How many restaurants are using rice bran oil rather than the new change from trans fats to soybean or canola oil? And are the oils being substituted for the old hydrogenated oils (called trans fats) in restaurants or in commercial baked goods really that much healthier or merely cheap and maybe somewhat more healthy?
According to the Sacramento Bee article of December 28, 2009, "California restaurants can't use trans fats as of Jan. 1," by Jim Sanders, which also is one article in an ongoing series about new state laws that take effect on January 1, 2010, California is going to stop eateries from cooking with trans fat starting New Year's Day.
That's a mighty resolution because California is the first state to stop restaurants from using trans fats as shortening to fry food in because trans fats raise your bad cholesterol, LDL, and lower your good cholesterol, HDL. Trans fats are notorious for the role they play in opening the pathway for hardening of the arteries by inflammation, increasing the number of strokes, angina, and coronary heart disease. Trans fats are those hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils you find in baked goods and other foods.
Hold onto your hats because bakeries still use trans fats and will not be required to stop using trans fats until 2011. That's a whole year of baked goods on supermarket shelves in in bakery items full of trans fats such as partially hydrogenated oils and shortenings.
Think the restaurant industry was that eager to use more expensive oils in cooking, even though the price would have been past on to the customer? No way. The California Restaurant Association opposed the legislation, contending that 75 percent of meals are consumed at home and that banning trans fats in restaurants would have no major impact on health statewide. But on their website is the caption, "Food and Healthy Living" and Advocacy and Representation.
Think they are about responsible stewardship? How about research and insights? You have to get both sides of the story, so check out the site. For example, The 2009 Restaurant Industry Forecast includes economic, workforce, consumer and menu trends, as well as information for restaurant operators to overcome the current economic challenges and position themselves for future growth.
The nation's 945,000 restaurants should hit $566 billion in sales in 2009, according to the NRA's 2009 Restaurant Industry Forecast.
• Industry fact sheet
• 2009 Forecast
• State-by-state stats
How about education and networking? The NRA Show (National Restaurant Association) is where you can find the latest ideas, products, and educational programs. Do you work in the industry? Getting back to the state ban, it is being cheered by supporters. How else can you protect diners not aware that they are eating trans fats? Usually you can't see the food being cooked when you come into a restaurant or other eatery.
How do you know whether trans fats were used? Do you ask whether your food is cooked in healthier oils such as rice bran oil? Think a restaurant is going to fry food in healthy grapeseed oil or macademia nut oil? Not at the price you'll usually pay for food, and not when a lot of customers are being served. That's why restaurants use trans fats in the first place to fry or bake food--because it's cheap.
Although California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the measure last year, in 2008, it takes effect on New Year's day, Friday, January 1, 2010. It took two years just to get restaurants in California to stop using trans fats. What do you think they'll substitute for the trans fats, and do you think that will be healthier? Restaurants were given a one-year adjustment period. Bakeries need not comply until January 2011.
Presently baked goods and other food items like spreads, dips, and salad dressings can use up to 500mg of trans fats in baked goods on the supermarket shelves that are marked as having no trans fats. The baked goods really does have trans fats, up to those 500 mg of it. Eat enough of those baked goods or other foods such as spreads, and oils, and the milligrams of trans fats add up.
Schwarzenegger, upon signing Mendoza's Assembly Bill 97, hailed it as "taking a strong step toward creating a healthier future," according to the Sacramento Bee article. What about trans fats for school children eating school lunches and snacks? In the past, California has banned trans fats when cooking food for schools.
How you turn an oil into a trans fat? You add hydrogen to vegetable oil. The process is called hydrogenation. Manufacturers in the past wanted to improve the shelf life of baked goods and other foods. They thought the trans fats would enhance the flavor of foods.
Some restaurants also add MSG (monosodium glutamate) that numerous people have adverse reactions to--in order to enhance food flavor, thereby inadvertently addicting some people to the taste of the food in hopes, perhaps, that they'd return for more food to the same place. It's about following the money, preserving shelf life, and getting people used to a certain taste.
So in the past if trans-fats were added to preserve shelf like and enhance flavor, and MSG also was added to savory items to enhance flavor, what did that all add up to besides your possible allergies? How about a cholesterol change for the worse back then? The 1950s was the golden age of trans fats used in cooking in the home and in restaurants. Remember those 1950s housewives frying potatoes and burgers or hot dogs in that white hydrogenated trans fat?
Trans fats are put into candies, snack food, baked goods, restaurant foods, and other items most people buy starting in childhood without asking what's in the food. You should know that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not stop or restrict trans fats from being put in food.
All USDA states is that trans fats can increase the risk of coronary disease by raising your low-density lipoprotein, your LDL, commonly called the bad cholesterol. The problem is your HDL, your good cholesterol that's supposed to be high decreases from eating food containing trans fats. According to the American Heart Association, you're supposed to limit trans fats to less than one percent of total calories you take in each day.
Many restaurants actually have cut out trans fats already. Just ask them what they use instead. For information, check out the site of the The California Restaurant Association. Some are phasing out the trans fats. There are a lot of fast food eateries that don't cook with transfats, such as Burger King, Rubios, KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) and others. That's why you could call and ask the manager what do they cook with when frying or baking foods or buttering bread.
A good point for the fast foods that don't use trans fats is that they changed their cooking oils a long time ago without passing on any price increases to customers. And the taste hasn't gone down, either. Many of these fast-food eateries fry in canola oil.
KFC, for example fries in a soybean oil blend. But now you have to look up the statistics on what happens to food fried in a soybean oil blend or in canola oil. You're not going to detect a taste difference from trans fats to polyunsaturated oils that are not hydrogenated.
Some of the Asian restaurants never use trans fats. Some restaurants use corn oil or other oils. Some people wish they'd cut out the MSG and the heavy salting of food at several restaurants. Why don't restaurants let people salt their own food with 20 percent of the population on high blood pressure medicine and 60 percent of those sensitive to salt and MSG?
Locally most restaurants are switching or have switched, but still you should call and ask ahead of time whether trans fats are used, and if not what has been substituted. The problem with trans fats is that it's in margarines. It's probably healthier to smear butter on bread than margarine containing trans fats, or try extra virgin olive oil or grapeseed oil, and if you like, some garlic.
Basically California's ban on restaurant oils, margarines, and shortenings can't contain more than 0.5 grams of trans fats. That's still a lot, at 500 milligrams of trans fats, considering people eat a lot of snacks, not just one potato chip, for example.
Routine inspections conducted by local health departments are supposed to check and fine violators up to $1,000 for using trans fats in restaurants. But why did the California Restaurant Association oppose the legislation? It all got pushed on the idea that people eat at home 75 percent of the time.
So the California Restaurant Association maybe figured that banning trans fats in restaurants wouldn't make a big difference on health in the state with all those people eating at home. The problem with this logic is that it leaves out office workers that eat lunch out daily after grabbing a bite for breakfast at work, perhaps a muffin from a take-out eatery, then have a mid-morning and mid-afternoon break with another snack such as coffee and a donut. It all adds up. Working people, unless they carry food from home, aren't eating at home that much.
There are workers that go out for dinner in the evening or order take-out food. School children eat lunches in schools and sometimes breakfast and snacks after school as well. Come to think of it, a lot of people are eating snacks constantly, going through drive-through fast-food kiosks during daylight hours, and probably having lunch near the office. So it adds up. The alternative is to bring your own food to work.
For families, the trans fat ban couldn't arrive too soon. But it will be another year before the bakeries have to comply. The question is, will the oil substituted for trans fats be that much healthier? What to do? Check out what goes into the food you eat every day at restaurants.
Interestingly, a company can make a very small serving out of a snack and still use trans fats as long as the trans fats are kept under 500 mg. But if you eat enough servings of the packaged snack, for long enough, the trans fats eventually will build up.
Check out the uTube video of physician, Dr. Mercola pointing out how some packaged goods still use hydrogenated oils as long as they keep the servings listed as small enough on the package so you don't get more than 500 mg of trans fat per serving.
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