When Trans Fats Were Healthy

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/11/when-trans-fats-were-healthy/281274/



On Thursday the FDA proposed changing its classification of trans fats to no longer "generally recognized as safe," which means food companies would have to prove that the partially hydrogenated oils are harmless before using them. This new, higher bar could mean that trans fats will disappear from our diets altogether, since the most recent research shows that they contribute to plaque buildup in the arteries and heart attacks.

But surprisingly, science has only been against trans fats for the past few decades. Through the late 1980s, animal fat substitutes like Crisco and margarine were all the rage, and for a brief moment were even considered a health product. Here’s the story of how America fell in love with, and then quickly slid away from, hydrogenated oils.

In 1902, the scientist Wilhelm Normann found that adding hydrogen to vegetable oil would make it solid, creating trans fats in the process.

From the start, trans fats’ earthy origins were a selling point over that of their rivals, beef fat and butter. When Procter & Gamble debuted Crisco in 1911, it was billed: "It's all vegetable! It's digestible!” The shortening was also kosher, leading to the even better (worse?) slogan: “The Hebrew Race has been waiting 4,000 years for Crisco!”

***disclaimer: i use crisco in both my pie dough and in biscuits.

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. So is this the end of Crisco? I use it in my pie crusts.....wonder what the substitute will be?

could use butter of course.....

[xchrom]

3. butter or lard.

i've used both -- the lard pie crust came out quite good -- but it is a bit more work.

[tridim]

7. I've been making butter cookies with coconut oil lately.

They are divine! I bet chilled coconut oil would work great in a pie crust.

I use both butter and lard, but not nearly as much these days. Crisco isn't allowed in my kitchen, it's still disgusting even if they pulled the trans-fats.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. Crisco took trans fats out of its formula in 2007.

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/16795455/#.Un5IgI3uZu0

[winter is coming]

11. Yeah, it's nasty shit if you want to make American buttercream frosting.

It has a tendency to weep. I use all butter unless it's high summer, and then I spring for high-ratio shortening.

[SheilaT]

12. Butter. There's a reason it's called buttercream frosting.

I stopped buying cakes from bakeries when I discovered (many years ago now) that they used Crisco for the frosting. Yuck.

[Warpy]

9. I've always used butter in mine

and have always gotten rave reviews on the buttery flavor. The texture is always good, too, as I make sure it's 75% butter, 25% clear oil.

Lard used to be the preferred fat for bakers and probably will be again as Crisco either manages to alter its formula or it disappears. And even lard is preferable to trans fats.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. ...then, of course, there was Fluffo

[phylny]

5. My grandma who used lard lived til the age of 90.

My grandma who used butter, olive oil, and drank scotch lived to the age 100. Neither used margarine.

Coincidence? I think not

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

6. Starting in (I think) the '60s

my family started using margarine instead of butter, Crisco instead of lard, etc., because my dad discovered his cholesterol was high (he lived to be 92 anyhow, after 40-some years of eating trans fats). It's just interesting (or frustrating) to find out that the stuff you always though was good for you, isn't.

[tridim]

8. And the stuff you always though was bad for you (coconut oil), isn't.

Thank Gore for the Internets!

[Warpy]

10. I just felt vindicated

I didn't taste real butter until I left home and it came as a complete revelation. Since I used less to get better flavor, I converted to butter and just never looked back. Julia Child's first book helped me along.

Imagine how great it felt to know that I'd been doing the right thing all along: use natural fats and oils but not too much of either.

My own parents smoked for 40+ years and felt deprived if they didn't eat meat three times a day. My dad lived to 89 and my mother to 94. They also both developed hypertension in their early 40s, probably due to the fat load from all that meat plus the trans fats from all that margarine and Crisco.

My dad always thought how long you lived was genetically determined. I just pointed out that how functional you were until you died probably had a dietary component.