Friday, January 12, 2007

First entry of 2007

I never worried about trans-fats until after Cliff's surgery.  That's when I learned how bad they are for us.  Eating them increases the risk of coronary heart disease.  While they occur naturally in the milk and body fat of ruminants, most trans-fats we encounter are from good old Crisco, and from all sorts of store-bought baked goods.

Vanilla Wafers are great for folks watching their calories; five or six cookies are 100 calories, something like that.  I used to buy the off-brand cookies at Dollar Store, though; and those are loaded with trans-fats.  I found out that even most brand-name cookies have the little killers, too.  Finally I found Nilla Vanilla Wafers, at $3 a box, had none.  I bought those, and kept them as Cliff's private stock.

Imagine my delight the other day when I discovered that Dollar Store's cookies are now trans-fat free, all of them!  I can get Cliff three boxes of cookies for the price of one, and I can afford to let the granddaughters eat them too!

Oreos have become trans-fat free in the last few months.  Crisco makes a shortening now that's rid of them, although I've had trouble finding it in some stores.  It works as well as the ordinary stuff, so I'm patiently awaiting the day when all Crisco is trans-fat free.  This isn't a biggie, though; I only use it for pie crust, and pies are a rarity around here.  For everything else, I cook and bake with olive oil.

Eating out is getting somewhat safer, too.  Even Kentucky Fried Chicken booted trans-fats out, except for their biscuits.

Yes, the world is getting a little more heart-friendly all the time.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

And they should become aware of the health issues or they will have no customers.

Anonymous said...

We are better off eating straight butter than anything with trans fat