The Good News:

Research from the University of Minnesota’s Nutrition Coordinating Center has shown major chains significantly reducing their use of oils containing trans fat in French fries and other food during the past 10 years. Unfortunately, picky eaters love fast foods, especially French fries.

So what’s the big deal about 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.

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.

Only let a kid tell you what he wants for dinner…if he’s paying.

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.

In a press release from the University of Minnesota, lead researcher Lisa Harnack said the center maintains a food and nutrient database that goes back to the 1970s. ”We’re able to go back in time and compare the present with the past,” she said. “And we did that in looking at fast-food restaurants,” Harnack said. “We found fast-food restaurants are making big improvements in the frying oils, with trans fat going down in most of the restaurants–as well as saturated fat, either going down or staying the same.”

I always say you vote with your dollar. When enough people stop or limit purchasing a product, food producers will change. They’re in business to make a profit and when their profit begins to suffer, they will take notice. That’s capitalism at work.

The Bad News: Americans still receive about 10 percent of their calories from fast-food restaurants. That’s unbelievable. Moms often tell me that fast food in moderation is okay. What’s moderation? Families eat fast foods on average three times a week. Is eating fast food once or twice a week moderate? Of course it isn’t. Eating fast food in moderation is cooking your own hamburgers and fries.

Typical French fries have about 40 percent trans fat. Making fries yourself, will cut down on the number of times you eat them. Peeling, cutting, and frying potatoes can take a while …because of all the work, you’ll not make fries often. That’s moderation, not several times a week at the drive-thru window.

More Bad News: The truth is that when ANY fat is heated for extended periods of time, it becomes a trans fat. (Correction: produce some trans fatty acids. See note below.) So there it is, any fried food eaten out is cooked in the same re-used, re-heated oil. They may start out with a more “healthy” fat, but in the end contains trans fat. The only way to avoid trans fat is to avoid eating fried food out altogether.

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That’s what the label says. I’m NOT kidding.

I wanted to purchase a tub of Cool Whip for a talk I was giving on the “10 Worst Foods of the Decade” and couldn’t find the tub variety, so I bought the aerosol can.

As you can imagine, I was more than a little surprised to see the claim, “0g trans fat” on the label.  Cool Whip is primarily water, chemicals (including trans fat) and air.

So what’s up?

The keys to understanding this ludicrous claim is the amount in a serving and government requirements.  The Food and Drug Administration has decided that for a product to claim zero grams of trans fat a product has to have less than .5 percent of trans fat per serving. Ludicrous! Zero should mean zero, don’t you think?

Avah can’t wait for some real whipped cream.

So how much is a “Cool Whip serving”? Why it’s a mere 2 tablespoons. Dot some Cool Whip on the top of pudding or squirt a little in your mouth and you’ll have a serving.

Of course, if you eat more than a serving, then you are ingesting more than .5 grams of trans fat. If you eat more than 2 tablespoons of Cool Whip (and I imagine most do), then you’ll be over the government recommended limit. That’s the government’s recommendation, not mine. Never mind that trans fat has a half-life of 51 days. That means that it takes 51 days for trans fat to leave your body.

The ingredient panel for the aerosol CoolWhip lists the ingredients as: WATER, HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OIL (COCONUT AND PALM KERNEL OILS), HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CORN SYRUP, LESS THAN 2% OF SODIUM CASEINATE (FROM MILK), NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, CARRAGEENAN, POLYSORBATE 60, MONO-AND DIGLYCERIDES, SODIUM STEROYL LACTYLATE, BETA CAROTENE (COLOR).

(CoolWhip ingredients for the tub variety vary slightly.)

Ingredients are listed in quantity levels, meaning that the largest ingredient is listed first. Lets look at the first eight:

1. Water is the number one ingredient. Actually it’s air, but so far, so good.

2. Hydrogenated vegetable oil comes in second. This is the trans fat. The label states zero grams of trans fat, yet it is second on the ingredient list! Remember, the FDA allows LESS than .5 grams for a zero listing. Cool Whip’s trans fat is derived from coconut and palm kernel oils. They begin with healthy oils and the process to hydrogenate it turns it into an unhealthy creamy product. This gives the product an incredibly long shelf life.

3. High Fructose Corn Syrup. This syrup is adulterated by combining enzymes such as amylase with the glucose. This allows it to be converted to fructose. Fructose is quickly turned to fat in your system.

4. Corn Syrup is sugar, but not just sugar, genetically altered sugar.

5. Sodium Caseinate less than 2% (from Milk). Sodium Caseinate is a protein found in cow’s milk that assists the oil and water to mix together.

6. Natural and artificial flavorings. Artificial flavorings are simply chemical mixtures to replace a natural flavor. Natural flavors are more deceiving, because they can be chemicals as well.

7. Carrageen is extracted from seaweed. It’s considered a natural thickening agent. Although considered natural, it’s come under scrutiny. It may cause digestive problems in some people.

8. Polysorbate 60 comes from processing corn, oil palms and petroleum.  Yes, petroleum. The “poly” is from “polymer, the “sorb” from “sorbitol,” and the “ate” means that it contains oxygen.

YUCK!

Don’t count on the Food and Drug Administration to have your best interest at heart. Next time you want a whipped topping, purchase whipping cream and whip it up yourself!

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Our food supply has become so polluted that it’s difficult to discern what’s a whole food and what’s not. I’ve divided my ‘Top 10 Worst Foods of the Decade’ in half. Today’s blog contains the second half: 5 through 1. Click Here to see Part One. I’ve listed them in descending order. The most obvious foods, which we regularly eat, are mentioned in my previous blog. The not-so-obvious unhealthy foods we often believe are healthy are covered in today’s blog, ending with the one food parents really believe is a health food, but it’s full of sugar.

#5 — Fried Chicken (A popular kids’ menu item.)
Fried chicken comes in many forms for kids: chicken fingers, chicken nuggets, chicken sandwiches, etc. Parents often think this is a better choice than a hamburger. There’s six to ten grams of trans fat in each order of onion rings or chicken fingers.  KFC Original Recipe Chicken Dinner has seven grams of trans fat, mostly from the chicken and biscuit.

#4 — Microwave Popcorn
A report from the FDA indicates that a chemical coating used in microwave popcorn bags breaks down when heated into a substance called perfluorooctanoic (PFOA). The Environmental Protection Agency has identified PFOA as a “likely carcinogen.” Another study has found an acid that can be extracted from the chemical causes cancer in animals and is “likely to cause cancer in humans.”

Why is cereal on ‘Nonna’s Top 10 Worst Foods’ list? Madison’s not sure.

A second potential danger in microwave popcorn is diacetyl, an FDA-approved chemical found in the fake butter flavoring. There’s even a debilitating respiratory disease called “popcorn workers lung,” (the medical name of the condition is bronchiolitis obliterans) suffered by microwave popcorn factory workers caused by extended inhalation of the chemical’s fumes. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, (NIOSH) concluded that diacetyl needs further study so that workers in the flavorings and snack industry are no longer at risk. Do your family a favor and purchase a hot-air popper! It’s just as fast as the microwave variety and when you use organic popcorn and real butter, it’s a healthy snack.

#3 — Processed Lunch Meats
Hot dogs are considered “kid food.” You’ll find them on many children’s menus and are considered a summer staple. Most cured meats, expecially breakfast and other sausage, bacon, luncheon meats, and hot dogs, contain nitrites and nitrates. They’re added to processed meats to prevent botulism and enhance the taste and color of the meat. Without nitrates processed meats would be brown, just like cooked hamburger. Once inside the body, they can form nitrosamines, a cancer-causing chemical. These carcinogenic compounds have been associated with cancer. They have also been linked with leukemia and ADD/ADHD in children.

#2 — Boxed Cereal (including instant oatmeal)
More than 2.7 billion packages of cereal are sold in grocery stores each year. It’s the third most popular supermarket product (behind soda pop and bread). This translates to an average of 10 pounds, or 160 bowls, of cereal per American each year.

Extruded grains are industrially processed foods, including “healthy” breakfast cereals, which really aren’t so healthy. For all boxed breakfast cereals, grains are extruded — forced out of a hole at high temperature with pressure in order to make them into the various shapes typically found in breakfast cereals. The extrusion process destroys most of the nutrients in the grains, including fatty acids. Boxed cereals end up being empty calories. Cereals marketed to children are even worse as they are loaded with added sugars. Even the organic oatmeal pictured has 3 teaspoons of sugar per serving. Make your own hot oatmeal, it’ll cost less, taste better, and have less sugars.

#1 — Fruited Yogurt
The number one food parents believe is a healthy food and it’s NOT…is fruited yogurt. Yogurt is full of probiotics. Probiotics live in the tube that runs right through the middle of us. It includes our nose, sinuses, mouth, upper airways, lungs, esophagus, stomach, small and large intestines, rectum and anus. We no longer eat a healthy diet with natural foods containing good bacteria, so the bad bacteria proliferate. We think we’re eating healthy foods with probiotics, such as fruited yogurts. But fruited yogurts have up to 7 teaspoons of sugar in a serving. The sugar feeds the bad bacteria, so we’re not better off than when we started. The solution is to eat PLAIN yogurt with active ingredients and add fruit-only jams for flavor. (Vanilla flavored yogurt is not the answer, either. There’s more added sugar in the vanilla yogurt!)

Click Here for The Decades Top 10 Worst Foods…items 10 through 6.

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I must admit this list was harder to put together than I first thought. Our food supply is mostly processed and when you’re talking about processed anything, well, it’s just not healthy. I decided to pick the most common horrible foods I could think of. Ones we regularly eat and many times think of as healthy food choices.

I’ve divided my ‘Top 10 Worst Foods’.  Today’s blog contains the first half of my Worst Foods List: 10 through 6. I’ve listed them in descending order. The most obvious foods, which we regularly eat, are mentioned in today’s blog. The not-so-obvious unhealthy foods we believe are healthy will be covered in my next blog, ending with the one food parents really believe is a health food, but it’s full of sugar.

“According to a recent report, due to the recession, Americans are eating cheap, unhealthy, fatty foods. So apparently, the recession started in 1957.”
…Conan O’Brian

Angel’s tongue is blue from the dyes in birthday cake frosting. You can’t readily see the effects of trans fat in the icing.

#10 — French Fries
French fries come in at number ten, because we really know this is an unhealthy food. Still, 21 percent of toddlers eat French fries EVERY DAY! French fries are potatoes, so what could be bad about that? Most French fries are purchased out. They are cooked in altered fats and seasoned with salt and many times with MSG (a hidden toxin). There is between 4 and 7 grams of trans fat in a single serving of fries.

#9 — Soda Pop
More than 15 billion gallons of soda pop were sold in 2000. That’s least one 12-ounce can per day for every man, woman, and child in America. But, kids drink more soda pop than their parents. In the past 10 years, soft drink consumption among children has almost doubled in the United States.  Most parents are in denial about the amount of soda pop their children regularly drink. Studies have found over half, 56 percent, of 8-year-olds down soft drinks daily. Soda has been dubbed, “liquid candy” and rightly so, as soda pop is the number one source of sugar in our kids’ diets. A single can of soda pop has between 14 17 teaspoons of sugar!

#8 — Birthday Cake
Kids go to parties all the time. Birthday cake is made from white flour, sugar and altered fats. The icing is primarily trans fat and food coloring. Trans fat has a half-life of 51 days, so if your child goes to a party every 2 months, then trans fat is continually in his body!

#7 — Non-Dairy Whipped Topping (like Cool Whip)
Cool Whip is made of water corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated coconut and palm kernel oils (“hydrogenated” IS trans fat). 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.

#6 — Store-Bought Cookies and Crackers
Cookies and crackers range from 30 to 50 percent trans fat. Many baked goods are moving away from trans fats and using interesterifed fats. Interesterified fats are like trans fats raising the blood levels of the “bad” LDL cholesterol. At the same time, lowering the “good” HDL cholesterol levels. Just because the package boasts, “No trans fats” doesn’t mean that it’s a healthy product. Look for interesterifed fat on the nutrition label.

Click Here for The Decade’s Top 10 Worst Foods…items 5 through 1.

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This change is to begin in August. YEA! Consumer backlash, refusing to purchase even .5 grams of trans fat was instrumental in its removal. That’s the American way. Supply in demand. Capitalism at it’s best. Whoopee.

Trans fats has been found to cause a host of health problems as they:

>Raise your LDL (bad) cholesterol levels and lower HDL (good) cholesterol levels

>Are believed to contribute to auto-immune disease, cancer, heart disease, fertility problems, and bone degeneration

>Inhibit insulin receptors in your cell membranes and cause type 2 diabetes, characterized by high levels of insulin and glucose in your blood.

Katelyn celebrates her first birthday with cake, although this cake is trans and interesterified fat free and free from artificial flavors and colors.

Party Pooper
Just as I was getting ready to do a happy dance around the kitchen table, I came to the next to last paragraph, “Unilever will replace the partially hydrogenated oils (trans fats) with a mixture of palm oil and interesterified fat.”

POP…You could hear my illusions (that this would be a healthy change) bursting. Interesterified fats have been an ingredient in foods in the U.S. since the 1950s. They were introduced in Europe in the 1920s. Interesterified fats have recently become widespread as a substitute for partially hydrogenated oils (trans fats) in the U.S. A package may boast “No trans fat”, but it’s hard to purchase crackers or bakery products without interesterified fats.

Interesterified fats are chemically altered fats. They are hydrogenated and then rearranged on a molecular level. Although technically not the same as partially hydrogenated oils, the unnatural manipulation of lipid molecules in interesterified fats raises the very same health concerns as trans fats.

Research findings published in Nutrition and Metabolism confirmed previous studies indicating that interesterified fats also negatively affect LDL and HDL cholesterol, although weaker than trans fat.

We’re No Better Off
Ah, but there is another concern about the effect interesterified fat has on blood sugar levels of healthy people. Studies found that interesterified fat raises blood glucose levels by 20 percent within a month! This is MUCH WORSE than trans fat. We’re not any better off, in fact we’re worse off. We’re jumping from the frying pan into the fire, as most people are unaware of the dangers of interesterified fats. Interesterified fats come in many disguises. On nutrition lables look for high stearate or stearic rich fats these are interesterified fats as well.

Don’t be fooled into believing the “No Trans Fat” claim on the package means a healthier product. Read labels and REFUSE TO PURCHASE interesterified fats, as they’re worse than the trans fats they are replacing…that’s the American way.  Supply in demand. Capitalism at it’s best. Whoopee.

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Kid food looks and tastes like food; offering little or absolutely no nutrition whatsoever. Real food is a substance eaten for nourishment. You can be assured of a picky eater, by regularly purchasing kid foods, training little taste buds to prefer fake foods.

If you want to know what kid food is, just ask for a child’s menu at any restaurant. Without a doubt you’ll see hot dogs, hamburgers, French fries, fried chicken, pizza, spaghetti, and macaroni and cheese on the menu. You can add chips, children’s cereal, soda, and cookies and other treats to the list.

Now it’s true that chicken, beef, tomato sauce, and cheese have nutritional value…if you cook them at home using whole foods. When your child eats out, most of the time the nutrition is sadly lacking.

Joshy’s mouth and tongue are red after eating a piece of birthday cake. Icing is made with sugar, trans fat, and artificial food coloring.

Today, we’ll talk about just three common ingredients found in “kid food,” saving food artificial colorings, nitrates, and other additives for another day.

First, there’s white flour, which came from the staff of life or the foundation of good nutrition, but now offers little in the way of nourishment. Whole grain flour is transformed into empty calories, when the bran is removed to make white flour. Whole grains include all three parts of the grain kernel: the bran, which is the outer layer or the fiber, the endosperm containing the complex carbohydrates, and the germ containing B and E vitamins.

White flour has been stripped of its nutrients, then, adding insult to injury, most times it’s bleached. (White flour is in most hamburger and hot dog buns, white bread, white pasta, white pizza crust, and of course most bakery products, including cookies, donuts, and cake.)

Fake foods offer fullness, without providing any nutrients. Fat gives us a full feeling. Altered fats are a regular addition to processed foods, because they’re cheap and add shelf life to products. Trans fat can’t be metabolized in the human body. In fact, trans fat has a half life of 51 days. Trans fat may be the worst, but it’s not alone. We have a new altered fat, interesterifed fats are like trans fats. They raise the blood levels of the “bad” LDL cholesterol, at the same time, they lower the “good” HDL cholesterol levels. According to the January 2007 journal Nutrition & Metabolism, interesterified fats not only negatively affect the cholesterol levels, but also negatively affect blood sugar levels! (Altered fats can be found in most bakery items: cookies, crackers, cakes, donuts, pies, pizza crust, and chips.)

Fake foods tease your taste buds with sweetness, but rob you of the enjoyment of other flavors. Today, we ingest nearly 150 pounds of sugar a year, that’s 2½ lbs a week! Sugar is seductive as it may take years before it makes you overweight, ruins your pancreas, your adrenal glands, and throws your endocrine system out of whack. Although, it will suppress your immune system up to five hours after eating something with sugar in it. Sugar is almost always included in processed foods. (Sugar is in everything from soup to nuts! It’s in cereals, ketchup, lunch-meat, soda pop, kids’ drinks, all bakery products and desserts. If it’s processed it most likely has added sugars.)

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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
Read about my Happy Meal’s first birthday, CLICK HERE.

Click Here for a synopsis of “Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater”

Fake foods are loaded with sugar, white flour, and altered fats. Today, we’ll focus on fats which have been altered.

Do you remember the commercial where Mother Nature is fooled into believing that margarine is really butter?

Phooey! Gabi & Luke-Xavier aren’t fooled by altered fat.

It turns out that the commercial was right, “It’s not nice to food Mother Nature,” today we’re paying the price in our health for trying.

Fat gives a feeling of fullness and is necessary for the health of every cell in your body. Engineered or altered fats taste good, but the production process converts them into indigestible trans fatty acids. Trans fat might as well be from another dimension, because trans fat can’t be metabolized in the human body.

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, snack food, packaged bakery products, potato chips, and salad dressings.

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 has a half life of 51 days. That means, three months after ingesting trans fat, your body is dealing with it. Because of the problems with trans fat, there’s now mandatory labeling for trans fat.

If you eat any restaurant fried food, you’re probably ingesting trans fat. In the United States, typical French fries have about 40 percent trans fat. Many processed foods like cookies and crackers range from 30 to 50 percent trans fat. Doughnuts have approximately 35 percent trans fatty acids. Some of the worst offenders are found lurking in many kitchens-Whipped toppings like Cool Whip (which is comprised of sugar and trans fat), non-dairy coffee creamer, stick margarine, and Crisco®.

It only gets worse!

Wouldn’t you know it, just as we’re eliminating trans fats, up pops a new one. Believe it or not, this one is even more dangerous. In the place of trans fat, the government has approved another altered fat, that’s… WORSE!

Interesterifed fats are like trans fats raising the blood levels of the “bad” LDL cholesterol. At the same time, lowering the “good” HDL cholesterol levels. Interesterified fats not only negatively affect the cholesterol levels, but also negatively affect blood sugar levels! Yet, the Food and Drug Administration has given the go ahead to food companies and restaurants.

Frying food at high temperatures destroys most of what’s beneficial in food, regardless of what fat is used. Food services usually use the same oils for cooking fish, chicken, and other foods as they do fries. As a rule, it’s best to avoid all fried foods (especially chicken and French fries) when eating out, as these are most likely fried in a hydrogenated oil-a trans fat and now interesterified fat.

At home, use natural cold-pressed natural fats such as extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, and butter instead. Check bakery items for trans fat especially cookies and cakes. When the front of the package claims, “NO trans fat” check for interesterified oils. It’s almost impossible to purchase crackers without interesterified oils. Throw out any altered fats that may be hiding in your kitchen, such as Crisco® and stick margarine.

There’s more horrible stuff hiding in your food. Hear today’s Podcast about Nitrates, Click Here.

Click Here for info on Stealth Health.

Click Here to purchase Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater.

We lie most about what we eat. Because we desperately want to believe we eat a healthy diet; we comfort ourselves with lies and food myths. We believe we eat better than most of the world!

Americans are fatter than the rest of the world, but that doesn’t mean that we eat better. We can afford to eat out a lot and statistics show that people eat out at least 4 times a week. Nearly half of our food budget, that’s 46 percent, is spent on eating out-most of that at fast food restaurants. Even picky eaters will eat fast food, in fact junk foods are usually the picky eaters favorite. Depending on where you eat, eating out can be twice as expensive as cooking at home. In addition, cooking has changed from preparing whole foods to heating up or assembling processed foods.

Our eating habits are costing families more than dollars. It’s not only cheaper, but healthier to do your own cooking. You have no control of what’s in the food you purchase out. Foods in fancy restaurants and fast food restaurants have a commonality: Trans fat, sugar, and MSG.

Pictured: Zach, Angel & Joshy eating an ice cream treat.

Morgan Spurlock, producer, director, and guinea pig of Super-Size Me, shocked America by documenting his month-long fast-food binge. I had no desire to watch his movie…until last week. I thought the premise was preposterous, after all, who wouldn’t expect to gain weight after eating exclusively at McDonalds?

I couldn’t have been more wrong. Supersize-Me, actually shed light on the not-so-obvious perils of regularly eating fast foods. Spurlock became a fast-food lab rat for one month. He calls it his “month in Hell.”

A team of health advisers documented his experiment. By day 18, his whole body was in a meltdown: headaches, body aches, and lack of energy. No surprise, his cholesterol and tryglycerides skyrocketed. What’s worse, his liver began to fail. Despite this, he found himself craving the foods that he was consuming! Morgan’s health team neglected to make a couple of significant connections. They were at a loss for the cause of his headaches.

MSG is a hidden ingredient in much of McDonalds’ food, including fries. MSG is an excitotoxin, which over-stimulate brain cells to the point that they die. Many people experience headaches when this occurs. It seems likely that MSG was the cause of Morgan’s headaches. It’s a shame that Morgan’s health team missed this important connection.

They were also at a loss as to why Morgan’s liver began to fail after only eighteen days. They concluded it was because of the saturated fat he was ingesting. It was a red herring! They neglected to isolate Trans Fat from natural saturated fats. Trans Fat is manmade and can’t be properly metabolized into your body. Fast foods (as are all restaurant fried foods) are loaded with trans fat.

The government recommends that we, and especially children, don’t eat any trans fat. Since 2006, it became mandatory to list trans fat on nutrition labels. In fact, McDonalds website lists the trans fat in their foods. A small fry has 3½ grams; medium 5 grams, and a large fry 8 grams. Happy Meals, purchased for small children, fall somewhere between 4 and 5 grams of trans fat.

Trans fat can be found in most of McDonalds foods: salads, shakes, hamburgers, all fried foods including chicken McNuggets, sandwiches, cookies, biscuits, burritos, and of course their fries. Morgan was ingesting trans fat in just about every bite of food. No wonder his liver began to fail!

Most of us don’t eat exclusively at McDonalds,  but you should be able to eat at ANY restaurant for a month without your health failing —even if you put on a few pounds.

It DOES matter what we eat! Desperate parents often give in to their picky eaters, who willingly eat junk foods. CLICK HERE for Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater. The cost of eating well is measured in not only dollars, but health.

For info about the FREE Baby Bites Ezine, Click Here.