It's Ok - It's a Fried VEGETABLE!

Sure – frying food adds extra calories and some extra fat to your diet, but so do raw almonds and olive oil. What’s the big deal?

The short answer is this: Humans evolved to be eaters of mostly vegetables, fruits, nuts and some meat. The human body doesn’t need the amount of fat consumed when you eat fried food and moreover doesn’t know you live in the 21st century so it thinks you are desperate to eat any food you can get your hands on. The brain wants you to eat sugar fat and salt until you are sick and will make you crave as much of it as you can eat.

It is for this reason I believe fried food is the cornerstone of the obesity problem in America – second only to sugar and followed closely by a sedentary lifestyle.

But there is another possibly better answer to why fried food is so bad for you.

People describe fats as falling into two groups “good fats” and “bad fats”. Good fats are the mono and poly unsaturated fats like Omega 3 and Omega 6. Good fats have a molecule chain that is flexible and provides building blocks for your body that allow for the best cell membrane composition, allowing for optimum containment of nutrients in the cell. The American heart association suggests 25% - 35% of your daily calorie consumption come from these types of fats. A few generations ago when obesity was 2/3 of what it is today and less than 1% of the population had type II diabetes consumption of fat as a percent of calories was closer to 45%.

Bad fats are saturated and trans fats. For the most part saturated fat comes from animal products. Saturated fat is created in the body so it does not need to be consumed (which is why it’s considered bad), and the rule of thumb is that no more than 7% of the calories in your diet should come from saturated fat. So a 2,000 calorie diet should have about 15 grams of saturated fat. For reference, one tablespoon of butter has 100 calories, but 7 grams of saturated fat.

Trans Fats are in a class by themselves, and it is the trans fats that in my opinion are the REALLY bad fats. There are a few naturally occurring trans fats, but the vast majority comes from man made partially hydrogenated oils. Partially hydrogenated oils are so pervasive you probably have no idea how much of them you are eating unless you are vigilant about checking ingredient lists. The FDA suggests 1% of your diet comes from trans fats, but I would suggest that anytime you eat food where the nutrition is listed on the box it came in, make sure it has NO added trans fats. Even a small increase of trans fats in your diet can greatly increase your risk of heart disease.

Trans fats are called so because of the layout of their carbon and hydrogen molecules. Without getting too much into the chemistry, trans fats are created when you expose oils to very high heat in the presence of hydrogen; a process which causes the fat to solidify. The solidification process adds a hydrogen atom to the fat molecule which creates a stiff fat structure. It is this stiff structure which makes trans fats bad because they clog your arteries and cause heart problems. The rigid structure is also a terrible building block for cell membranes and allows vital nutrients to pass through your cells.

Trans Fats were originally marketed as a health alternative because trans fats aren’t saturated. But I think the real reason trans fats are so popular is because the food industry loves them; trans fats are cheap (they're almost always made from corn or soybean oil), it's easy to transport and it almost never goes bad. Think about it, Crisco doesn’t melt and slosh all over the place and when was the last time your shortening spoiled?

Trans Fats also affect your cholesterol in the worst way possible. Cholesterol comes in two forms LDL - bad, and HDL - good. The LDL is bad because it clogs up the arteries, and HDL is good because much like a cleaning crew it travels through the body gathering up LDL and depositing it back into the liver where it can be properly disposed of. It is easier to lower your bad cholesterol by eating more good cholesterol than it is to simply cut out bad cholesterol.  Good cholesterol is an essential part of your diet.

With that information in mind, here is a quick fat comparison:

Good fats: raise good cholesterol and lower bad cholesterol.
Saturated fats: will raise both the good and bad cholesterol.
Trans fats: lower good cholesterol and raise bad cholesterol It is this way that trans fats are a double whammy and the worst possible combination for maintaining vascular health.

Even local governments and the food industry have picked up on how bad trans fats are for you. Within the past few years both New York and California have passed bans on restaurants using artificial trans fats to cook.  Labeling on food as being trans fat free is becoming so commonplace, the FDA actually cracked down on foods advertising no trans fats as being misleading to customers who then think the so labeled products are also low in fat.  And of course, some trans fat free labeling is just absurd.

Yes, let us THINK ABOUT IT!

Avoid all partially hydrogenated oils – opt to go hungry instead of eating them. Go through your freezer and your pantry and throw all of them away – don’t think about it – just do it – do it today. There is no room for partially hydrogenated oils in your life because the bottom line is

THEY’RE KILLING YOU.

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Next time on Popular Excuses: Superfood: Ginger
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Reading List:
http://www.bantransfats.com/
Ban on Trans Fats MSNBC
http://www.fda.gov/
Harvard School of Public Health
The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods, Fats p. 81-95

Our Juice has Antioxidants!

Being a health minded shopper, almost every packaged food that actually makes it into my cart has some sort of health claim on it. Low Fat! Rich in Omega-3! All Natural! Organic! and the topic of today’s article: High in Antioxidants!

My husband asked me the other day what Antioxidants did – and though I know that they are good for me, I had no idea why. I looked online and found lots of articles on good sources of antioxidants, but only WebMD had a comprehensive article on what purpose antioxidants actually served. The following description relies heavily on that article.

Everything organic has cells, and those cells are subject to oxidation when exposed to oxygen. This natural and healthy process breaks down cells, and the body uses the food one eats as the building blocks to rebuild those cells. This rebuilding process is the reason eating right is crucial to your health – you quite literally are what you eat.

Through the process of oxidation, 1% - 2% of the cells don’t die, but the DNA in the cell becomes mutated, thus creating a free radical. Free radicals float along in your body and can attach to other cells which can cause those other cells in your body to reproduce improperly and without restrain. This is where disease begins, including devastating diseases like heart disease and cancer.

Now the antioxidants come in. Antioxidants can be consumed and are created in the body. Antioxidants capture the free radicals and prevent them from producing damaging cells throughout the body.  Some work by stopping the replication process from continuing.

While there are many sources of antioxidants, most humans are also in daily situations which generate free radicals, including exposure to pollution, smoking, asbestos – even the sun. Because the body is exposed to all of these toxins at a much higher rate than humans had evolved to handle, antioxidant consumption is a crucial part of your diet.




Some great sources of antioxidants:
Red Beans
Blueberries
Cranberries
Artichokes
Strawberries
Walnuts
Cloves
Potatoes
Red Peppers
Broccoli

This brings me to a point I’ve made several times in past which is that variety in your diet is extremely important. Vitamin C and Vitamin E are both antioxidants, but they work differently – C prevents free radicals from being a threat and E interrupting their reproduction and protects cell membranes. Additionally, because it is so easy to work antioxidants into your diet, there is absolutely no reason to turn to fattening juices or dried fruit to consume them. In fact, you can have a meal completely devoid of fruit and still consume some of the best sources of antioxidant on the planet.  Still Curious about Flavonoids? I will write on it soon, I promise!
­­­­­­­­­Jeffrey Blumburg, PhD professor of nutrition at Tufts University explains it best:

“We can’t rely on a few blockbusters to do the job. You can’t eat nine servings of broccoli a day and expect it to do it all. We need to eat many different foods. Each type works in different tissues of the body, in different parts of cells. Some are good at quenching some free radicals, some are better at quenching others. When you have appropriate amounts of different antioxidants, you’re doing what you can to protect yourself.”

I guess when it comes to antioxidants; Variety is the spice of living!

Next Time on Popular Excuses: Yeah they’re fried, but they’re still veggies – what is so bad about that?!?
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Reading List
seniorjournal.com - best sources of Antioxidants
webmd.com article