TFS Admin

Cafe con trans fat

So how many cups of coffee do you drink per day? 1… 5…25? For about 90% of America, a cup of coffee is a must have atleast once a day. It has become a staple of American culture and a necessity in the go-go world of 24 hour business. Walk the streets of New York’s financial district at 6 am and you would be hard pressed to find someone not juggling between their cell phone, briefcase, and their beloved morning beverage. But for most, one jolt of caffeine in the morning simply is not enough. They return to the office coffee pot time and time again throughout the day. The worst feeling for these folks is when they open the office fridge and find….OH NO….OUT OF MILK! But not worry, if the real stuff isn’t around, we can throw some trans fat at the problem

Artificial coffee creamers are big business, and can be found in most office cupboards, especially if there is no fridge to keep the dairy from spoiling. Right from the start, anything that is meant to “replace” a dairy product that can last un-refrigerated for several weeks, if not months ( I’m thinking Parmalat here too ) should be the first clue that something is not quite right with that product. The Nestle Coffee-Mate creamer is one such product. Lets take a look at some of its ingredients shall we:

Corn Syrup Solids - aka sugar, ok so far not so terrible,

Partially Hydrogenated Coconut or Palm Kernel - the second item on the list is our old friend trans fat, and remember… the higher on the ingredients list the more of that ingredient the product contains.

Sodium Caseinate - also known as casein and can be linked to cancer promotion and migranes as well as the aggravation of symptoms associated with autism

Mono and Diglycerides - some more fats in another form

Sodium aluminosilicate - also used in house paint and some detergents

House paint and trans fat? So think about how many teaspoonfuls of this powder you add to your cup of coffee, multiply that to the number of cups of coffee you drink in a day, then per week, then per year. I think you see where this is going. Next time we’re out of milk… I’ll take my coffee black.

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Transfatspotting.com - Choose Healthy.

Sir Rebel Films

While hiking through the peaks and valleys of the Smokey Mountains, J. Thomas Wenzel paused briefly to refuel on a granola bar. As had become customary , before tearing open the wrapper and munching on,  he checked the ingredients list only to find that seemingly omnipresent term “partially hydrogenated” staring back at him. Little did he know that this tiny snack would change the course of the next two years of his life, which he dedicated to shooting and producing the upcoming film “inGREEDients” with partner David Burton and others at Sir Rebel Films.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Wenzel to discuss his self admitted excessive label reading -turned project, turned (hopefully) major film release. All it took was a trip to the supermarket, where he showed David just how many food items he himself consumed on a routine basis that contained trans fat, and the concept for inGREEDients was born. While trans fats formed the basis for their investigations, 8 months of pre-production research revealed that hydrogenated oils were just the tip of the nutrition iceberg. “Corporations use many things we take for granted” says Mr. Wenzel, who admits the problem does not rest solely on the shoulders of major food manufacturers or the Food and Drug administration, “People just do not understand what they eat.”

This is a positon we at Transfatspotting.com have argued from the very inception of the site. If Americans were  properly informed about the things they choose to put into their body, their food decisions would ultimately be different. We need to eat everyday, and our food choices have a tremendous impact on our health and well being, yet according to Alexa.com, the FDA website has a lower traffic ranking than the celebrity gossip website TMZ.com by a fairly large margin. It just goes to show that the priorities of most Americans are somewhat out-of-whack. We care more about Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan than the contents of the food that sustains our very life. But I digress…

A la Michael Moore, the film contains interviews with numerous sources including doctors, food producers and nutritionists as well as everyday people concerned with what they put in their body. What started as a pet project with a piddly budget turned into a two year quest with over half a million dollars of production value invested in the film. Part expose, part investigative journalism, the film is poised for an eyebrow raising debut. It has been submitted to the Sundance Film Festival and Wenzel is confident it will be approved for viewing in the January 2009 event. For more information about the film or Sir Rebel Films, please visit their website at http://www.sirrebelfilms.com.

We want our readers to do their own Spotting*. Pick up a pack of stickers and find items in your pantry or in the corner store that contain trans fat, slap a sticker on it and send a photo in to admin@transfatspotting.com with a story and product description.Make sure we can tell what the product is in the photo and see the sticker on the label. We will feature your photo and article on our website and give you credit for helping to keep people trans fat free.

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Ready made trans fat - Just add water!

Our breakfast meals have been under siege from health and nutrition experts for years. We cook up some eggs that are loaded with cholesterol, fry up a few slices of fatty bacon ( a la the Atkins diet ), and serve up sausage links made from who knows what kind of meat. Head down to the South, and you’ll get those three elements plus some biscuits and gravy, with a side order of grits smothered in butter and salt. By the end of breakfast you’ve already consumed an inordinate amount of calories and more than enough cholesterol for the entire week. Those of us that opt for the less filling breakfast consisting of a bowl of cereal with milk have to be on guard for brands of cereal loaded with sugars and void of essential vitamins and nutrients. Who would of though having a nutritious breakfast, the cornerstone of a healthy diet, could be so hard?

Well the folks at General Mills are making things even harder with their attempt to make pancakes easier.

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Bisquick came up with an ingenious concept. For the people in America who are too lazy to mix water in a bowl with the other pancake mix that comes in a box, lets remove the bowl and let them add water right into a plastic container that they need only shake and pour right onto the skillet. Eureka, we’ve reinvented the wheel! They forgot to metion that those golden brown flapjacks also contain trans fat, .5 grams per every three silver dollars to be exact. Great, now our breakfast is partially hydrogenated. Thats just how I like to kick off my day; a glass of orange juice and some trans fatty acids. And what do most people plop onto the top of their short stack? A nice scoup of butter, or in some cases margerine ( yeah they still make that stuff). So now we have a double serving of trans fat in the morning. Joy!