When the Mexican Indians were grinding their masa (cornmeal dough) on their metate (stone) back in the 15 hundreds, I don’t think they were concerned with extending the shelf life of their corn tortillas. They didn’t need to mass produce their food or enhance the taste of this South American food staple. But the people at General Mills, the manufcatures of the Old El Paso brand Flour Torillas, have to keep those worries in mind. SO what do they do to meet the demands of the mass prodcution market? Add some trans fat! These seemingly harmeless tortillas contain 1.5 grams of trans fat per every 2 tortillas ( thats .75 grams per flour cake for those of us doing the math at home ). They also use enriched bleached flour,
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the processed cousin of whole wheat grains. That’s two violations of the rules for anyone who tries to follow as healthy a diet as possible. 1 - Eat whole grains and wheats 2 - Avoid Trans Fats! There are plenty of whole grain wraps and tortillas out there, some even 100% orgranic. So do your body a favor; tell Old El Paso they are being deported to the garbage can.
Today I thought I’d let someone else rant and rave about the deception that occurs in food marketing and labeling. Dr. Mercola, a renound author and nutrition zealot talks about the dangers of trans fat, and shows us how products like Lays BBQ potato chips claim zero grams trans fat when they still contain hydrogenated oils.
I have to admit, this one hurts. Kellogg’s Club Crackers have been a staple in my house for years. I’ve tried many different brands of crackers ( I didn’t think there could be such taste variation in a cracker, but trust me, there is a huge difference ), and I have always stuck with the Club Original as my cracker of choice. As a
Oh those Evil Elves
quick snack, it’s hard to beat the cracker with cheese combo. When your feeling sick ( or hungover ), sometimes a club cracker is the only thing your stomach can handle. Even when the snack cupboard was bare, I could always rely on there being a box of Club in the pantry as a last resort to appease a salt craving. So I was quite displeased to find that dreaded word; partially hydrogenated, listed on the back of the green box.
The Keebler Elves snuch some trans fat into the tree, and used it to make my favorite cracker. Again, they use the serving size trick to hide their trans fat contents and claim zero grams trans fat per serving, which is listed as only 4 crackers. ( see our post on Blue Cheese Salad Dressing ). They also add some TBHQ , or tertiary butylhydroquinone, a preservative which has been linked to stomach tumors
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and damage to DNA at high doses in lab animals. Great, just what I always wanted; a cracker that causes cancer.
Perhaps I’m being a bit harsh on my old friend the club cracker, but I don’t think my criticism is unwarrented. Do the public a favor Keebler Co; make a few extra pennys per box and take out the trans fat and carcinogens.
I was almost so proud of the people at Dunkin’ Donuts; almost. I downloaded a copy of their nutrition guide from the company website and browsed through the .pdf file, my eyes fixed on the the trans fat column. I was pleasantly surprised to find that none of their drinks or baked goods, including their donuts, cookies, bagels, muffins etc contained any trans fat per serving. That’s right, those Boston Cremes and French Crullers are less gut busting than I had anticipated. Kudos to them for avoiding the temptation to increase profits by using inferior oils. While I don’t know if this was always the case or if this was in response to the recent media pressure placed on other large food chains to do away with trans fats, it was a welcomed sign of corporate responsibility. I also admire how they now post the calorie content of their donuts and such on a plague right next to the product name. Anything to keep the public informed about what they are eating is fine by me.
However, not all of their products are void of trans fats. Their recent addition of a deli style lunch to their menu boasts a Pressed Cuban Sandwich with total 2 grams trans fat. And somehow .50 grams of trans fat snuck into their Sausage, Egg &Cheese on Croissant as well as the Sausage, Supreme Omelet & Cheese on
Croissant. Only .50 grams; not terrible, but I am sure we could do without it. If you do want to see something somewhat shocking in their nutrition guide, check out the sodium content on some of their sandwiches. “Holy Salt Mine, Batman!”
If there is one place the health nuts and dieters of the world can turn for nutritious food, a good ole’ fashioned salad remains as a viable option. However, unless you like the taste of plain lettuce leaves and sliced tomatoes (we’re not all rabbits), you are probably going to drizzle some choice salad dressing over your sprouts to give it just a tad bit more taste. But before you do, make sure the dressing you select lives up to its labeling.
Wish-Bone, a popular dressing brand, sells a “Fat Free Chunky Blue Cheese Dressing”. Already your health antenna should go up as anytime you mix the words “cheese” and “fat free” in a sentence, something might be awry. Cheese, by nature, is largely made of fat, though you wouldn’t know it by walking down the dairy isle. Looking closer at the ingredients on the Wish-Bone dressing you see something very interesting; it lists partially hydrogenated soybean and cottonseed oil* with the asterisk. The asterisk refers to the claim “Adds an insignificant amount of fat”. Well well well, I think I will be the judge of what is or isn’t significant enough to put into my body, thank you!
Here is a great example of how producers work the system to market their product. They can claim that their dressing is fat free as long as PER SERVING there is less than .50 grams of trans fat. According to the label, there is 16 servings per bottle of dressing. When was the last time you got 16 separate servings out of one
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bottle of dressing? In reality, most of us drench our salad until the lettuce weeps and the cucumber is sufficiently coated. You might use up half the bottle on one medium sized salad alone! Add up all those “servings” and you will find much more fat than “fat free”. There is a slew of products on the market that manipulate serving sizes to appeal to whatever market they choose.
Here is the simple answer; If it is in the ingredients list, you are eating it. And in this case, your healthy salad is giving you a not so healthy dose of trans fat.
For me, it wouldn’t be a true Sunday morning without a copy of the New York Times, a cup of tea ( not a coffee drinker ) and something fresh from the bakery just up the block. Around 3 a.m. the smell of donuts, tarts and turnovers emanates from the tiny store and invades my sleep on a daily basis. This past weekend however, my favorite sweet shop was closed as the owners were on vacation. So I was forced to get my Sunday danish from the local Stop & Shop grocery store. A mistake that I will be sure not to make again.
Pastries and baked goods have notoriously been recognized as trans fat offenders for some time. Manufacturers use ingredients such as margarine and other imitation butters to enhance the flavor and improve shelf life. Store brand products are usually cheaper than the name brands as they can produce essentially the same item without the advertising costs. Additionally, store brands tend to use less than top shelf ingredients to keep their profit margins as high as possible.
The Stop & Shop I frequent, as do most chain grocery stores, has it’s own in house bakery. I picked up a four pack of Raspberry Turnovers to complete my Sunday morning routine. I hadn’t even thought to check the nutrition facts label before it was too late and I had already ate my fill. It turns out that each turnover ( no pun intended ) contained 4.5 grams of trans fat and an equal amount of saturated fat. That amounts to 160 of the total 360 calories coming from fat in each turnover. After reading the ingredients list I found the source of the trans fat to be a healthy dosage of margarine.
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The verdict - Since mom and pop bakeries aren’t required to list their ingredients, the only way to check out what your eating is to ask the owner if he/she uses any shortening or other butter substitutes. And always be sure to check the nutrition info, especially on store brands.
