Fat. It's Still an Obsession

You have to hand it to the folks who managed to convince the whole world that fat was bad. Even now as the truth is beginning to trickle down, people are still not convinced.

I think the biggest eye opener for me was people I would have considered relatively well-up in relation to food. Increasingly, I have become convinced that the vast majority of people know nothing about food and even less about nutrition; even those that think they do. It's actually really scary.

I am skeptical about any industry that has profit as it's bottom line. Don't get me wrong. Big business has to make a profit to survive. But when the great unwashed have got to the stage that they believe big business over common sense then I think it's not unreasonable to be concerned.

I drew a comparison the other day on a white board between butter and margarine. At the end of it, the class, who let's face it are completely uneducated about food and nutrition were looking at me with their eyes wide open, asking why. 

Butter is made from cream that is beaten, salt is added and it's pressed into a shape. That's it.

Margarine is made from vegetable oil that is chemically hardened by bombarding it with hydrogen in a process known as hydrogenation, (vegetable oil is naturally liquid at room temperature.) Then water is added to add weight. Because oil or the now hardened fat and water don't mix they need to add emulsifiers and stabilisers. Then to add back some flavour (because the oil has been deodorised) they need to stick some milk solids in to the mix. Then because they have heated the bejaysus out of the oil and destroyed all the nutrients they add back some fat soluble vitamins.

So now which do you think is better for you? Even the artifical one with the claims that it's "heart healthy" or has the power to reduce your cholesterol?

But I can guarantee you there will be still people who will buy "Low Low" over butter because it's lower calorie. The fact that the whole calorie measurement is now open to debate will have escaped them because they are still listening to nonsense from WeightWatchers or Slimming World. Both of whom are multi million euro businesses who make their money out of people losing weight and then failing miserably and having to go back to them.

It really doesn't take a multitude of grey matter or common sense to tell the difference between a natural product that has been villified and a product that is the result of science and big money.

I just hope that the farmer outlives the chemist.