Frying Food Is Unhealthy

We are in denial of the amount of fried food actually we eat. French fries are the number one fried food. Twenty-two percent of our potato crop ends up French-fried.

We regularly feed fried foods to our kids. If you don’t think children eat much fried food: 33 percent of kids eat fast food daily, much of it fried. The French fry is toddler’s first finger food and 21 percent of toddlers eat French fries every day. The number one first finger food for baby is a French fry!

Kaylee is shocked that so much food is fried!

We Fry Everything
French fries are only part of the picture. Unsaturated oils, which have been heated for 30 minutes, forms a highly toxic compound. Restaurants offer kids menus loaded with fried foods. The standby favorite is fried chicken and French fries.

We eat fried food all the time. Fish sandwiches are fried. We fry turkeys. Some fry bananas, pickles and strawberries! Kids love donuts and potato chips — they are fried.

Even vegetables deep-fried are not good for you: Tempura is fried vegetables, we beer batter veggies and then fry them, we fry okra, eggplant and onions (onion rings).

Jamie Oliver in The Food Revolution buries a family’s deep fryer in their back yard. Good for him! Fried foods are associated with obesity, but that’s not all. No matter what kind of oil is used, oil essentially turns into a kind of glue when heated to a high temperature. Fried foods can damage every cell in the body.

Obesity Not The Only Problem
Fried foods have been associated with obesity, but that’s not the only problem. Chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, gallbladder disease, celiac disease, and cancer have been associated with fried foods.

A study published in the International Journal of Cancer by Dr. Miches discovered that early consumption of French fries linked to kids to adult breast cancer. The study observed children between the ages of three and five. The children were given a healthy diet plus French fries. The study concluded a regular consumption of French fires were associated with a cancer increase of 27 percent with one additional serving per week.

Thomas Anderson, Ph.D. writes concerning fried foods, “The problem is not just the acrolein, benzopyrenes and so forth created when vegetables oils are heated, nor the trans fats formed when they’re deodorized or hydrogenated. Excessive consumption is a problem in itself. At not time in history has anyone anywhere consumed so much vegetable oil.”

Problem Compounds With Reheating
Restaurants reuse oils for frying. University of Minnesota researchers A. Saari Csallany, a professor of food chemistry and nutritional biochemistry, and graduate student Christine Seppanen have shown that when highly unsaturated vegetable oils are heated at frying temperature (365 F) for extended periods—or even for half an hour—a highly toxic compound, HNE (4-hydroxy-trans-2-nonenal), forms in the oil. To make matters worse, HNE accumulates with each heating cycle. Restaurants filter their oils for deep-frying and reuse them until they are maple syrup colored.

No matter what oil a restaurant begins with after repeated heating you end up with some trans fat. Trans fat can’t be metabolized in the human body. In fact, trans fat has a half life of 51 days. That means nearly three months after consuming trans fat, you’re body is still dealing with it.

How To Limit Fried Foods
1) Eat fried food, occasionally. This is where we are in denial. Most people don’t realize how much fried food they consume, because it’s purchased out. Never order fried food in a restaurant. My family has a holiday food tradition. We make Italian Rice Balls made with white rice, butter, cheese, rolled in bread crumbs and deep fried. It’s the most unhealthy (yet delicious) food on the planet! We eat Rice Balls only two or three times a year. Be conscious of the food you eat that is fried.
2) Cook it at home with quality oils. An alternative to deep-frying is to brown food in a small amount of oil.
3) Use the oven instead of deep-frying. Click Here for a healthy choice try Oven Fried Potatoes.

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In the United States, typical French fries have about 40 percent trans fat, and many cookies and crackers range from 30 to 50 percent trans fat. Doughnuts have approximately 35 percent trans fatty acids. A couple of the worst offenders are found in many kitchens-stick margarine and Crisco®.

Trans fatty acid is created when the molecular structure of a vegetable oil is altered to a hardened form found in margarine or shortening. Because trans fat increases the shelf life of foods, it’s most commonly found in restaurant foods, fast foods (French fries, fried chicken, and chicken nuggets), snack food, packaged bakery products (cookies, crackers, donuts, and cakes), microwave popcorn, potato chips, peanut butters, and salad dressings.

Jacob didn’t know that fries have so much trans fat!

Trans fat is far worse than natural saturated fat ever could be. The production process of injecting liquid fats with hydrogen gas converts them into indigestible trans fatty acids. Trans fat can’t be metabolized in the human body, because they don’t release any helpful mediator. Their shape keeps them from being recognized by enzymes. In fact, trans fat has a half life of 51 days. That means three months after consuming trans fat, you’re body is still dealing with it.

Trans fat molecules are absorbed into your cells, compromising the cell’s metabolism. Trans fat lowers the HDL (good cholesterol) and increases the LDL (bad cholesterol), leading to heart disease. In pregnant women, trans fat, like alcohol, drugs, carbon monoxide from cigarette smoke, and pesticides, pass through the placenta to the baby, affecting the baby’s metabolism in direct proportion to the amount ingested by the mother. In addition, there’s a correlation between trans fat and Type 2 Diabetes. To make matters worse, trans fat inhibits the absorption of vitamin K (vital for bone growth). Trans fat is a toxin interfering with all membrane function.

Eating Fried Food Out Is Dangerous To Health
Eating out can be more of a challenge than reading food labels. Now it’s required for food manufactures to list on nutrition labels over a half a gram of trans fat. Unfortunately, picky eaters love fast food! Five small chicken nuggets from a fast food chain may contain between two and four grams of trans fat. A large order (six ounces) of McDonald’s® French fries contains a whopping eight grams of trans fat!

Many restaurants are moving away from trans fat, even McDonalds says they no longer use trans fat. Are we any better off? Not really. Restaurants usually use inferior, cheap vegetables oils. A healthy oil will go rancid. Then an inferior oil is used for frying , it’ reused for a week. It’s used over and over again, until it turns to sludge. Trans fat is created when a vegetable oil is overheated. So, in effect, a restaurant may start with a more healthy oil, but it ends up with a trans fat. When you eat out AVIOD all fried foods.

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Researchers at Ohio State University analyzed government data on 6,500 children and teens, ages 2 to 18. They found the children were consuming an average of 2 cups of fruit, vegetables, and juice combined a day. French fries account for 25 percent of their vegetable intake. Someone consuming 2,000 calories a day should be eating 2 cups of fruit and 2½ cups of veggies a day—over TWICE the amount recorded.

Then there’s the nagging statistic that French fries compose 25 percent of children’s vegetable intake. While writing “Eat Your French Fries Vegetables,” I decided to see if the claim that a Happy Meal will last for years is true. I purchased a Happy Meal on March 3, 2009. To follow Nonna’s Happy Meal Blog, you’ll want to subscribe to the Baby Bites Ezine.

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Nonna’s Happy Meal Blog:

March 3, 2009
My newly purchased Happy Meal smells yummy and it’s very colorful. I receive a PetShop virtual pet dog in a yellow plastic doggie carry-case, along with my child-size hamburger, small fries, and a soft drink. On one side of the cardboard box the meal comes in are cutouts for a pet shop window and door. What little girl wouldn’t absolutely love it? The boy’s side of the box has a Spider-Man scene. The Spider-Man side states, “Meet the spectacular Spider-Man in McWorld at HappyMeal.com and go on your own superhero adventure!” WOW what fun. As colorful as my Happy Meal is, the food is mostly colorless. French fries are made from starchy white potatoes and a hockey puck-size brown hamburger is served on a mini-white-bread bun. There’s no lettuce, cheese, or otherwise healthful topping, just a dab of ketchup and a slice of pickle.

March 4
Happy Meal greets me as I walk into my office this morning. It’s perched on a shelf behind my desk and there is a faint smell of French fries as I enter the room. My husband is concerned about the odor. I ask, “What do ya mean?” After all it smells yummy. He says, “What about when it putrefies, decomposes, and turns rancid?” I answer, “That’s the point of my experiment. It’s NOT supposed to decompose, only a natural food would do that! If it does, I’ll move it into a glass container, to control any unpleasant smell. Then, I’ll have more to report.

March 5
Day three, my cheery Happy Meal’s yummy smell is hardly noticeable as I come into my office. I can’t help but think about the hidden ingredient in much of McDonalds’ food. It’s even in their fries …MSG. MSG is an excitotoxin, which over-stimulate brain cells to the point that they die. Many people experience headaches when this occurs. MSG is an excitatory neuro-transmitter or “excitotoxin.” Excitotoxins are chemical transmitters allowing brain cells to communicate. Unfortunately, excitotoxins over-stimulate your brain cells and they die. It’s a toxic substance. As you would guess, children are most at risk from ingesting MSG in Happy Meals. It can pass the blood brain barrier and even the placental barrier, affecting unborn children. Morgan Spurlock, from the movie SuperSize Me, experienced extreme headaches on his McDonald’s diet. In his movie and book, he says his health team was at a loss for the reason. It’s a shame they missed the connection to MSG. For more information about MSG, Click Here.

March 6 AM
I now own my very own McDonalds’ Spiderman toy. Yep, I went back to McDonalds and purchased the toy alone. Now I have a toy for each side of the McDonalds’ box. A toy meant for a girl and one for a boy. I was motivated to purchase the second toy, because yesterday, Kelly wrote a comment on my Facebook page after I mention the “Nonna’s Happy Meal Blog.”Kelly observed, “Sadly, with all the marketing it seems to be more about the toy.” And then offered her solution, “I often will make them a healthy lunch at home, and then go thru the drive thru and just buy the toy!”Checking my original receipt, I found my purchase of a Happy Meal cost me $3.02 (after taxes, before taxes $2.79). The toy with the Happy Meal is listed on the receipt as zero.  When I purchased the toy alone, it cost $1.69 (of course, plus tax). Using a rule-of-thumb that the cost of an item is doubled, the toy most likely cost McDonalds about 80 cents. It would be my guess the paper products (the box, napkins, and cup) were next in expense for McDonalds. That alone speaks volumes about the quality of the food.

March 6 PM
YIKES, I’m becoming a regular McDonalds’ costumer! Yes, I went back there today and purchased a second tiny hamburger. Yesterday, I realized my experiment hamburger had ketchup and a slice of pickle on it. I was afraid these two toppings would alter the result, so I went back and purchased a PLAIN tiny burger. It cost me another 89 cents, plus 6 cents tax. Now, I have a control burger without toppings, albeit three days fresher. While I was there, I checked out what it would cost to purchase a small order of fries: $1, plus 7 cents tax. That means that the FOOD and PAPER portion of my original Happy Meal cost me $2.02 and the toy $1.00.

March 7
You’d think at least the ketchup your child is dipping her French fries in and the dab on the hamburger is healthy, after all it’s made of tomatoes. Tomatoes are a super food, right? Not so fast. Ketchup is usually one-third sugar (unless you purchase a healthy brand at a whole foods store).The ingredients on the McDonald’s Fancy Ketchup read: “Tomato concentrate (not whole tomatoes), distilled vinegar, High Fructose Corn Sweetener, Corn syrup, water, salt, natural flavorings.” When you add the High Fructose Corn Sweetener with the Corn syrup, most likely sugar will be the real first ingredient. Ketchup is sugar and worst kind of all. Click Here for more info on High Fructose Corn Sweetener.

March 8
It’s day five, and somehow I don’t feel consoled by McDonald’s website reassurances: “McDonald’s offers a range of menu options to help meet your family’s nutrition needs. When it comes to eating with your kids at McDonald’s, you can feel good knowing that our Happy Meals and Mighty Kids Meals contain important nutrients that growing kids need. Many of the foods we serve at McDonald’s are the same trusted brands you might purchase for your family at your local grocery store.

“My Happy Meal looks pretty much the same as the day I purchased it. The only difference I can tell is the ketchup and the pickle are being absorbed into the mini-white bun. Of course, the plain burger I purchased looks the same, so do the fries. If this were real food, there should be some decomposition. In Morgan Spurlock’s (Super Size Me) McDonald’s experiment found fries are turning black from decomposition by 2 weeks. But, McDonald’s fries never did decompose. That can’t be food, for food to nourish your body it needs to decompose.

Could the lack of decomposition be because of trans fat? I thought McDonalds said they no longer use trans fat, but according to the McDonlds website their French fries are prepared in hydrogenated soybean oil, corn oil, or canola oil. Any hydrogenated oil is a trans fat! Trans fat is created when a vegetable oil is overheated. Restaurants use their frying oil for a week. It’s heated over and over again. Trans fats can’t release any useful mediators. Their shape keeps them from being recognized by enzymes. Explains a lot, don’t you think.

March 9
How many times have I heard “It’s cheaper to eat out than cook at home“? I don’t know maybe a million! I don’t get it. A Big Mac Meal costs $5.39 and a Happy Meal, $2.79, plus tax. For a family of four that’s $16.36 or a mom and one child $8.18; not including taxes. Not a bargain when you think what that could purchase. Last Spring, I worked out a food budget for two people on food stamps. ( Click Here for my Food Stamp Budget blog.) With a meager food stamp budget of $300 a month for two people, about $10 a day you can feed two people whole foods. One trip to McDonalds would cost almost as much as a day’s groceries. If you ask me, that’s NO bargain.

March 10
Today, is day 7. My Happy Meal still looks happy. The fries haven’t changed a bit, although the French fry smell is faint. The hamburger itself looks like it did on day one. The ketchup and slice of pickle have dried. The mini-white bun is now hard and has split. If you look closely at my original photo at the top of this blog, you can see a vertical crease in the bun. It looked as if it had been squished or bent before the patty was placed on it. The split is in the crease. (My second PLAIN Burger, purchased three days after is still perfect.)

March 12
What is a natural flavor, exactly? McDonald’s says their fries contain a natural flavor. A substance can be natural, but it may violate a religious or dietary restriction or it may cause allergic reactions in some people. It turns out that today, “natural” can mean just about anything. The natural flavor in McDonald’s fries is beef flavor containing hydrolyzed wheat and hydrolyzed milk as starting ingredients.

March 15
The Happy Meal was launched in 1979, by 2003 the Happy Meal accounted for 20 percent of all meals sold at McDonalds! It was pure marketing geniuswhen Ronald McDonald became their mascot. In commercials, Ronald McDonald inhabits a fantasy world called McDonaldland. He has adventures with his friends Mayor McCheese, the Hamburglar, Grimace, Birdie the Early Bird, and The Fry Kids. Our kids have been taken captive, by a clown. According to Barna Research, kids ages 2 to 7 watch an average of 25 hours of television a week and see about 40,000 television ads per year. It’s no surprise Ronald McDonald was number two on a list of the most recognizable people in the world. This, of course, relates directly to our kids’ addiction to junk food!

March 16
My Happy Meal is 12 days old. I’m taking it off my shelf, just for a little peek to see how it’s doing. Ya’d think that there would be some sort of decomposition going on by now. I don’t see any…nope none at all. My Happy Meal is still looks perky.

March 19
It’s too bad that even in the midst of the recession, parents are finding the financial wherewithal to keep their kids supplied with Happy Meals. February’s sales were up 5.4 percent above last year. January’s global comparable sales leaped 7.1 percent. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if parents cooked whole foods at home? No only would they save during these tight financial times, but their kids would be healthier, too.

March 30
Do you know the:
1) percentage of potatoes which end up French fried: 22
2) age when a toddler first eats a French fry: 6 mo
3) percentage of toddlers who eat French Fries everyday: 21

March 31
I’m taking my Happy Meal on its first field trip. It’s going to be my show-and-tell for tonight’s presentation to preschool moms in Littleton, Colorado. No one will believe my Happy Meal is one day shy of four week’s old! It looks as good as it did on day one.

April 10
You remember the jingle, “Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.” What’s in the  Big Mac® special sauce: Soybean oil, pickle relish [diced pickles, high fructose corn syrup, sugar, vinegar, corn syrup, salt, calcium chloride, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate (preservative), spice extractives, polysorbate 80], distilled vinegar, water, egg yolks, high fructose corn syrup, onion powder, mustard seed, salt, spices, propylene glycol alginate, sodium benzoate (preservative), mustard bran, sugar, garlic powder, vegetable protein (hydrolyzed corn, soy and wheat), caramel color, extractives of paprika, soy lecithin, turmeric (color), calcium disodium EDTA (protect flavor). CONTAINS: WHEAT, EGG AND SOY.
Looks like sugar is the number one ingredient in the Big Mac® Sauce.  (And by the way, the Happy Meal purchased on May 3 looks as good as it did on day one.)

April 29
Since I began this blog, I’ve written another post about Monosodium Glutamate. MSG is a common ingredient in McDonald’s food.  Click Here to read “Hidden Toxin in Food.” Unappetizing as it is, my Happy Meal is just as perky as the day I bought it, nearly two months ago!

June 3
How sad are Americans? Despite all the cautions about fast food, a recent poll found that 44 percent of Americans say they like the taste of fast food too much to give it up. Greg Chu, senior vice president of health care for Synovate in North America, says people in the USA have “a love-hate relationship” with fast food. “We love the convenience. We love the taste. We love the assurance that you can count on it. But we know it’s not good for us.”

December 14
I wish I could say that my Happy Meal has changed in some way. But it looks pretty much the same nine months after I purchased it. The bread is crusty. That’s all!

March 3, 2010
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My sister, Linda, has been after me for a year to do it and I finally did it. I know it’s a waste of money. They (who are they, anyway?) say, “Seeing is believing.” So I bought one. I bought it even though I won’t eat it. I won’t give it to anyone to eat, not even my dogs. I’m not kidding my dogs eat better than most people.

Why did I finally purchase a Happy Meal? Because there’s yet, another news article, this one in USA Today, stating French fries are the most common vegetable children eat. Fries account for about one-quarter of kid’s vegetable intake. YIKES!

There’s a claim that Happy Meals don’t decompose. Bugs won’t touch them, either. Nope, they just sit there. I found a couple of people who say they purchased a Happy Meal years ago. Seems impossible, so I’m keeping my Happy Meat on a shelf in my office. I’ll see if the claim is true. (I did see one Happy Meal at a presentation which had been saved for two years. Linda was with me and that’s when she started to nag me about buying a Happy Meal for myself.)

Back to potatoes. Potatoes are starchy roots or tubers. They are vegetables, only when the most liberal use of the word is applied: ”Edible part of a plant.” With this definition, seeds, nuts, and fruit would also be called vegetables; not what we would expect, dark green leafy edible plants.

It’s disturbing that potatoes make up a quarter of vegetable intake for children. Although, potatoes are not without merit. Potatoes are high in Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, Iron, Potassium, Copper, Manganese, and dietary fiber. A baked potato has zero grams of fat.

When I talk to moms, they always insist their children don’t eat that many French fries. But a recent survey showed the French fry as baby’s first finger food. Even picky eaters will eat fast food, especially French fries. There’s the nagging statistic that French fries compose 25 percent of children’s vegetable intake. Someone is in denial.

What’s worse is that mom isn’t making French fries at home, either. ( Click Here for a recipe for healthy oven-fried potatoes.) No, French fries are purchase out, mostly at fast food restaurants. Potatoes are deep fried in a substandard oil (most likely a trans fat or in Interesterifed fat). Even if a “good” oil is used, it’s heated to just under 400 degrees and is used over and over, until it turns to sludge.

To make matters worse for the French fry (and our kids), MSG is a common ingredient in fast food French fries, because it gives food an extra pop in taste. But it’s really flavored poison. MSG is an excitatory neuro-transmitter or “excitotoxin.” Excitotoxins are chemical transmitters allowing brain cells to communicate. Unfortunately, excitotoxins over-stimulate your brain cells and they die. It’s a toxic substance. As you would guess, children are most at risk when they ingest MSG. It can pass the blood brain barrier and even the placental barrier, affecting unborn children.

I know my sister will be happy when she learns I purchased a Happy Meal. She’ll be watching with me to see how long it will be before it decomposes. Read “Nonna’s Happy Meal Blog,” Click Here.

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Older children can make these Oven-Fried Potatoes by themselves, younger children will need your assistance. Have your helper sit on a kitchen chair and move the trash can so he can comfortably hold  a potato over it. With a potato peeler, let him get to work peeling 4 medium potatoes. Be sure to rinse them off when he’s finished.

1) Cut 4 pealed potatoes into ¼ strips. Then dry the strips with paper towels. (Even a younger child can help dry the ptoato strips.)

2) Place the potatoes on a cookie sheet; let your child toss them with about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon each of pepper and garlic powder with her fingers.

3) Spread the potato strips in a single layer and place in a preheated 475 oven.

4) Turn potato strips after 10 minutes. Bake for another 10 minutes, until golden brown.

Remember to make cooking fun! Always tell your child how much you love him and how much you enjoy your his company. Remember to tell him what a good job he did helping you make dinner! Finally, take the taste test. These are outrageously yummy!

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