Care for some spreadable particle gels on your popcorn?

December 12, 1:22 PMFood ExaminerEric Burkett

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Butter: better.

The year 2008 was a banner year for the artificial fat industry. Dutch researchers announced they had developed ‘’’spreadable particle gels’ that had a cream-like texture,” according to Foodnavigator-USA.

Derived from superheated potato starch, the new substance – I’m reluctant to call it food – can be used in place of maltodextrin, commonly added as a fat replacement in spreads such as margarine. Maltodextrin, itself, is a rather nebulous term used to describe a large category of products made from corn, rice, and potato starches, and used as sweeteners and thickeners.

The new substance, called SHS – or superheated starch – is, as yet, unavailable on the market. It’s expected to find wide use, however, as manufactures need substantially less of the stuff than maltodextrin to achieve that wonderfully creamy texture that is a hallmark of real butter but has never quite been duplicated with margarine. There’s a reason for that, of course. Margarine is not butter, no matter how often you use the word “butter” in the name of the product.

Not long ago, I read author Nina Planck’s 2006 book, “Real Food”, which examined the long-term health implications of artificial fats and flavorings in America’s food supply. In a nutshell, Planck argues that the health problems we suffer, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, were very rare until we began replacing real foods with lab-developed substitutions. In other words, if you want to avoid heart disease, eat real fats such as olive oil and butter in reasonable amounts instead of hydrogenated oils laced with maltodextrin.

I was curious as to what Planck might have to say about SHS, so I asked her.

“We don’t have studies on many of these new, industrial, engineered foods,” she replied in an email. “But when we do get them, the news is invariably bad. Consider interestified oils. These are the new solid oils which are trans-fat free.  So people ask me, ‘Are they good for me?’ No. Now we discover they lead to diabetes and heart disease.”

And she offered some excellent advice:”Stop searching for the new and the fake. Don’t read the latest ‘nutrition’ bulletins. Eat old foods [such as butter, whole fat milk, lard, and olive oil]. Don’t eat too much.  That should leave time for other, satisfying activities – like reading a novel.”

Indeed.