With this entry, I shall attempt to prove that I am not just a pretty face. Well most of you would know me as an endearing and insanely popular blogger. Not many people know that I lead a double life as a food technologist with one of the leading food companies in Australia. Being a food technologist has nothing to do with cooking, although it helps to know about different cooking processes.
Because I am a totally unselfish person, I shall generously share my knowledge on a common topic that has been popping up in the media over the last few months. Unlike my other colleagues in the media (especially those in the current affairs section), I speak with the level of honesty and integrity that Morris Iemma can only dream about.
I want to talk about TRANS fats. and hopefully be able to clean up the misconceptions for you.
About 10-20 years ago, the hype was all about how eating too much saturated (animal) fat clogs up your arteries and leads to diseases like Coronary Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure. Suddenly there was a mad rush to switch to vegetable oil because they are unsaturated and do not have as much a detrimental effect on our bodies.
However, things like butter and cake and pastry margarine were still animal fat based and contained high amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol. The more saturated an oil is, the harder it goes at cold temperatures. This hardness (technical term is plasticity) is useful when making cakes and pastries. Using liquid vegetable oil to replace these simply will not work because they are in a different state and does not hold well in a mixture of flour, water and sugar. Pioneering food technologists found out that by passing hydrogen through vegetable oil, you can actually saturate the liquid oil and make it more solid at cold temperatures, replicating the structure of butter and tallow. Everyone was happy and embraced margarine.
Then, some party poopers decided to carry out some research and found that when liquid vegetable oils are reacted with hydrogen at high temperatures and pressures, a fat with a different structure called TRANS fats are formed. Even though these TRANS fats occur naturally in animal fat, they were present in much higher amounts in hardened vegetable oil. Further research showed that TRANS fats were twice as harmful as saturated fats!
You know that your body has good and bad cholesterol? When you go to a doctor and they tell you that your cholesterol level is high, he/she is usually talking about the bad cholesterol level. Research have shown that consuming high amounts of saturated fat in your diet increases the bad cholesterol. Worse, consuming high levels of trans fat increases the bad cholesterol while reducing the good cholesterol! That’s why its twice as bad!
Well, the good news is that most of the margarines and spreads that are being sold in the market have shifted to a processing method which yields a low trans product. You can tell by reading the Nutritional Information Panel on the margarine, labeled as trans under Fat. Trans levels for these margarines are usually less than 1g per 100g (less than 1%). If its more than 2-3%, you know that it belongs to the supermarket shelf and not your refrigerator.
Keep a look out for trans levels on other products like potato crisps and packaged cakes where a Nutritional Panel is printed. Keep your consumption of trans to as low as you can. The trap comes in products which are not labelled, like fast food (Mackers is alright, they’ve recently switched to low trans deep frying oil), cakes and pastries, desserts etc. The best policy is to exercise moderation. Things like cakes and pastries shouldn’t be a daily treat, but more of an occasional one.
This is the end of my sermon. Hope you are still awake.
God Bless You!
Love,
Pastor Wong
Because I am a totally unselfish person, I shall generously share my knowledge on a common topic that has been popping up in the media over the last few months. Unlike my other colleagues in the media (especially those in the current affairs section), I speak with the level of honesty and integrity that Morris Iemma can only dream about.
I want to talk about TRANS fats. and hopefully be able to clean up the misconceptions for you.
About 10-20 years ago, the hype was all about how eating too much saturated (animal) fat clogs up your arteries and leads to diseases like Coronary Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure. Suddenly there was a mad rush to switch to vegetable oil because they are unsaturated and do not have as much a detrimental effect on our bodies.
However, things like butter and cake and pastry margarine were still animal fat based and contained high amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol. The more saturated an oil is, the harder it goes at cold temperatures. This hardness (technical term is plasticity) is useful when making cakes and pastries. Using liquid vegetable oil to replace these simply will not work because they are in a different state and does not hold well in a mixture of flour, water and sugar. Pioneering food technologists found out that by passing hydrogen through vegetable oil, you can actually saturate the liquid oil and make it more solid at cold temperatures, replicating the structure of butter and tallow. Everyone was happy and embraced margarine.
Then, some party poopers decided to carry out some research and found that when liquid vegetable oils are reacted with hydrogen at high temperatures and pressures, a fat with a different structure called TRANS fats are formed. Even though these TRANS fats occur naturally in animal fat, they were present in much higher amounts in hardened vegetable oil. Further research showed that TRANS fats were twice as harmful as saturated fats!
You know that your body has good and bad cholesterol? When you go to a doctor and they tell you that your cholesterol level is high, he/she is usually talking about the bad cholesterol level. Research have shown that consuming high amounts of saturated fat in your diet increases the bad cholesterol. Worse, consuming high levels of trans fat increases the bad cholesterol while reducing the good cholesterol! That’s why its twice as bad!
Well, the good news is that most of the margarines and spreads that are being sold in the market have shifted to a processing method which yields a low trans product. You can tell by reading the Nutritional Information Panel on the margarine, labeled as trans under Fat. Trans levels for these margarines are usually less than 1g per 100g (less than 1%). If its more than 2-3%, you know that it belongs to the supermarket shelf and not your refrigerator.
Keep a look out for trans levels on other products like potato crisps and packaged cakes where a Nutritional Panel is printed. Keep your consumption of trans to as low as you can. The trap comes in products which are not labelled, like fast food (Mackers is alright, they’ve recently switched to low trans deep frying oil), cakes and pastries, desserts etc. The best policy is to exercise moderation. Things like cakes and pastries shouldn’t be a daily treat, but more of an occasional one.
This is the end of my sermon. Hope you are still awake.
God Bless You!
Love,
Pastor Wong
4 comments:
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!
Sorry you lost me at BLA BLA BLA.
Shaza
Glad to know someone takes interest in my sermons. Tofu contains <5% fat and does not contain cholestrol or trans fats. That's why its good for you!
ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
What? sorry BLAH BLAH BLAH
1. Keith, keep up the cooking show...i loved it!
2. Firman, loved the dancing, especially in the dark - LOL...I think you should be on the next "Dancing with the Queens"!
3. Mardi Gras - man, surely there were better pics of me - LOL....loved all the photos and it was an awesome party.
Looking at all this really makes me miss Sydney so much.....my friends and all the fun times. I miss you all....please pray for me, i wanna come back to be with you all.
Love Nelson. xx
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