WEEK TWO - April 17th - 23rd/2006!

Is Peanut Butter a GOOD FOOD or a BAD FOOD?

Canada has just set standards on the content of Trans Fats in food. On August 10, 2005, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) asked City restaurateurs and food suppliers to voluntarily eliminate partially hydrogenated vegetable oils from their kitchens. Why? Because research shows that trans fats are more dangerous than saturated (animal) fats and have been linked to heart disease, cancer, etc.

Unsaturated fats (derived from plants) promote the production of HDL's in the bloodstream. HDL's or high density lipoproteins, are often called 'good' cholesterol because they are associated with lowering cholesterol production in the body.

Saturated fats (derived from animals) promote LDL's - the protiens linked to hardening and blocking of arterial walls that lead to heart attack and stroke. The American Heart Association recommends that saturated fat intake should be less than 10% of the total daily intake of calories.

So that makes Peanut Butter a good food right? Well, it depends on the kind of peanut butter you choose.

Processed peanut butters like Skippy Creamy and Squirrel Creamy play a few tricks with good old fashioned peanut butter. They take natural, unsaturated peanut oil, loaded with good HDL's and Omega 3 and they bubble hydrogen gas through the mixture. The hydrogen atoms grab on to the oil molecules to form new longer molecular strings that make for a creamier product - with no oil seperation.

But the simple act of adding hydrogen turns the beneficial unsaturated fats into dangerous saturated fats. We now call these fats 'trans fats' because they have been transformed. Guess what else? The hydrogenation process removes the Omega 3's as well. Plus - the processed peanut butters also contain loads of sugar.


That's why peanut butter is included in many medically endorsed weight loss and diabetic diets. Natural peanut butter, that is, which contains, well, just peanuts. No sugar. No salt. Nothing else.

Between 82 and 274 deaths every single day from trans fats!!!

"By our most conservative estimate, replacement of partially hydrogenated fat in the U.S. diet with natural unhydrogenated vegetable oils would prevent approximately 30,000 premature coronary deaths per year, and epidemiologic evidence suggests this number is closer to 100,000 premature deaths annually." Harvard School of Public Health report.