Thoughts: 10.3.08

It’s been tough coming back from vacation and getting back into my normal routine. This week has not been my best week ever for eating healthy OR exercising. And it shows on the scale. Not horrendous, but nothing to be proud of, that’s for sure. Am I worried? No. I am having trouble breaking myself of the dessert/candy habit I picked right back up while on vacation. I discovered a new, all natural granola bar from Quaker that has dark chocolate chunks in it, and that did the trick after lunch today at only 150 calories [vs. 300+ for a chocolate bar, etc.]. I also started using the Turbo Jam videos last weekend after we got back and I have to say, I’m really enjoying them. It’ll take a few weeks to get all the moves down and have it be 2nd nature, but I’m enjoying learning it, and I’ve been sore in places I didn’t know I had muscles, which I didn’t expect after all the working out I’ve been doing consistently since last Feb. So, that’s always cool. Even though my weight’s gone up a few pounds since before vacation, I actually feel thinner… and I’m wearing jeans that are a size down from what I was wearing a month ago, so hazzah for small victories!  =D

Fractionated Oil??

My husband and I were discussing microwave popcorn last night – because he’s trying to cut down on his addiction to it, when I mentioned that the last time I looked, his favorite brand still had hydrogenated vegetable oil in it [“trans fat”]. He said he didn’t think so, so I grabbed the package and read off the ingredients and got mildy scared when I saw “fractionated palm oil” on the list. What the hell is ‘fractionated oil’??? I was also surprised I’d never heard of it before [I don’t eat a lot of processed foods, so I just never came across a label that had that on there, I guess…]. I had to wonder if it was the next version of hydrogenated oil, just named cleverly to fool us ‘idiot consumers’ [yes, I’m a bit paranoid, but shouldn’t we all be? lol]

Turns out all it means is, palm oil [originating either in Africa or in the US] is a very healthy oil. It’s high in saturated fats, but it’s also high in antioxidants and vitamin E. Great, right? Not so fast… when they fractionate it, they heat it so that the oil separates into 2 parts: oil that has lower and higher melting point. Then they skim off the stuff that has the higher melting point, which is more stable, much like trans fats used to be and discard the rest. They use this oil in a lot of baked goods, confections containing chocolate – and microwave popcorn. Commonly used oils are palm oil, palm kernel oil and coconut oil. Both Palm and coconut oils are very healthy and great to cook with if you can find it [Trader Joe’s carries coconut oil which I use in place of vegetable oil – it has very little flavor, so it’s perfect when you don’t want your oil to interrupt the flavors of whatever you’re using it for…]. Palm kernel oil is oil they get from pressing the pit of the palm fruit – which doesn’t really have much nutrition in it to start with, but it’s much harder to get oil from the pit than it is from the fleshy, pulpy fruit itself. 

So, what’s the bottom line? 

The good news: This fractionated variety of oil is NOT half a step away from being straight-up plastic like hyrogenated oils were and does not appear to cause cancer like trans fats do.

The bad news: The fractionation process pretty much strips any health benefits from palm oil, rendering it [pun intended] void of nutrition, and you’re left with just a bunch of saturated fat… which many believe to be one of the causes of heart disease. 

So, if you have to have your popcorn, fractionated palm oil won’t cause cancer, but it could add to your waistline or the walls of your arteries. I, personally don’t think saturated fats are that bad. They’re very stable and they’re a nice, slow source of energy. Too much of anything is bad for you, so I apply the same rule to saturated fats… I also believe that there’s a much higher risk of coronary disease if you have sugar issues. If your blood sugar is too high for too long [unchecked insulin resistance or pre-diabetes to full blown type 2], the sugar corrodes your artery walls, then your body sends in the cholesterol as a sort of spackle, to try and patch the damage so the walls can heal – but cholesterol is sticky and things like saturated fats can stick to it and form a sort of microscopic barricade in your artery as it sticks to itself, as well. If you have normal sugar levels, no need for cholesterol patching, and the increased risk of heart disease from eating saturated fats goes away. All things in moderation… I’m not giving up steak anytime soon, and as long as I keep my sugar nice and balanced, I shouldn’t have to. 

As for fractionated oils – I’m glad they came up with a more natural way of stabilizing oils for processed food, but I won’t be eating it anytime soon. I’m just glad that if my hubby decided to have some microwave popcorn when we watch a movie, he’s not eating a measured dose of cancer-causing plastic. Now, I am by no means a doctor, I just do a LOT of reading on this sort of thing and have come to my own conclusions. I’m not recommending anything, just stating what I think, pertaining to my own diet [and concern for my husband’s]. I think we all should know more about what we put into our bodies so we can make our own educated decisions about what we’re willing to subject our bodies too – or at least understand the consequences if we choose to eat something unhealthy anyway…

Photo credit: Novatek Filtration, Sweden