Ok, so I'm sitting down with my beautiful wife eating our grass fed beef and eating Green Giant broccoli in cheese sauce when my wife remarks "Hey, there's partially hydrogenated oil in this!" I couldn't believe it! So I grab the box from her and low and behold there's partially hydrogenated oil in the ingredient list. Needless to say I wasn't very happy. Actually, I was downright angry. I went to the freezer and checked the cauliflower & cheese and sure enough, it too, had partially hydrogenated oil in it as well.
I purchased these products because they are low in carb, but shame on me, I never glanced at the ingredient list. So yes, my bad on this one. I mean like, really, why in the world would anyone feel the need to put in a broccoli and cheese (or cauliflower) partially hydrogenated oils? To this I say, shame on you Green Giant for adulterating your food with trans fats!
Now I do take all the blame for not checking the side-packaging label. Whenever we are shopping my wife will always ask, usually throwing whatever food item it is halfway down the aisle (she would make the Manning brothers quite envious with her throwing arm) "Hey, is there partially in that?!" When I was on the receiving end of the Green Giant stuff I have to admit I really didn't check because, well WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD EVEN THINK OF PUTTING TRANS FAT IN A SIDE DISH LIKE THIS!!
That's correct......Green Giant would.
What makes me even more frustrated is that if you look at the labeling it claims to have 0 grams of trans fat per serving; this is NOT true. Just so we're all on the same page, if the serving size has less than 500 mg of trans fat the Federal Government allows the food manufacturer to proclaim 'zero grams' trans fat per serving. If this doesn't alarm anyone, it should. Let's face it, who eats just one serving size? I could easily eat the whole box of that broccoli & cheese stuff, so then how many grams of trans fat am I getting now?
What got me even more angry was that on one of the boxes it stated "Redeem this lid to help in the fight against breast cancer." I found this quite interesting as trans fats have indeed been implicated in increasing one's risk for cancers; does this seem contradictory to anyone? Oh yeah, and on the upper right part of the box is an endorsement from Weight Watchers. Apparently, the biggest weight loss consortium out there is unaware of the adverse effects of trans fat on our health (increased risk of cancer and heart disease etc...etc...).
I guess the take home message here is to make sure you read the ingredient list on anything you buy; don't assume anything; you see, even I make mistakes. And remember, if you see partially hydrogenated oil (usually either soybean or cottonseed) in the ingredient list that food contains trans fats so avoid it like the plague.
Happy Holidays to All!
dr jim :-)
Author, GENOCIDE: HOW YOUR DOCTOR'S DIETARY IGNORANCE WILL KILL YOU!!!
Watch my critique of the 2010 USDA Dietary Guidleines.
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Well Dr Jim - I know you (and I) would never use that spread that contains plant sterols to lower cholesterol, but once a doctor tried to persuade me to use it. I was mighty suspicious as to how they solidfy the spread so I wrote to one of the big companies that makes it and asked outright if there was transfats in their product. This is what they replied, I quote:
ReplyDelete"Trans fats are only present within Benecol® foods at a very low level. The amount of trans fats in the Benecol® spreads are amongst the lowest in the market when compared to comparable products in the marketplace."
Can you believe it ! A supposedly heart healthy product containing transfats !
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year !