by Bee Rock

Created on: February 13, 2007   Last Updated: April 02, 2007

Have you ever wondered why the good old US of A is the fattest country in the world? I always thought it was because we were lazy, junk food eating, couch potatoes. I was partly right, but did you know that we are methodically being fed poison on a regular basis?
It's called partially hydrogenated oil, or Tran's fat. You may have heard of Tran's fat on TV or a magazine. I happened to have lost 50 lbs about 2.5 years ago and after that happened I realized that MOST of my favorite foods growing up or even since I've been married have this poison it in. Hydrogenated oil is now banned in Europe and Canada, and New York is about to follow suit by banning it as well.

What is hydrogenated oil? Why on earth would companies put this foreign substance into our food supply? There are a few different kinds, but it all has to do with chemically altering vegetable oil. Putting hydrogen in regular oil makes it chemically altered at the cellular level. Translation: instead of good fat that you need it's transformed into chemically altered oil that affects YOU at the cellular level.
Why would companies put poison in our food supply? The bottom line, you guessed it, is money. There are good for you fatty acids called Omega 6's and 3's. They help your body systems function and promote good health. The only problem with these good fats is they rot if they're on a shelf in a grocery store for too long. Companies lose money because it won't stay on the shelf and be bought so they introduced hydrogenated oil to take the good Omega 3's place.
Take for example Cream of Mushroom soup. There are generic brands, and there are leading brands. The generic brand is about 30 cents cheaper than the name brand and has hydrogenated oil in it. The more expensive kind has none. Why? Foods that have hydrogenated oil in them get years more shelf life. What's the bottom line? Why, money of course! Big companies that don't really care about feeding consumers a foreign substance that clogs their arteries and increases their chances of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes are CASHING IN. Don't support them! You'll regret it!
Since companies are now jumping on the band wagon, of course they have to deceive us. On the front of a lot of products you'll now see the words TRANS FAT FREE! I thought this was great until I turned over the back and saw an ingredient in there "partially hydrogenated oil". It seems they only have to say Trans fat and the mg amount if there's over a mg. Sorry, but I don't want ANY poison in my body, not just a little. It doesn't make much sense to me and is designed, of course to deceive you into you're thinking healthy. If you look at most diet meals even THEY have hydrogenated oil in them.
Some people come up to me and say, "but isn't hydrogenated oil in everything that tastes good?"
Absolutely not. Just about any product with hydrogenated oil in it you can upgrade for about 30 cents to one dollar more. Is that worth cutting your chances of disease? I think so.
Where do we go from here? New York City is working on a band of hydrogenated oil, that's good. KFC is switching from Trans fat to canola oil which some stores have already done and no one even notices yet. We need to become educated on hydrogenated oil and stop being the fattest country in the world. It starts with you!

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