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Good for you? Bad for you?
Mike Ahlf
Reports come in today that KFC's
eliminating trans fats from their recipes as fast as they can; chicken will be done soon, biscuits will be slightly longer as they figure out a replacement.
Ironically, the article gets it right on how they got there in the first place:
Ironically, many big fast food companies only became dependent on hydrogenated oil a decade and a half ago when they were pressured by health groups to do something about saturated fat.
McDonald's emptied its french fryers of beef tallow in 1990 and filled them with what was then thought to be "heart healthy" partially hydrogenated vegetable oil.
"They did so in all innocence, trying to do the right thing," said Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "Everybody thought it was safe. We thought it was safe."
Some restaurants were still completing the changeover when the first major study appeared indicating that the hydrogenated oils were just as bad for you, if not worse.
So... in the course of trying to do the right thing (under public pressure), they wound up doing the wrong thing.
The same can be said for other chemicals. One of the big problems in modern American diets is an overabundance of sodium, because junk-science "studies" led some rather crazed types to rail against monosodium glutamate (also known as MSG). Truthfully, MSG's a wonderful thing (see IFIC's
resource page on the additive). MSG has 13% sodium content (as opposed to table salt's 40%), and gives the same flavor-enhancing effect to foods with an application of much less MSG; their suggestions indicate that MSG can replace a good portion of the table salt in a given recipe for anywhere between 20% to 40% sodium reduction.
But instead, when I go to a restaurant, especially a chinese one, I see "no MSG added" on their foods. Then I ask to see the data sheets on how much salt it took to replace the MSG in the recipe. Scary thought.
Observations
I wrote them asking if it were definite that they were, as reported, switching to soybean oil (I, like many other people PeTA doesn't think exist, am allergic to soy). Response: they haven't made any decisions yet.
Your MSG analysis is interesting as well.
ATruett,
I'm well aware that people are allergic to soy, something the PETA nutballs seem to think is impossible. Then again, the PETA nutballs don't think people can be allergic to peanuts, or to nightshades (tomatoes/bell peppers/eggplant/etc, which is what I have a great problem eating) either.
What it really comes down to is, given the large population of the earth, you ought to be able to find someone who's allergic to just about anything - but that doesn't mean it should be prohibited from being food, it means those with a food allergy need to take a little responsibility and watch what they eat.
In fact in general, people need to take some frelling responsibility and watch what they eat, allergies or not!
Sometimes life works out that way. Trying to avoid one hazard, we amble into another. I don't fault KFC for doing back then or now. You act on what you have reason to believe at the time. At the time it seemed that saturated fats should be limited. That part isn't entirely wrong, even if they stumbled onto a cure that may have been worse than the disease.
A while back Slate ran a good article on going too far to accomodate those with nut allergies (
http://www.slate.com/id/214...)
Speaking of soy, I've become something of a fan of it lately. It all started with some soy chili I bought without realizing it. Some soy products suck, but some are acceptable substitutes. Then again, I'm thankfully not allergic to it.
Yeah -- it's made me the only person happy about pseudoephedrine being banned -- now I don't have to check to make sure things don't have it! :)
Restaurants individually deciding to use all soy all the time is one thing; people (like one of the guys involved with the NY campaign, but thankfully not a head honcho, I hear) who want to *mandate* all soy all the time are the ones who bug me. (Difference between saying "we'll have a peanut-free table in the cafeteria but won't control what the other kids eat" and "all foods eaten in the cafeteria Will Contain Peanuts!")
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