Day 10 – Partially Hydrogenated Fat

Today as I was driving, listening to the radio, I heard a debate about banning trans fat in Canada. The program, called The Point on CBC radio has the announcer invite notable people on the show to discuss important topics of the day. So as the people talked about banning trans fat I think they totally missed a lot of key points. But before I go into these, let me share with you a little information I gathered.

There are four kinds of fats: monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, saturated fat, and trans fat. Monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat are the "good" fats. It is generally accepted that consumption of saturated fat should be kept low, especially for adults. Trans fat (which means trans fatty acids) is the worst kind of fat, far worse than saturated fat.

Partial hydrogenation is an industrial process used to make a perfectly good oil, such as soybean oil, into a perfectly bad oil. The process is used to make an oil more solid; provide longer shelf-life in baked products; provide longer fry-life for cooking oils, and provide a certain kind of texture or "mouthfeel." The big problem is that partially hydrogenated oil is laden with lethal trans fat.

Trans fats cause significant and serious lowering of HDL (good) cholesterol and a significant and serious increase in LDL (bad) cholesterol; make the arteries more rigid; cause major clogging of arteries; cause insulin resistance; cause or contribute to type 2 diabetes; and cause or contribute to other serious health problems.

Okay, I don’t think there is any question that Trans Fat is bad for you, but the debaters on the program reduced the ban to something similar to banning smoking or drugs. The initial problem with Trans Fat is that people buy food products everyday an even if the label says “Zero Trans Fat” or if the ingredients state “hydrogentated” without “partial” (fully hydrogenated oils do not contain trans fat), trans fat may still be in the product. On top of this, if the product you are eating comes from outside your country it may contain trans fat even thought it or partially hydrogenated is not on the label. To further compound the problem, many restaurants, bakeries or eateries use trans fats in a lot of cooking and even if you ask if any trans fat is in the food, they may not know or choose not to disclose.

So the issue is not like banning smoking or illegal drugs since the substance is often missed or unknown to the person ingesting it. It is insidious because people may even be trying to stay clear of trans fat but are eating it nonetheless.

The other point that the debaters brought up was that it should be everyone’s right to choose what they eat. I agree with this line to an extent, the problem with this argument presumes people live in a vacuum. Think about the social and tangible costs. In an interview Food Defender Michael Pollan had this to say: “When I was a kid, in 1960, we only spent 18 percent on food. It's fallen in half in those past 45 years. In that same period, the amount of money we spent on health care has gone from 5 percent to 16 percent of our income. I can't help but think that if we spent a bit more money on food, we might spend less on health care.” I think he makes a good point.

Lastly the debaters lamely stated that people are taking the fun out of eating food by banning it. I guess you could also argue that Russian Roulette is not much fun with bullet prohibition. One point raised was the comparison between food and sex. They argued that current society was more open and celebratory of sex while at the same time puritan and oppressed over food. While I’ll agree with the sex part I actually think that people are becoming more enlightened about food, what it does for us and starting to understand the extremely complex interactions between all the types of things we eat and our bodies.

I kind of wish Patrick was on the show to talk about food and the PCP diet. Purhaps the biggest problem with the guest debaters was that they had very little idea about the topic they were discussing and that's unfortunate since it affects them and us all so dramatically.

So I stretched my body today and felt a bit like Stretch Armstrong. I wonder how long it will take me to touch my toes!? Completed all my exercises and felt great during and after the workout. I’m even looking for people to show off my jump skills(that kind of sounds wimpy) and I think talking about the Peak Condition Project to as many people as I can helps me more than the other way around.



Food was great today. I added some balsamic vinegar to my foods and it tasted wonderful. Salmon, Chicken, seafood, vegetables, pasta all tasted better with a little vinegar kick! Patrick mentioned that vinegar is great for circulation so I know I’ll get that blood pumping.

That’s it for now. See you tomorrow.