Not your grandma's recipe
From the 1962 Andy Warhol works of art depicting the unmistakable red and white cans, to their commercials of today that feature NFL superstars and their Mom’s, in the world of condensend canned soups, Campbell’s is an iconic brand. A bowl of hot soup on a cold winter day is a common, heart warming meal that reminds us of our childhood gone by. But did the bowl of soup Mom heated up for us back in the days of home cooking contain trans fat and ridiculous amounts of sodium? I doubt it.Looking at the label of the 10 3/4 oz can of Campbells Cheddar Cheese Condensed Soup, they advertise “5 Recipes On Every Label” that can be made
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using the soup as a base or sauce. What they DON’T advertise is that this tiny can contains trans fats in the form of margarine, even though there is 0g trans fat per serving. Somehow they squeeze 2.5 servings out of each can, which means there is a good chance that the average person, who could probably put down an entire can on their own in one sitting, is probably meeting or exceeding the .5 grams trans fat per serving threshold that would require listing on the nutrition facts. Grandma would be ashamed of you Mr. Campbell!
Lets have a quick math lesson:
1 can = 2.5 servings with 890 mg of sodium per serving.
2.5 x 890mg = 2225 mg of salt PER CAN
Your recommended daily allowance (RDA) of sodium is ~ 2300 mg.
2300 mg - 2225mg = 75 mg left for the entire day after eating one can of soup.
Tags: margarine, Serving Size Offenders
Sat, September 20 2008 » Newest Posts, Serving Size Offenders, Soups » No Comments
“Have it your way” - The Burger King motto. If I did have it my way I would shutter the doors on every Burger King restaurant until they changed their methods of cooking. What in the name of everything nutritious is Burger King thinking? While their major rivals have been phasing out the use of trans fats since 2003, Burger King continues to poison the public with absurd amounts of hydrogenation. According to news reports, Burger King was set to banish cooking oils that contained trans fats by the end of 2007. Even with that time frame, they were still well behind the rest of the industry and were named in a lawsuit brought about by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) back in May 2007.
Perhaps Burger King did implement changes in the oil they use for on-site frying, but the nutrition guide found on their website is still littered with trans fat. Here are some interesting excerpts:
- Large Hash Browns - 13 grams of trans
- Sausage Egg and Cheese Biscuit - 6 grams of trans fat
- French Fries - Between 3 and 7 grams trans fat
- Cini-minis - 4 grams of trans fat
- BK Big Fish Sandwich - 2.5 grams trans fat
This does not look like the menu of a company that has removed trans fat from its cooking process, and is certainly not representative of a company who cares about the health and well being of it patrons. Doesn’t Burger King understand that about 30,000 heart disease related deaths per year could be attributed to over intake of trans fats? That means 30,000 less possible customers. Comon’ BK, you’re killing your clientele. It doesn’t take an MBA from Harvard to figure out that is probably not good for business. With more than 7000 resturants under BK control and hundreds of thousands of customers a day, I believe they have a social responsibiliy that they have yet to uphold.
Tags: Fast Food
Fri, September 5 2008 » Fast Food, Newest Posts » No Comments
Today there exists a plethora of drugs on the market aimed at lowering levels of cholesterol. An overwhleming majority of the US population is unable to keep cholesterol within a safe range, some due to genetics but most because of poor diet and nutrition habits. As if having high cholesterol wasn’t enough to kill you, now studies suggest there could be possible cancer causing side effect associated with the drug Vytorin.
Vytorin is a combination drug of Merck’s Zocor and Schering-Plough’s Zetia, both of which attack cholesterol in different ways. A recent study by Dr. Terje Pederson of Oslo that covered 1873 people in Europe and the US cited a greater number of cancer cases, 105 versus only 70 for those who had taken a placebo. These results, when combined with two other ongoing studys on Vytorin, have raised significant questions about a possible cancer link.
For the full story use this link to Newsday.com.
Photo via Associated Press
Tags: cholesterol
Wed, September 3 2008 » Newest Posts » No Comments
While proper nutrition and dieting do not always go hand in hand, it’s important to know which diets might actually be increasing your trans fat intake through the foods they suggest to eat or manufacture themselves. For instance, the popular Atkins diet has a strong position against trans fats. According to Bantransfats.com
“While Atkins critics have often taken aim at the program’s liberal allowance of fat, particularly in the Induction phase, the Atkins Nutritional Approach includes no heart-damaging trans fats. In fact, on Atkins, trans-fat containing junk foods as well as margarine and vegetable shortening, are strictly avoided….”
The South Beach Diet, similar in nature to Atkins, is also concerned with limiting trans fat intake. However, common sense suggests that these diets may appear anti trans fat only by default, as their elimination of carbohydrates also in turn elimantes many of the foods that comonly contain hydrogenated oils.
One could also choose the Raw Food Diet , which is more a way of life than just a fad diet technique, and does a good job at keeping trans fat intake limited to those found naturally.
As I previously mentioned, dieting does not always equal eating healthy, and eating healthy does not necessarily constitue dieting. If you do decide that you want to diet using any particular method, make sure you choose a balance between nutrition and weight loss. There is no glamour in being a skinny corpse.
Transfatspotting.com - Choose Healthy
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Tags: fat free
Wed, September 3 2008 » Breads, Newest Posts » No Comments
Quick but to the point post:
I have been asked the question ” Why care about such small amounts of trans fats, especially in products that contain less than .5 grams per serving?”
The answer is that even consuming as little as 1 gram of trans fat per day raises your risk for heart disease by 20 percent, according to a nurses study out of Harvard. It is extremely easy to meet and surpasse that 1 gram threshold on a daily basis without ever knowing it, even if you eat products that claim to be trans fat free. The cumulative effect of overeating and receiving small amounts of trans fat from multiple sources is the slow and silent way to coronary heart disease.
Transfatspotting.com - Choose Healthy.
Tags: Fast Food
Tue, September 2 2008 » Bakery, Breads, Chips & Snacks, Cookies, Crackers, Newest Posts, Serving Size Offenders, Store Brands » No Comments
While I will NEVER advocate eating at fast food chains like McDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), I must give credit where credit is due. Both food chains ( and some others ) have slightly cleaned up their acts in recent months amidst rising pressure to eliminate trans fats from their already high calorie and fat laden menus. Sweeping changes have been made and both schlock houses can now proudly proclaim they cook with trans fat free oils. While that doesn’t place them at the top of the healthiest eateries in the world list, it is a step in the right direction. However, some fast food chains are still behind the curve.
The Wendy’s menu boasts a whopping 27 items that contain atleast .50 grams of trans fat per serving. There are also 6 instances of “partially hydrogenated” oils found in the ingredients list of different foods. In their defense, SOME of the trans fats in their hamburgers could be attributed to the naturally occurring trans fats found in meat and dairy products. But the french fries are still being submerged in hydrogenated cooking oils, and those Frosty desserts have as much as 1 gram trans fat each.
Other items to look out for:
- Buttery Best Spread
- Cheddar Cheese Sauce
- Homestyle chicken breast fillet
- Tortillas in the Southwest Taco Salad
But the ultimate gut buster crown goes to the Triple Burger with all the toppings including cheese: An artery popping 960 calories and 60 grams total fat. If that doesn’t stop your heart, the 2010mg of salt and 245 mg of cholesterol will certainly nudge you one step closer to an early grave.
For the full Wendy’s Nutrition Guide -click here.
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Transfatspotting.com - Choose Healthy
Tags: Fast Food
Tue, September 2 2008 » Fast Food, Newest Posts » No Comments
