Hello everyone,

I'm a little worried.

Today I found several articles scattered throughout the web that all
discuss the dangers of consuming hydrogenated oils. Apparently hydrogenating
an oil saturates and solidifies fat and helps to prolong the shelf life of
thousands of food products. When a product is hydrogenated "trans fatty
acids" (whatever the hell that means) are produced. Just out of curiosity I
decided to examine the items in my cupboard and found that about 90% of them
all contain this supposedly deadly substance.

My question is this. Why would the FDA approve so many companies to use
this substance if it has a proven link to cancer, diabetes, heart disease,
etc etc... I can see why it is used (to prolong shelf-life, to improve
taste, convenience) but shouldn't the cons outweigh the benefits. Ya know,
the con that it happens to KILL people!!

I'm hoping that maybe the toxic nature of this substance has been hyped
up and perhaps it's not as dangerous as made out to be. According to the
website listed below "no level of trans fat is safe to consume" and
apparently hydrogenated oils are "one of the most toxic substances Americans
consume". When I think about it, over the past eighteen years I've probably
consumed god knows how many grams of it. Why wasn't I warned that these
foods would kill me? Hell, they should have to put labels on these food
products like they do cigarette packages showing pictures of swollen,
bleeding hearts. "Rice A Roni can cause coronary heart disease and lead to
multiple sclerosis". Kids should be learning to SAY NO to trans fatty
acids - along with smoking and drugs - because supposedly they both do the
same damage to the body.

Perhaps this is why the level of cancer patients has been increasing
dramatically over the past few decades? It seems as though the human race
really will end up killing themselves off one of these days.

Let me just sum up my questions:
- Are trans fatty acids truly as dangerous as the articles make them
out to be? Can they be eaten - at all - in small quantities safely?
- Am I already doomed to cancer, heart failure, or some other
disease seeing as that I've been eating this !@#$ for eighteen years?
- Why doesn't the FDA do something about it?
- Should I throw out anything that contains "partially hydrogenated
___" on the ingredients list?

http://jctonic.com/include/healingcr...genatedoil.htm
http://www.azcentral.com/health/diet...enatedoil.html
http://www.canadiancontent.ca/issues...rogenated.html

Thanks,
Brennan

To comment on some of what you wrote, I don't know how much I would rely on
the FDA. Nutrition and the health effects of food is a sticky issue, there
are studies which can prove any food to be bad for you.

In addition, I'm sure there's much corruption, big companies tend to only
change their services when it's in their best interest. Look at KRAFT, they
are trying to become "healthier" now, but I'm sure it's because they know
it's only a matter of time before obese consumers start sueing them for
their own disposition. Meat products have tons of hormones put in them, if
that doesn't sound wrong already than the fact that they believe it's
causing pre-mature puberty in females and breast cancer should be enough.
And yet, little has changed... the bread industry is pretty bad too, all the
refinement that goes in the process of making bread is not good either.

Change your diet, it's worth it and isn't that hard. It's unfortunate that
most people do not know what foods are good and bad. I did a lot of
research this month and have revamped my diet, I've always been "healthy",
but knowing is priceless. I eat less of the "bad" and more "good" food, but
I'm not extreme and do not completely obstain from the "bad" foods. The
thing is that like you are realizing, once you know what is actually bad,
it's shocking to realize what you have been consuming. I went through a
strict diet change that my familly members found odd, but it's worth it.

It's not just hydrogenated oils that may be a health risk, but eating too
many high glycemic foods. I'm a follower of the GI "diet"
www.glucoserevolution.com and feel it's the most reasonable approach to
eating. Unfortunately, it tends to cost more money to be healthy.

On Sun, 06 Jul 2003 01:05:33 GMT, "Brennan" <brennan707@shaw.ca>
wrote:

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and population control