A friend of mine came to our architecture studio today with animal crackers, stating that since they were pink and white and had sprinkles she immediately thought of me. (since pink sparkly things are pretty high on my list of all the things I love in this world). I couldn't contain my excitement and had to have one right away.
When I got my hands on one of those beautiful, sparkly, pink elephants and took a bite, I expected nothing but heaven. Unfortunately, heaven tasted a little differently than I remembered; somehow the clouds of cotton candy had become hard. Not stale, but hard. I felt like I was eating plastic!
After taking a quick look at the nutrition facts I realized why: trans fat.
The thing is, after being in Berkeley for 4 years, though many have resorted to living their lives on burritos, nachos, and chilli fries, I have become one of those who have realized the importance of a healthy diet. Now, that's not to say that my alcoholic tendancies over the weekend followed by innumerous amounts of drunk-binge eating could ever be considered healthy, but hey. I'm a college student. And I do try really hard to eat 5 fruits and veggies a day (its 3:30 and I'm at...zero, unless rasberry jam counts as one). I also have been able to (relatively successfully) eliminate trans fat from my diet.
That's right. Like the modern state of New York, I too have banned trans fat from my life. (1)
Why you ask? Well, why don't I let the experts tell you.
" There are four kinds of fats: monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, saturated fat, and trans fat. Monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat are the "good" fats. It is generally accepted that consumption of saturated fat should be kept low, especially for adults. Trans fat (which means trans fatty acids) is the worst kind of fat, far worse than saturated fat.
Partial hydrogenation is an industrial process used to make a perfectly good oil, such as soybean oil, into a perfectly bad oil. The process is used to make an oil more solid; provide longer shelf-life in baked products; provide longer fry-life for cooking oils, and provide a certain kind of texture or "mouthfeel." The big problem is that partially hydrogenated oil is laden with lethal trans fat.
Trans fats cause significant and serious lowering of HDL (good) cholesterol and a significant and serious increase in LDL (bad) cholesterol; make the arteries more rigid; cause major clogging of arteries; cause insulin resistance; cause or contribute to type 2 diabetes; and cause or contribute to other serious health problems. " (2)
And since I'm of Asian-Indian descent, my coronary arteries are already smaller than the arteries of Americans, putting me at even higher risk of clogged arteries and ultimately a heart attack, where the mortality rate of Indians because of this is already 40% higher than our white counterparts in America. (3)
So, if you were to ask me whether I'd rather have a heart attack or a healthy snack, it wouldn't take my rocket-scientist of a father to figure out which one is healthier. Bye-bye sparkly pink elephant...
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