Comments on: Trans fats and geography

By: Victoria

Victoria — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 18:22:09 +0000

I eat McDonald’s fries only as a treat about once a month or every other month.

The rest of the time I prepare and pack both my lunch and my dinner to take to work.

By: Karen J

Karen J — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 00:58:17 +0000

I completely agree. There is no way of knowing what you are served when eating out.
My husband has a very good cafe where he works, and as soon as he walks up to the line, the cook recognizes him and puts real butter on the grill. Everyone else gets partially hydrogenated soybean oil.
I’m thankful for that thoughtful cook, but worried about everyone else.

BTW, in Denmark, the pastries are made with genuine dark European chocolate and real cream. With the exception of their excellent potatoes, the Danes know how to eat well.

By: Mark Levin

Mark Levin — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 10:25:51 +0000

A few thoughts concerning trans fats and saturated fats. First, the National Academy of Sciences stated that there was NO safe level of trans fats. People get concerned about PCB’s, Aspartame, the toxic waste dump a mile down the road, etc. However, here is an item that is known to be toxic, albeit as a long term poison. There is no urgency to ban it from the food supply, although I suspect it will gradually disappear due to consumer pressure.

Which brings me to the other item. Unless you are able to eat entirely organic items that you grew yourself, it is going to be almost impossible to avoid some exposure to trans fats, for example when eating out or possibly in purchased grocery items especially baked goods, the best strategy to reduce their toxicity would be a low carb high fat diet, with the fats used being cold pressed monounsaturated like olive oil or almost completely saturated like coconut oil or palm kernel oil. These fats will hopefully crowd out the trans fats, which are typically monosaturated to nearly saturated, in your cellular membranes. Thanks for the space to express my ideas.