|
|
Chow down, America. |
Posted on 01/20/2005 3:14:50 AM PST by freepatriot32
WOODMERE, Ohio - The nation's food companies are stirring up new recipes for everything from Oreos to SpaghettiOs to get rid of trans fat, the artery-clogging ingredient that must be listed on food labels next year.
The companies say they're promoting good health, but they're also looking ahead to the new federal rule and new dietary guidelines urging consumers away from trans fats.
Trans fats have been in the nation's food supply for decades, giving products a long shelf life and making goodies like chips and cookies oh so yummy.
They are formed when liquid oils turn into solid fats and they are generally listed on foods as partially hydrogenated oils. Grab a bag of cookies from the snack food aisle and chances are trans fats are there.
But maybe not for long. The Food and Drug Administration is ordering trans fats to be listed on food labels by January 2006. The FDA says trans fat, like saturated fat, increases the risk of heart disease.
A few years ago, Sarit Zamir was like many consumers - clueless about the subject.
"I used to eat junk food a few years ago. We just didn't know," said the 32-year-old mother of three.
Now, Zamir goes out of her way to shop at a store that promises 100 percent trans fat-free foods. She says that since making the change in her family's diet, she's noticed a difference in her children's health, behavior and ability to get a good night's sleep.
"I don't touch trans fat at all," she said, her cart filled with soy milk, cage-free eggs and pure rice bran.
It took several years for the Wild Oats Natural Marketplace where Zamir shops to remove all the trans fat from its shelves, said Mandi Kelley, marketing coordinator of the store in tiny Woodmere Village outside of Cleveland.
"There were a lot of companies we had to coax into changing their ingredients," she said.
Eliminating trans fat isn't as simple as removing partially hydrogenated oils and substituting another oil - not if you want to keep the flavor.
"It takes smart engineering, smart chemistry," said James Chung, president of Reach Advisors Inc., a Boston-based marketing strategy and research firm.
"There's a reason why consumers like partially hydrogenated oils. Let's face it - fat tastes good."
Still, Chung expects to see mainstream companies gain market share with trans fat-free products, up until the point that most have removed it.
Campbell Soup has revised some products and is working on a few more, including some varieties of Chunky soup and SpaghettiOs with meatballs.
"Our goal is to remove the trans fat without impacting the taste because we have products that people have been enjoying for years and years," spokeswoman Juli Mandel Sloves said.
Campbell's owns Pepperidge Farm, which met its goal of having zero grams trans fat in its entire line of Goldfish crackers by December, Mandel Sloves said. Pepperidge Farm is turning its attention to other products, especially cookies.
The J.M. Smucker Co. introduced a version of Crisco with zero grams trans fat last April. The new product comes in a green tub - a color consumers equate with being healthy. Smucker's spokeswoman Maribeth Badertscher said the product has been doing well.
Gorton Inc. announced it had removed trans fats from all 56 of its frozen seafood products.
Kraft Foods Inc. has removed trans fats from Triscuits and Oreos and is now working on other cookies and crackers, spokeswoman Nancy Daigler said.
The company wants to make sure that when eliminating trans fat, the new product's combined total of trans or saturated fats is lower than the original.
In some cases, like Triscuit, the removal of trans fat isn't noticeable. But in others it is, like the trans fat-free Oreo, which has a different texture and taste compared with the creamy, crispy original.
Frito-Lay began working to eliminate trans fat in 2002 and completed a conversion to corn oil for Tostitos, Doritos and Cheetos a year later. Frito-Lay was a trans fat trendsetter, Chung said, but the message got lost in the Atkins diet craze.
Trans fat could become the new carbohydrate as far as consumer avoidance, but Chung doesn't expect the mania that Atkins inspired.
For Wild Oats shopper Tim Hemry, trans fat isn't at the forefront of his thoughts. But the 53-year-old's family avoids it by staying away from prepackaged food.
"We want good-for-you food," Hemry said. "The hydrogenated oil is no good for you. Our rule is as close to God made it in the first place."
Just think with her eating that healthy her and her family could live to be in thier 80's or even 90's.....and eat that bland discusting crap 3 times a day for several decades.Joy oh joy.Do you know how much the rate of murder suicide is going to go up if a large amount of people switch over and force thier familys to switch over to a totally health food based diet?Buy lots of stock in crematoriums after the goverment bans trans fat from food thats all im saying.When 10:30 rolls around im going to go to burger king and order a bacon double cheeseburger with extra bacon and a couple of extra slices of cheese just to counteract the effects o f reading this story :-)
Laughing...
possible story of intrest for you
Guess some of those old leftovers in my fridge are healthy after all. Hey kids - lunchtime!
Fair enough, Mr. Wild Oats shopper. We're firing up the grill for God's own freshly butchered hog this weekend - care to join us??
Actually the bacon double cheeseburger is not all that high on trans fats, just their french fries. Trans fats are a good thing to avoid as your body can not digest them like regular fat, so it is a good thing to have on food lables.
Partially hydrogenated oils (in most margarines and in a lot of other things) are about the worst thing for your arteries. I still eat butter, but I try to stay away from PHO. Kraft macaroni & cheese is about the only one I've been able to find that doesn't have the partially hydrogenated oils. I wish they would come up with a decent saltine cracker without PHO's.
Go ahead because the items you named that you are going to eat are not full of trans fats. Trans fats are man made not God made. Since they came on the market diseases have sky rocketed. Good old food like you mentioned our great grandparents ate and did not have the cancer and heart disease we do. If you think about it Crisco and margarine both are solid at body temperature whereas butter melts at 98.6 degrees F. and that is why trans fats are not good for the body. They are more solid and therefore clogs the arteries. Good old lard that really makes food good is far better for us than all that vegetable oil that is hydrogenated as long as the lard isn't hydrogenated which they are also doing now. Another really good tasting oil especially in popcorn is coconut oil. It was nearly banned several years back and movie theaters stopped making their popcorn with it. Do you remember how good movie popcorn use to be. To know all of the good benefits of coconut oil visit tropicaltraditions.com and be amazed at how a really good tasting oil is actually really good for us. A lot of the new age health foods are very bad for us starting with most of the soy products which many people brag as being the main food that they eat instead of meat. People keep eating it thinking it is good for them and it is as bad for them as it taste. We do need to remember to eat vegetables and fruits to stay healthy as well as meat and try to not live on the highly processed foods such as too many TV dinners because they have been messed with to the point that many of the nutrients are processed out of them. Nothing wrong with good old meat and potatoes and veggies. Yum!
A lady was laughing last week in the grocery store when she saw that label on eggs...wanted to know why eggs needed a cage in the first place.
Seriesly, though, removing trans fats is a good thing. When I was in college, they weren't using them yet, all the baked goods had lard in them instead, or some other animal fat that didn't change viscosity with temperature. IMO, going back to lard would be the best solution.
I'm not sure why they changed from that in the first place, whether it was because of the Heart Assoc. or because they were after the kosher market in NYC.
Probably a cross beyween money (butter is about 7 times more expensive) and to increase product shelf life.
They changed because they have a much larger shelf life over fats like lard.
I've started buying Eggland's Best eggs. No additives or hormones in the feed. They have a better taste than regular eggs.
|
|
Chow down, America. |
 |
|
How about Skippy peanutbutter? It's got partially hydrogenated Veggy oils....I guess i should curve my use of this deadly food. hehehe
This trans-fat craze is just a fad that will pass. Reasearch shows that we actually need some in our diet, especially kids during their growing years. Everything in moderation is still the best diet.
Eating too much Tofu isn't healthy either, it can cause homone imbalances in women, as well as a higher risk of breast cancer, infertility, while in men it causes a decrease in testostrone, elevated estrogen levels, man- breasts, reduced sperm counts.
I wouldn't doubt if it's the cause of moonbat leftist thinking disease, causing them to walk around with picket signs with bizzare theories written on them.
Wow! I just caught a part of a news story that some woman just gave birth (by c-section of course!) of a 17LB. baby!
It looks like a very fat 6 month old.
(The mother was no lightweight either)
I'd be very curious to read that research. Do you have a source?
"Fair enough, Mr. Wild Oats shopper. We're firing up the grill for God's own freshly butchered hog this weekend - care to join us??"
Actually... Wild Oats and other stores like it (Sprouts, Whole Foods Market) have a great butcher section with very high quality meat!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
