I started reading the Daniel Plan by Rick Warren. I must say it is interesting and very informative. Has lots of Scripture and very well thought-out. It really has helped me evaluate my health status and eating habits. Basic stuff but no promises of quick weight loss. Very honest. Says there are 5 essentials that shouldn't exist without each other: Faith, Food, Fitness, Focus, and Friends. Makes a good case for integrating each essential component in our lives. My cell group here has started the Plan together. Lots of tips, suggestions, helps, and encouragement online and in the book, workbook, and video. Six weeks: the five essentials and a week of Living the Lifestyle.
While checking the ingredients in my 'light' margarine (that boasts it's 'high in Omega 3'), it says that it has 'fully hydrogenated fats'. At the bottom of the ingredients, in fine print, it says, "This product may contain genetically modified material." That's scary and not too appetizing, is it?! On my peanut butter jar, I found the same ingredient: Hydrogenated Vegetable Fat...so I looked it up online and found the following article:
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WHAT EXACTLY IS 'HYDROGENATED FAT'?
Hydrogenated fat is widely used. We see it listed in the ingredients
of margarine, biscuits, cakes, frozen meals, fried foods, sweets,
crisps, fish fingers and many dairy products. It's popular with food
manufacturers because it gives food structure and
does not feel or taste oily.
What is it? Well, some kind of vegetable fat that's been treated somehow
for some reason, probably nothing to worry about, right?
No, it's an artificial fat that's more unhealthy than any other.
The calorific value of fat is the same whatever form it comes in, but
the kind of fat makes a huge difference to what it does in your body.
Saturated fat (most animal fats) are more unhealthy as they fuzz up the
arteries, causing heart disease. Mono-unsaturates and polyunsaturates
are the healthier ones.
'Saturated fat' means fat where the molecule cannot fit any more hydrogen atoms on.
'Mono-unsaturate' means the fat molecule has room for one more hydrogen
atom, 'polyunsaturate' means it has room for more than one.
Hydrogenated fat isn't technically a saturated fat, so it looks OK on
the label. But it is actually vegetable oil blasted with hydrogen so
that it behaves like saturated fat.
The hydrogen makes the fat harder, which is why it sticks to your
arteries. It's also why it's solid at room temperature (mono and
polyunsaturated fats are usually oils). This solidity is desirable for
food manufacturers as it adds substance and body to the
product, whereas the healthier oils make things too squidgy and oily to
the touch.
Many foods sold as 'low fat' are loaded with hydrogenated stuff, plus extra sugar (which you then make into fat).
Hydrogenation is a chemical process whereby ordinary vegetable oils are
chemically altered to make them so hard that they won't melt in your
hand. Basically a complete adulteration of the original (healthy) oil
occurs. In the effort to make foods last longer
in the supermarket, all traces of essential fatty acids are obliterated
from processed foods, and hydrogenated fats take their place. A brief
look at how hydrogenated oil is made will show that it cannot be
conducive to health:
1 Vegetable oil is mixed thoroughly with fine particles of nickel or copper.
2. It is then heated to a very high temperature (about 200 degrees celsius) and held at that heat for 6 hours.
3. Meanwhile, hydrogen gas is pumped through the mixture at high
pressure, and then the excited hydrogen atoms penetrate the vegetable
oil molecules and chemically change them into 'transfats' ('trans fatty
acids'). These are new, complex substances that are
not found in nature, except at low levels in some animal fats.
4. The mixture is then cooled down to form tiny hard plastic-like beads. These hard beads are known as 'hydrogenated oil'.
The beads of hydrogenated oil are mixed with liquid vegetable oil and
heated up again to a high temperature. when this mixture cools you have
margarine. Margarine made like this can contain 'trans-fats' at levels
up to 40%.
Many people thought that the great health debate between butter and
margarine had been resolved long ago: butter had too much saturated fat
and encouraged heart disease and obesity.
Margarine received a clean bill of health, because it was high in
polyunsaturated fats and low in the heavier saturated fats. Nobody took
much account of the fact that margarine is high in hydrogenated fat, the
chemically transformed fat rich in unusual trans-fats.
A Department of Health report shows that the beginnings of heart disease
can be found in those as young as seven. Research in the USA has shown
that nowadays even 3-year old children have developed fatty deposits of
plaque in their arteries at levels normally
only found in much older people.
Just because some food product is 'vegetarian' or 'vegan' does not
necessarily mean it is healthy. A lack of essential fatty acids to
handle fat, and the eating of trans fats, is more often the cause of
obesity and heart disease than the eating of cholesterol-rich
foods. After all, the body needs some cholesterol to produce a range of
crucial hormones. And it's not just cholesterol that's needed. You need
fats too. Like proteins, fats (lipids) are the building blocks of the
body's essential structures. The membrane of
every cell is a thin envelope of fat that encases and protects it.
Fatty acids strongly influence the 'fluidity' of the cell, the ability
of the cell wall to allow red blood cells through with life-sustaining
nutrients. The brain is 60% lipids.
Trans-fatty acids sit like cement in the body, clogging up arteries and
impeding hormone production, and replacing good, necessary fats (Omega
3s and 6's) with something harmful. You can't do anything with trans
fatty acid except burn it off as calories; basically,
its function is to poison your system and generate abnormal
biochemistry.
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I'm now reading my labels more carefully and pitching out a lot of food stuffs. I'm learning that natural or organic is definitely healthier. The Daniel Plan also says a good rule of thumb is "If it was grown on a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, leave it on the shelf." Good advise!
So, I am embarking on this life change. Why? Because I want to be a good steward of the body God gave me, I want to be a good example to those I will be teaching, and I want to become healthier so I can do God's work for as long as He wants me to.
I'll write more in here as I progress (I've already lost 5 pounds! Thank You, Lord!)
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