How to Feed the Allergic, the Toddler and the Health Conscious, Part One.

(I started this post a few days ago, when I read yet another thing in the news about the evils of hydrogenated fats. I really feel passionate about this, and I know a bit about the subject too, so this is going to have to be posted in installments. So read up, and tune in for Part Two in a few…)

Recently a friend suggested I write a bit on healthy eating for the NOMOTC Notebook. Well, I would have loved to! I am always scolding my friends and family on the dangerous amounts of hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated fats (HF and PHF) and corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) they consume for about five years now. However, another writer for the NOMOTC grabbed the subject of healthy snacks before I could. Therefore, I will have to post a bit on the blog and hope that all mamas who wish to avoid such problems as heart disease, liver damage, kidney failure, bad skin, eye trouble, headaches, muscle spasms, hyperactivity, early on-set diabetes, in-growing hairs, corns, blotches, splotches, yellowed eyeballs, warts, bad breath, laziness and premature death in themselves and their families read and pay attention. Yeah, I am a bit of a holier-than-thou Miss Thing when it comes to food (unless it’s an OREO – if so, hold me back!) but the facts do support my wack-o ideas. I wasn’t always so caught up in good eatin’; hell, I used to be a professional chef, and we are a bunch notorious for eating poorly! But I read a bit in Men’s Health Magazine in early 200 about how McDonald’s will kill you. It got me thinking, then got me reading and got me to where I am today. I would also like to point out that high fructose corn syrup is basically liquid cellulite, and who wants that?! But for some reason, there are those who just don’t listen. Will y’all listen to Dr. Sears? We all love Dr. Sears, who backs me up; he calls HFCS and Hydrogenated Fats the Terrible Two, and lists 10 Junk Foods to junk on his website. Here is his list and here are a few quotes here to shock and horrify you about the “foods”, hydrogenated fat and HFCS:

From Ask Dr. Sears dot com:

10 JUNK FOODS

We define a junk food as "a food that is likely to do more harm than good to the body." We've used hot dogs as our, pardon the expression, "model" junk food. They're high in saturated fats, hydrogenated fats, added sugars, additives, food colorings, nitrates, and nitrites.

JUNK FOOD THE UNNUTRITIOUS, POTENTIALLY HARMFUL STUFF THAT'S IN IT:

1. Beef jerky high sodium, high percentage of saturated fat, high in nitrates and nitrites, added food colorings (Healthy alternatives are available.)
2. Colored, sweetened cereals hydrogenated oils, dyes: yellow #6, red #40, blue #2, blue #1 (Most don't contain whole-grain flour, yet may display the American Heart Association's heart-healthy seal of approval.
3. Doughnuts white flour, hydrogenated oils, icing, lots of sugar.
4. Potato chips hydrogenated oils, high in salt.
5. Gelatin desserts dyes, high sugar.
6. Candies hydrogenated oils, high sugar.
7. Punch dyes, high sugar.
8. Sodas high sugar, caffeine, dyes, carbonation.
9. Juice drinks or "cocktails" very little juice, mostly corn syrup and other sweetener.
10. Marshmallows mostly sugar, sticky for teeth.

Well, he makes it pretty clear, eh? Here are my ten alternatives to his Top Ten Foods to Junk:

1. A natural air-dried beef jerky, like Mojo Organic Beef jerky.
2. EnviroKidz cereals; replace your Cocoa Puffs with Koala Crisp, replace your Cap’n Crunch with Peanut Butter Panda Puffs and get your Kix with Gorilla Munch instead. For the parents, try either the Cascadian Farms cereals or the Kashi brand cereals. All are available at Trader Joe’s for about $2.50 a box, as opposed to $3.59 to $3.99 at most grocery stores. Yes, these are all 12 oz boxes…no funny business…
3. Jeez, try any of the baked sweets at Edge of the Woods, my local crunchy store on Whalley Avenue, or look for at a natural food store for the vegan equivalent to your favorite sugar coated snack bomb. When you see a Dunkin’ Donuts, train yourself to just drive on by. I’ll get one of those boxes of coffee there, for a playgroup, but since my little Baby B is allergic to egg, he can’t eat donuts. Ever. Oh well.
4. Instead of the ubiquitous Ruffles, get Terra Chips, Smart Puffs, Pirate’s Booty, Barbara’s Natural Potato Chips and Barbara’s Cheese Puffs, or pop some HF free popcorn at home and bring it along. Circle of Life (Big Y), Newman’s Own and Smart Balance all make microwaveable popcorn free of poison! Yummy!
5. Just avoid those Jell-O cups and pudding snacks. They are just chock a block with evil. I looked at a Chocolate Pudding Snack cup, which proudly proclaimed in large type: 0 grams of trans fats per snack! My my, I guess advertising really is legalized lying, because on the side, in the ingredient list partially hydrogenated soybean oil was right there in plain view. In 8 point type, of course. It’s interesting, I went to the Jell-O website to check some ingredients, but there are no nutritional facts on their website, except their claims that Jell-O pudding cups contain milk! Therefore, they are good for you! Yeah, well, so does a White Russian, but I ain’t giving one to my two year old…
6. Candies…I love candies…there are so many naturally sweetened candies out there! You just have to go to the site for O Naturale dot com, or shop at, you guessed it, Trader Joe’s, and you can find enough hydrogenated fat and corn syrup free hard candies, chewy candies, peanut butter cups, licorices and chocolates to put you into a diabetic coma. Pass the organic mocha truffle bars, would ya?
7. 8 and 9. Punch/Soda/Juice Cocktails…what can I say? Drink water, damn it! Oh, the children…well, dilute their Apple and Eve/Newman’s Own/Knudsen/Horizon/Santa Cruz Organic sugar free juice with some water, so the child grows up with a less than sweet tooth. You can also try the Reed’s Natural Ginger Beer, which comes in berry, extra ginger and apple flavors. All corn syrup free!
11. Marshmallow seemed difficult to find a substitute for, but you gotta love the Internet. Go to Vegan Essential dot com, and look for Ricemellow. You can use it for s’mores, krispy treats, topping hot chocolate, on ice cream, or you can eat it straight from the jar. The brand Fluff is pure Corn syrup, sugar syrup, vanilla flavor, and egg white. Ricemellow is Brown rice syrup, soy protein, natural vegan gums and vanilla. Guess which one we pick for Allergic to Eggs and super sensitive Baby B?

(I guess that the Rice Krispy Treats, made with Rice Krispies (Rice, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Salt, Natural And Artificial Butter Flavor, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Malt Flavoring, Sodium Ascorbate And Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Niacinamide, Reduced Iron, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin A Palmitate, Thiamin Hydrochloride (Vitamin B1), Folic Acid, Vitamin B12 And Vitamin D) and Marshmallow Fluff, that we had at a recent picnic really were the cause for his breakdown that night.)

Now, that is a short list. I have many, many ideas for health snacks and fun treats for my family and myself. Dried fruit! Fresh fruit! Cut up veggies! People say, oh, babies need easy finger foods, like French fries and those Gerber Wagon Wheels. I say – Not! Gerber’s Finger Foods like the Veggie Puffs and the Biter biscuits, the Wagon Wheels and even Zwieback Toast all contain hydrogenated fat! I told this to a friend recently who scoffed at the idea of a company like Gerber putting something so harmful in a baby’s food. Yo, it's all about the benjamins... read the label and see.

Now, just how harmful is hydrogenated fat? That is the focus of this Part One. Rather than me gassing on and on, I have lifted a few quotes from these obviously well researched and well supported sites; one, Harvard dot edu, two, American Heart Assocation dot org and three, Web MD. Read on.

From Harvard: What are the health effects of trans fats?

Concerns have been raised for several decades that consumption of trans fatty acids might have contributed to the 20th century epidemic of coronary heart disease.2
Metabolic studies have shown that trans fats have adverse effects on blood lipid levels--increasing LDL ("bad") cholesterol while decreasing HDL ("good") cholesterol. This combined effect on the ratio of LDL to HDL cholesterol is double that of saturated fatty acids.3
Trans fats have also been associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease in epidemiologic studies.4
Based on the available metabolic studies, we estimated in a 1994 report that approximately 30,000 premature coronary heart disease deaths annually could be attributable to consumption of trans fatty acids.4
In response to these reports, a 1995 review sponsored by the food industry concluded that the evidence was insufficient to take action and that further research was needed.5 Since that time many more metabolic studies have been conducted and additional prospective epidemiologic studies have been reported.
Because of the weight of the evidence, the FDA has recently issued a proposal for including trans fatty acid content on the food label.

By our most conservative estimate, replacement of partially hydrogenated fat in the U.S. diet with natural unhydrogenated vegetable oils would prevent approximately 30,000 premature coronary deaths per year, and epidemiologic evidence suggests this number is closer to 100,0000 premature deaths annually.

From The AMA: Where are trans fats found?

Trans fats are unsaturated, but they can raise total and LDL ("bad") cholesterol and lower HDL ("good") cholesterol. Trans fats result from adding hydrogen to vegetable oils used in commercial baked goods and for cooking in most restaurants and fast-food chains.

Cookies, crackers and other commercial baked goods made with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils may be high in trans fat.

French fries, donuts and other commercial fried foods are major sources of trans fat in the diet.

And from Web MD: What exactly are Trans Fats?

Trans fatty acids or trans fats are formed when manufacturers turn liquid oils into solid fats. Think shortening and hard margarine. Manufacturers create trans fats via a process called hydrogenation. Hydro-what? In a nutshell, hydrogenation is a process by which vegetable oils are converted to solid fats simply by adding hydrogen atoms.

Why hydrogenate? Hydrogenation increases the shelf life and flavor stability of foods. Indeed, trans fats can be found in a laundry list of foods including vegetable shortening, margarine, crackers (even healthy sounding ones like Nabisco Wheat Thins), cereals, candies, baked goods, cookies, granola bars, chips, snack foods, salad dressings, fats, fried foods, and many other processed foods.

Trans fatty acids are found naturally in small quantities in some foods including beef, pork, lamb, butter, and milk, but most trans fatty acids in the diet come from hydrogenated foods. So there is good news: When the new nutrition labels go into effect Jan. 1, 2006, it will be easier to screen these fats out of your diet. Until then, look at the package's list of ingredients. Products that contain partially hydrogenated oils or vegetable shortening may contain trans fats.

What Do Trans Fats Do Inside the Body?
Like saturated or animal fats, trans fats contribute to clogged arteries. Clogged arteries are a sign of heart disease; they increase your risk of both heart attack and stroke.

I'm not making this up, and it's pretty scary, isn’t it? Now, I know that everything should be done in moderation, and a little isn’t going to kill me and I shouldn’t worry so much about that cookie, but I do. I believe that by eliminating all trans fats, hydrogenated fats and partially hydrogenated fats from my diet, home and life I will be creating better health for me and for my family. Sure, there are going to be times when we consume bad fats unintentionally; at a party, at an airport (when we are desperate) or just in ignorance. That’s fine! I can live with that! Because those times are the “little that won’t kill me” and the “moderation” people like to advise. I want my children to grow up healthy, and by avoiding bad foods, I am doing just that.

Coming Next: High Fructose Corn Syrup gets taken to the mat and beaten to Jell-O.