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Monday, July 16, 2007
The Trans-Fat Fear- Read Your Labels
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A few month’s ago, I got a big response to my blog about banning trans-fat. For those of you who read it, you’ll recall that I am not in favor of banning trans-fat. This may seem odd coming from a fitness professional, but you have to understand the consequences of creating such bans. If they take out one thing, it will be replaced by another.
Food marketers are very smart about what they must do to sell a product. For example, they will say things like, “get 10% more,” “More Crispy”, or “New and Improved” and put it in a pretty container. Similarly, they will say things to play on your fears of eating something that is “bad for you.” Phrases such as, “low in sugar,” “Zero Fat,” and “Only 2 Net Carbs!” What they may fail to tell you is that these foods may be low in one “bad thing,” however, it will be high in others. If it’s low fat, it might be high in high fructose corn syrup, salt, and still have too much of fat.
You may not realize this, but some products such as I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter is 100% fat. If you don’t believe this, you may be unaware that the FDA allows food manufacturers to declare foods as fat free if the serving size is less than .2 grams. I challenge you to eat only .2 grams of anything. Furthermore, you must ask yourself, “just exactly what am I eating?” Once you read the labels ingredients you will see it’s hydrogenated oils, water, and other not so good ingredients. I can drop a stick real butter in a bucket of water, but the stick of butter is still 100% fat.
What I am trying to help you understand is that just because something says “trans-fat free,” does not mean it’s good for you. Read your labels and you will still see ingredients comprised of saturated fat, sugar, salt, high fructose corn syrup, etc.
It may be a hard pill to swallow, but if you want to eat healthy you have to stick with what you pick straight from a tree, from the ground, a vine, or what you may kill. Foods that come in in a plastic wrapper, cardboard box, tinfoil, and styrofoam are the foods that you need scrutinize the food labels to determine if they are healthy.
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