cav, you are a chef, of course you know. I did not know about them until this very trial. how many are there like me? no clue, but i would be very interested to know. i will not eat oreos anymore, though i do love them so. with arteriosclerosis running already in the family, i don't need another contribution towards it. and am pissed off that it is not on the labels.
CodeB, good idea! Let the old and sick fend for themselves!
Dag--Trans fats are EVERYWHERE, not just in Oreos. They ARE in Skippy! Shall we now sue Skippy? I'd wager that if I were to go through my pantry right now, I would find that at least 50% of the products in there had the words "partially hydrogenated (insert name of oil here)" in the ingredients list including the so-called "healthy" alternatives. If heart disease is eventually responsible for my demise is there any INDISPUTABLE PROOF that trans fats caused the heart disease? NO. There are too many other factors that can contribute to heart disease. This is not a crisis that warrants a panic. This is some schmuck trying to get his name in the papers....and he succeeded.
From the article:
"Should you be concerned about trans fatty acids?
At this point it is not clear. Compared with other fats, the contribution of trans fats to most people's overall diets is small and there is little scientific evidence to suggest the necessity of cutting back on certain foods only because of trans fatty acids. Even if trans fatty acids do adversely affect cholesterol, their effect is much less than of saturated fats.
What should you do?
Until more is known about the exact effects of trans fatty acids, the American Dietetic Association recommends that people should:
consume moderate portions of lean meats
opt for low-fat or fat-free dairy products
limit total fat intake to no more than 30% of overall calories
select a wide variety of foods
enjoy regular physical activity. "
Haven't we known that we SHOULD do these things for years?
Of course not. If Skippy is the same issue, than the point has already been made with Oreos. Products where the information on trans fat is listed, I have no objections against. I will just avoid eating them. On Oreos it was NOT listed> that was the issue. I don't praise the lawyer as a hero, you are most likely right that he is a shmuck that wanted attention. Truth is, I couldn't possibly care less about him or his motives. What I care about is whether this whole thing will bring about the regulations about the dietary labels. If yes, I will be glad. If not, forget it, another affair closed.
I am in favour of the proposal by the FDA to put trans-fat amounts on food labels. However, I found the statistics as to the the amount of trans-fats in the average diet quite intriguing, given how low they were. You would really need to be eating a LOT of Oreos to be able to directly blame trans-fats for your heart problems. Basically, the solution is easy: check the labels of everything you buy for hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils if you have concerns. However, sticking with the age old eat healthy, get some exercise regime is probably best.
I also don't support getting rid of Medicare, but then again, I am Canadian
I have learned in a long lifetime that lawsuits are only frivolous when I disagree with their target.
I hesitate to bring this up -- found it out yesterday and it plunged me into a deep, deep depression.
NUTELLA has trans fats. (Partially hydrogenated peanut oil.)
oh NOOOO! are there different levels of hydrogenation? is some oil fully hydrogeneated, and some only a little bit? is trans fat all of them, or does it have some minimum amount?
Yes dag, there are hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils. As far as I know, this will be indicated on the ingredient list.
As far as I can tell, partially hydrogenated is partially hydrogenated is trans fats. Period.
It seems that pretty much anything that you'd think would be melty at room temperature, but isn't, has trans fats.
Oh, there's fully hydrogenated, too. Huh.
Does anyone know if there is in fact some kind of scale of nastiness? Is hydrogenated worse than partially hydrogenated, or are they both already over the line into trans fats?
Natural peanut butter doesn't have the hydrogenated oil in it. It is actually (to me) better tasting, too.
um well this will probably gross everone to the max but until a few years ago i rendered my own lard from my hogs and used it for all my baking and cooking.
Not really. I'm not a vegetarian, but I do feel vaguely uneasy about my meat-eating habits, and think that such direct involvement in the process is more honorable than getting something that has gone through lord knows what on its way to the grocery shelf. (That NYT Mag article "Bum Steer" made a big impression on me.)
Right edgar! foods don't need to have the trans-fats in them. Like I said earlier in this thread. I can buy oreo knock-offs that have 0% trans/hydrogenated/saturated fats. And they're very good too, don't know how they do it.
I buy crackers and corn ships that have no hydrogenated fats - Bearitos is one such manufacturer, they label their bags with a little seal indicating they use no manipulated ingredients.
I wonder if lard is better or worse than trans fats? My mother and grandmothers all cooked with lard--their biscuits and pie crusts were unbelievably good.
Unscientificaly, I think that foods that have been tinkered with are probably more dangerous than non-tinkered-with foods.
Diane the negative effects cause different problems I THINK. I think the free radicals in the tweaked fats have more to do with cancer and the natural animal fats with heart disease.
I agree, the less tinkering done, the better off you'll be eating it.
I remember delicious glazed donuts, dripping lard, full of sugar, when I was a boy. I could have eaten them by the dozen. Boy am I glad I didn't have the opportunity to do that.
Me too! My parents limited us to 2. We didn't have them very often. I could have eaten more at one sitting then, but now I have a hrd time with one usually.
dagmaraka wrote:On Oreos it was NOT listed> that was the issue.
Trans fat content is not listed on any food label. You have to look for "hydrogenated oils" in the ingredients list. THAT is what the shmuck CLAIMED his point was. He singled out Oreos because they're (I believe, but could be mistaken) the number one selling cookie in the nation.
