@%@%#$ Food Companies

[etiolate]

I decided about a year ago to avoid eating hydrogenated oils, but that has made finding food a real pain in the ass.  I just bought nacho dip thinking it would be okay, but now I bring it home and it's got hydrogenated oils AND I skipped out on cookies because all the Keebler cookies had it, too.

It's a bitch. I want foods, but I don't want the dangerous stuff in it. Why does everything I pick up have hydrogenated oils!  I put down so much stuff I'm about to buy because of this.  Sometimes they still slip thorugh.  I'm looking for cookies that don't have them, but Keebler and Chips a Hoy are nixed.

[xnikki118x]

What are hydrogenated oils? More importantly, why are they so bad?

[etiolate]

Uh

They are normal oils that have been modified with hydrogen molecules to make them last longer. Their chemical makeup is changed by this process and there lies the problem.

A side effect of incomplete hydrogenation having implications for human health is the isomerization of the remaining unsaturated carbon bonds. The cis configuration of these double bonds predominates in the unprocessed fats in most edible fat sources, but incomplete hydrogenation partially converts these molecules to trans isomers, which have been implicated in circulatory diseases including heart disease (see trans fats). The catalytic hydrogenation process favors the conversion from cis to trans bonds because the trans configuration has lower energy than the natural cis one. At equilibrium, the trans/cis isomer ratio is about 2:1. Food legislation in the US and codes of practice in EU has long required labels declaring the fat content of foods in retail trade, and more recently, have also required declaration of the trans fat content.

In 2006, New York City adopted the US’s first major municipal ban on most artificial trans fats in restaurant cooking.

Unlike butter or virgin coconut oil, hydrogenated oils contain high levels of trans fats. A trans fat is an otherwise normal fatty acid that has been "transmogrified", by high-heat processing of a free oil. The fatty acids can be double-linked, cross-linked, bond-shifted, twisted, or messed up in a variety of other ways.

The problem with trans fats is that while the "business end" (the chemically active part) is messed up, the "anchor end" (the part that is attached to the cell wall) is unchanged. So they take up their position in the cell wall, like a guard on the fortress wall. But like a bad guard, they don't do their job! They let foreign invaders pass unchallenged, and they stop supplies at the gates instead of letting them in.

The way they bond is harmful and unnatural to the body as far as I've read/learned.

[brawndolicious]

it's not hard to make cookies.

[Catz]

I decided about a year ago to avoid eating hydrogenated oils, but that has made finding food a real pain in the ass.  I just bought nacho dip thinking it would be okay, but now I bring it home and it's got hydrogenated oils AND I skipped out on cookies because all the Keebler cookies had it, too.

It's a bitch. I want foods, but I don't want the dangerous stuff in it. Why does everything I pick up have hydrogenated oils!  I put down so much stuff I'm about to buy because of this.  Sometimes they still slip thorugh.  I'm looking for cookies that don't have them, but Keebler and Chips a Hoy are nixed.

Wait, are you trying to lose weight? Because I saw your pic, you looked perfectly fit.

[etiolate]

I'm not trying to lose weight. I'm trying not to get cancer. =)

[etiolate]

Ugh the only cookies without them are nasty ass fig newtons

I can bake cookies, I just don't always want to do all the work for it when I get a random craving.

[G The Resurrected]

did you know you could freeze batter? 

Yeah what wont give you cancer nowadays? If your genes are predisposed to cancer your pretty much fucked.

[Beezy]

Microwaves are evil.

[MrAngryFace]

Cancer can come about from LOTS of things, limiting how you live to fight off health issues with such broad scopes of causes is kinda silly, but VERY emo, so congrats.

[Candyflip]

Nevermind this. I can't think well right now.

[Tauntaun]

just be glad you don't have super AIDS!

[Error Macro]

I bought some of that Smart Balance buttery spread.  It's fairly nice and buttery.  Zero hydrogenated oils.  Low in sodium and cancer.

[etiolate]

Cancer can come about from LOTS of things, limiting how you live to fight off health issues with such broad scopes of causes is kinda silly, but VERY emo, so congrats.

I hear "may cause Cancer" for a lot of things and roll my eyes.  It's the whole chemical bonding thing with this that makes it more than "may" and freaks me out a bit.

[MrAngryFace]

Well transfats ARE bad for you, most places have cut them off of their menu.

Also:

The classic burger at Ruby Tuesday, for example, has a whopping 1,013 calories and 71 grams of fat.

[etiolate]

Well I actually need to fatten up, so RUBY TEUSDAY IT IS!

[Ichirou]

I wonder how bad Quizno's is for your health.  I love that place. 

[MrAngryFace]

Not so good but whatever, anyone of us could get run over by a car tomorrow. Might as well live a little am i rite lol.

[Scurvy Stan]

I drink bottles of hydrogenated oil. It gives my hair a nice sheen.