if not

(Nevermind) in my best Roseanne Roseannadanna voice

[Thunder Bay]

Yeah, it's also like partially hydrogenated any oil; it'll clog you up. ;D

[mbig]

BUTTER or MARGARINE?

Butter may be more expensive than margarine, but...

The difference between margarine and butter?

Both have the same amount of calories.

Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams compared to 5 grams.

Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over eating the same amount of butter according to a recent Harvard Medical Study.

Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients in other foods.

Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few only because they are added!

Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the flavors of other foods.

Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been around for less then 100 years.

Now for Margarine...

Very high in Trans Fatty Acids.

Triple risk of Coronary Heart Disease.

Increases total and LDL ( this is the bad cholesterol).

Lowers HDL cholesterol (and this is the good one).

Increases the risk of cancers by up to five fold.

Lowers quality of breast milk.

Decreases immune response.

Decreases insulin response.

And here is the most disturbing fact....

Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE
from being PLASTIC.

(This fact alone was enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else that is hydrogenated , this means hydrogen is added changing the molecular structure of the food.)

YOU can try this yourself...

Purchase a tub of margarine and leave it in your garage or shaded area, within a couple of days you will note a couple of things, no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it, ( that should tell you something) it does not rot, smell differently.

Because it has no nutritional value, nothing will grow on it, even those teeny weeny microorganisms will not a find a home to grow.

Why?

Because it is nearly plastic.

Would you melt your tupperware and spread that on your toast? ...."

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchentable/msg0922413830171.html

[jeny]

Margerine tastes like shit. Who eats that crap?

[mbig]

Margerine tastes like shit. Who eats that crap?


Not me!..

And Transfats/Hydrogenated Oils are in almost every packaged/processed food that says 'Low Fat'.


Always avoid labels that have "Hydrogenated Oils".. you're better off eating a a Pint of Ice Cream than Entenmans 'Low Fat' Cake.

[jeny]

Low fat tastes like CRAP. LOL Besdies, fat doesn't make you fat. Too many calories in and not enough out is what makes you fat.

[The Guardian]

Not just calories Jen. The TYPE of calories is very important.

A calorie is a unit of energy. I am too lazy to look up the exact definition, but drawing on ancient RAM from my engineering school days, I believe it is the thermal energy required to raise one pound of water 1 degree. Or something very close to that definition, anyhow. 8)

So when we say a food has "x" calories, we say it has "x" amount of thermal energy potential.

Now...how your body utilizies calories is the difference. Most scientists until very recently always thought that a calorie = calorie. This is not true, because of how the biochemistry reacts. Particularly the insulin cycle.

If I eat 300 calories of pure protein, it has very little effect on your insulin cycle. Thus the food you eat will either be utilized as energy immediately...or processed out the back end. OTOH, if you eat 300 calories of carbs/sugar, the body's insulin cycle converts these carbs to fat for future cold winters.

In my case, I probably eat somewhere on the order of 2000-2500 calories/day...and lose weight! (Or maintain) But the key thing is that most of these calories are protein and not carbs or sugars. Thus what I am not using, gets passed right out of the body as waste.

If I were to eat the same amount of calories in carbs, I would gain. Simple as that. And when I tried to lose weight using low-fat type diets, I had to get down to around 1100-1200 calories/day to do it. And at that level, you are hungry.