Addictive Food. Trans Fat Isn't Crooked. Trans Fats in Hiding. Flash Flood. UNIVAC.

 

For “Foodie Friday”:

“Mira Calton and Jayson Calton share how 4 ingredients are added to common foods in order to addict the American population. By reaching the bliss point Americans mindlessly eat more and more.”

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Why Trans Fat Is So Bad – and What Is It, Anyway?

“Trans fat isn't crooked—and that's the problem. Though it's chemically identical to natural fats, it doesn't bend. Here's a clear and simple explanation of why, what it means, and why trans fats are so dangerous.

We have been indoctrinated about fats for decades. Starting in the 1950′s, we were inundated with ads about how bad saturated fat is. We were, and still are, advised by our doctors to avoid butter and use margarine, or better yet, avoid fats altogether. Fairly recently, conflicting information has been coming out. Polyunsaturated fat is good...no, it's bad. Monounsaturated fat is good. Fat that's solid at room temperature is bad. No, coconut oil is good...and so forth.

So, what's the truth? Fat is good for you!

At least 25% of your calorie intake should be comprised of it. As you know, veggies are good for you, and if fresh, their oils are healthy, too. With that undeniable fact, it's been an easy sell to convince people and their doctors that we should avoid saturated fats and eat veggie oils—with "in moderation" tagged on to pay lip service to the (misbegotten) idea that we should keep fat out of our diets. The catch is that little word, fresh. It's virtually impossible to get fresh vegetable oil to the supermarket shelf. It goes rancid in no time at all. Therefore, it's processed by hydrogenation.

This technique keeps the vegetable oil from rapidly going rancid, making it profitable to store and sell. There is, of course, a price paid for this agribusiness profit—your health.

Isn't it interesting that, just as the medical system started telling us that we need to avoid saturated fats and use vegetable fats is when heart disease started to skyrocket? To fatten agribusiness pockets, we were told to avoid the fats that are good for us, and eat processed junk fat.

Trans fats, whether fully or partially hydrogenated, are not simply foods from which nutrition has been leached. They're poison. To suggest that partially hydrogenated oils are okay is like suggesting that it's better to take one poison because it's less poisonous than another. Both are poisons. When you consider how heavily vegetable oils have been pushed—virtually defined as the key to good health—it isn't difficult to see why cancer, heart disease, and many other chronic diseases have become so common.”  Complete article at: http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/why-trans-fat-so-bad-%E2%80%93-and-what-it-anyway

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Raid Your Pantry – Trans Fats in Hiding

“I’m going to start with a story:

Back in my college days, I did an internship at a local hospital, where I spent most of my days handing out Saltine Crackers and Ginger Ale to patients (in between bed-pan cleanings, of course).  One fine day, I went to give some kind old gentleman his Saltine Crackers as usual. However, this particular guy was not very pleased with his food selection. Upon reading the label, he threw them at me yelling “I’m Not eating any of that partially-hydrogenated CRAP!!”  Meaning, of course, the partially hydrogenated oils on the ingredient list.

Now, at the time, I thought he was Bat Sh*t Crazy. But as it turns out, he knew his stuff. As we know now, partially hydrogenated oils = trans-fats = devil food. Trans-fats are not to be lumped in with the other fats I mentioned here and here, as these guys have actually been shown to lower your HDL (good cholesterol) and raise your LDL (bad cholesterol), contributing significantly to coronary heart disease.  Trans-fats DO exist in some animal products in trace amounts, so it may be virtually impossible to eliminate them completely, and the National Academy of Sciences has  ”recommended that trans fatty acid consumption be as low as possible while consuming a nutritionally adequate diet”.  To make it simple, avoiding all natural sources: almost impossible. Avoiding processed sources: totally possible.

Fast forward to present day.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that Will (my other half) was going through the kitchen throwing away some of our spices. Now, considering the fact that this is someone who gets very upset about throwing food away, this was something that was extremely out of the ordinary. When I went to investigate, it turns out that he was throwing these spices out for good reason. A reason that will probably surprise a lot of you: They had trans-fats in them.

Shocking, I know.

While most of us have gotten the memo about the evils of trans-fats and cleared our homes of all the processed crap that contains this stuff (…right?) I bet one place you never thought you had to look was in your spice cabinet.” From: http://itrainthereforeieat.com/2012/02/15/raid-your-pantry-trans-fats-in-hiding/

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“Hopefully our society will finally stop fearing fat because fat does NOT make us fat, nor does it make us unhealthy... but that also too depends on the source of fat. If that fat is found in baking, processed foods and faux foods, then it is an issue. But if that fat comes naturally in a food, like the fat naturally in meats, fish and fowl, the fats in nuts and seeds and the fats in olives, coconuts and avocados, then we're on the road to better health and a smaller waistline.”

“Big Food makes decisions based on money, not health?”

“The #1 thing that is very important to remember about trans-fats is that the label can say “Zero grams of trans-fats!” as long as it has less than .5g per serving. CHECK YOUR INGREDIENT LIST. If partially hydrogenated oils are present, there are in fact trans-fats present. It’s just a nice little loophole in the FDA guidelines for them to hide”

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Food for Thought

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On This Day:

Flash flood devastates Oregon town, Jun 14, 1903:

“A flash flood in Oregon kills 324 people on this day in 1903. The sudden onslaught of water caused millions of dollars in damages to the central Oregon town of Heppner.

Nearly a tenth of the United States is made up of floodplains that would normally be inundated with water at least every 100 years without man-made control systems. In fact, most of the country's major cities are built on these floodplain areas, but dams, levees and floodways have been constructed to stave off regular flooding.

The largest and most violent flood on record was not witnessed by any people. Occurring during the last Ice Age, an ice dam located in modern-day Montana broke and, for about the next 11 days, a volume of water equivalent to five times what is contained in Lake Erie rushed over Idaho and eastern Washington. It scoured the landscape and scraped everything down to bedrock for hundreds of miles.”

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UNIVAC computer dedicated, Jun 14, 1951:

“On June 14, 1951, the U.S. Census Bureau dedicates UNIVAC, the world's first commercially produced electronic digital computer. UNIVAC, which stood for Universal Automatic Computer, was developed by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, makers of ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer. These giant computers, which used thousands of vacuum tubes for computation, were the forerunners of today's digital computers.

UNIVAC and other first-generation computers were replaced by transistor computers of the late 1950s, which were smaller, used less power, and could perform nearly a thousand times more operations per second. These were, in turn, supplanted by the integrated-circuit machines of the mid-1960s and 1970s. In the 1980s, the development of the microprocessor made possible small, powerful computers such as the personal computer, and more recently the laptop and hand-held computers.”

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Yesterday:

The dog I was supposed to groom, a little Border Collie, couldn’t come, her Mom had to go to the doctor as she hurt her back.

Ray got a long probe, and we tried to find a sewer cleanout that had been buried by the gravel that was spread in the driveway between the two houses.  We found it, and were going to put an extension on it, so that it could be used for the drain for a utility sink in the storeroom addition that is going to be built in that area.  But we found a smaller one which is closer to the building, so we buried the big one again, as it would have been too far out, and a trip spot.  Then we measured the area and figured out how it was going to be used.

At the front of the new driveway, because it would be over the lot line, I can put one of those metal carports, as they are not considered permanent.  Then behind that, we can add on to the storeroom, as long as it doesn’t go over the easement.

Jim, the mechanic, picked up my van and took it to his shop to take the rotors off and have them turned.  I had been feeling a pulsing on the brake pedal.  When I got it back, it was so much better.  I didn’t like to spend money on the old van, but I haven’t found another one that could replace it yet. 

Jay called around noon to tell me that a white owl was caught in the barb wire fence down by the lake.  I tried to reach the Game Warden, Wildlife Services, Animal Control, anyone, but they were all out to lunch, and all I could do was leave messages.  I went down there with a big towel, but someone else had freed it, or it had managed to free itself by the time I got there.  Thankfully, it will live to see another day.