It leads to disease. And..uh…fat!

So let’s eat Special K bars instead!

You can tell I’m being a sarcastic lil brat, right?

I had to share this article on where the current debate stands on fat (i.e. debunks the myth that “low fat” is a healthy diet plan, & that all saturated fats are ”bad”). It will blow your mind. One thing people are in consensus about? Trans fats are killer.

Check it via Civil Eats here.

And don’t worry, vegans, you can still get plenty of yummy and good-for-you fats from avocados and nuts.

Want More?

• Shulman, Martha Rose. “Say Goodbye to ‘Low Fat.’” Zester Daily. 1 Feb. 2011. <http://www.zesterdaily.com/health/801-say-goodbye-to-low-fat>
• Jameson, Marni. “A Reversal on Carbs.” The Los Angeles Times. 20 Dec. 2010. <http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-carbs-20101220,0,5893431,full.story>
• Scott-Thomas, Caroline. “Low fat diets could increase heart disease risk, say nutrition experts.” 16 Nov. 2010. <http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Science-Nutrition/Low-fat-diets-could-increase-heart-disease-risk-say-nutrition-experts>
• Taubes, Gary. “What if It’s all Been One Big Fat Lie?” The New York Times. 7 July 2002. <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/magazine/what-if-it-s-all-been-a-big-fat-lie.html?pagewanted=1>
• Hu, Frank, et al. “Types of Dietary Fat and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease: A Critical Review.”Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 20, No. 1, 5-19 (2001). <http://www.jacn.org/cgi/content/abstract/20/1/5>

Where do  you currently stand on the “‘good fat’ versus ‘bad fat’ versus ‘no fat is best’ debate”?

<3,

The Cranky One

You know those butter sprays that say they have zero calories and no fat? Well, if those bottles had pants, they’d be on fire!

These butter sprays DO have calories and DO have fat. And bonus? They also typically have loads of artificial additives! Yay!

Most of those butter sprays have artificial ingredients that have been linked to cancer, such as polysorbate 60, which is in the I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter spray. Polysorbate 60 is often used in cosmetics and has been linked to cancer. See the Environmental Working Group’s ranking of this additive, here.

Additionally, the reason these sprays (Pam, included, which I do, shamefully, use) are “no calorie” and “no fat,” is simply because the company has manipulated FDA label laws and serving sizes. The FDA labeling law says that if there’s less than 1/2 gram of fat in a serving size, a food company can legally label its products as “Fat-Free.” And, if there’s less than 5 calories a serving, it can round down to zero calories. The problem is that food companies then purposefully find what serving size they can use (1/3 second spray in the case of Pam) that fits the criteria of being less than 0.5g fat and 5 calories. Technically, then, there really is fat and calories in that 1/3 spray. And, most people use more than a 1/3 second spray! And each of those seconds adds more and more fat and calories. So, it’s not like each spray is 0 calories + 0 calories — if you use a 1-second spray amount, you really add 7 calories and nearly 1g of fat to your intake. Yet, Pam can still say that it’s calorie and fat free on the front label! When it comes to I Can’t Believe it’s Not Butter, 12.5 sprays ends up equating to 10 calories and 1 gram of fat. Twenty five sprays (1 teaspoon) comes to 20 calories and 2 grams of fat, and 37.5 sprays is 30 calories and 3 grams of fat. I’ve heard of people who use this spray ON EVERYTHING (in fact, Portia De Rossi would spray it on everything, as she recounts in her book). So consider this shocker: the entire bottle contains nearly 900 calories and 90 grams of fat!

If you’re really trying to lower calories and can’t do without a butter spray, use these sprays very sparingly. And, while some butter and margarine don’t have artificial additives, they’re hardly a better alternative. One tablespoon of butter generally has a 6th of your daily recommended cholesterol consumption. Worse, butter has saturated fat – typically more than 50% the recommended intake in one tablespoon — which can increase your “bad cholesterol” (LDL). Margarine typically has trans fat – which can also deceptively be listed as “zero transfat” if there is less than 0.5g per serving. The trick? Check the ingredients label. If there is anything listed as “partially hydrogenated” or “hydrogenated” it means there’s trans fat in it!

Really want a butter or margarine? I recommend Earth’s Balance Organic Buttery Spread (not low cal or low fat, but it’s vegan, organic and without artificial additives) or Smart Balance Organic Whipped Buttery Spread (also vegan, but watch their other products because a lot of them have fish added for Omega 3s!).

My final piece of advice? Read the fine print on all nutritional labels. If it seems too good to be true – it is. No product with real oil listed in its ingredients list is going to be calorie and fat free.

<3,

The Cranky One

Today is National Cereal Day! First, I want to give some love to my favorite cereal: Peanut Butter Puffins

Puffins remind me of Butterfinger filling in a puffy, crunchy cereal square. Delightful!

Since we’re on the topic of cereal, I might as well break out my…

Cranky Guide to Cereal

• Choose cereal that has less sugar than a pile of Oreos. Generally, you shouldn’t have more than 6 teaspoons/22 grams of sugar per day if you consume a total of 1600 calories a day. If you eat around 2200 calories a day, you shouldn’t consume more than 12 teaspoons/44 grams of sugar per day. Sounds like a lot, right? Not really when you consider that one cup of Kellogg’s Raisin Bran Crunch Cereal has 20 grams of sugar–that’s about four Oreo cookies worth of sugar. Yowza!
• If you’re vegan — watch out for animal crap masquerading as a hard-to-pronounce other. Here are some things to consider: “confectioner’s glaze” comes from insects; E471 is a synthetic fat additive that comes from both vegetable and animal sources (fat) and, unless it’s explicitly defined, you don’t know from which source when it’s listed; and Carmine/Crimson Lake/Cochineal/Natural Red 4/C.I. 75470/E120 are red food dyes that come from beetles. That’s not an exhaustive list, but, seriously–unless you’re eating a certified vegan cereal–the added sugar alone is probably not vegan (white sugar is typically filtered – to de-color – through bone char); so, in my wise-ass opinion, I say: be mindful, not overzealous.
• Choose a cereal that has a reasonable amount of calories per serving size. I don’t know about you, but this pretty much encapsulates how I eat cereal: [source]
  Beware of misleading serving sizes!  Most of us eat 2 servings or more of cereal and don’t even realize it. When you add your dairy or non-dairy milk to the equation, you’re eating about 400 calories of cereal if you’re not careful (plus loads of sugar!). Check out Hungry Girl’s serving size experiment and video here for more of an idea what I’m talkin’ ’bout! You might also want to try her cool tip to “Puff That Stuff” (see here). Basically, you can add volume to your favorite cereal by adding a puffy cereal with less calories. For example, I am not satisfied with one serving (3/4 cup) of Puffins for 110 calories; but you can add a cup of puffed millet for 60 calories. That way you have a total of almost 2 cups cereal for only 170 calories. A cup of unsweetened almond milk is 40 calories — which is more than half the calories of non-fat milk.
• Compare/Contrast. See how your fave cereal compares to others out there. You might be shocked or pleasantly surprised. Check out this cool comparison here of some mainstream commercial cereals.
• Remember that “No Trans Fat” doesn’t mean no trans fat. Technically, if a cereal product has less than .5g of trans fat per serving, it can list “0g” of trans fat. But, pals, if we don’t eat just one serving of cereal, doesn’t that mean that by the time we’ve licked the bowl clean from our 3rd serving, we’ve ingested a bit of trans fat? Why yes, yes, it does! D’oh! You can find out if a cereal really has trans fat by checking for “hydrogenated” and “partially-hydrogenated” oils in the ingredients list. Post’s Cupcake Pebbles has “0g” of transfat listed, but if you check out the ingredients, “hydrogenated vegetable oil” comprises the 3rd ingredient! Yikes! Might as well generally be a bit skeptical of claims made on cereal boxes — see here on how Kellogg’s wants to make weight loss claims on its cereals!
• Some Like it Hot. Bored with cold cereal? Try it hot! My favorite brand of hot cereal is Country Choice.  I like to eat it with just a little stevia added. One serving has 130 calories and is FILLING!
• Think Outside the (Cereal)Box. Use your cereal for somethin’ other than a cereal bowl! Try my recipe here for yogurt pie in a Puffins crust. You can use soy yogurt to veganize it. You can also make vegan Rice Krispy Treats.

What’s your favorite cereal? Any fun ways to eat it?

<3,

The Cranky One