That Health Rules

I have been an advocate of avoiding fried foods.  However firm we are in avoiding frying foods, you sometimes cant help and avoid enjoying eating foods that are fried…not only are they crunchy but they also taste so good.  So resisting the temptation to enjoy great food is difficult. But at the expense of health and heart attacks!

I came across a recent article in the Harvard Medical School Health Publication: HealthBeat which I want to share especially to parents who allow their kids to enjoy french fries almost at every meal.

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 If you needed another reason to avoid trans fats, here it is. Researchers with the ongoing Nurses’ Health Study measured the amount of trans fat stored in red blood cells. Among the 32,000 middle-aged women participating in the study, 166 had heart attacks or died of heart disease during a six-year period. Their red blood cells had slightly higher loads of trans fat than did red blood cells of 327 women of the same ages and characteristics who remained free of heart disease.

Artificial trans fats are found in hard margarines, many commercially baked goods, and the fried foods in many restaurants, and research has consistently shown they aren’t good for the heart and blood vessels. Across the board, the more trans fat in red blood cells, the greater the chances of having a heart attack. Women with the highest trans fat load had triple the risk of women with the lowest. This study, published in the April 10, 2007, Circulation, strongly supports recommendations by the Institute of Medicine and the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans to cut back — or better yet, cut out — trans fats in the diet. Eliminating them from the food supply could avert as many as 264,000 heart attacks and heart-related deaths each year in the United States alone.

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Anothr reason to be alarmed over what we preceived a s a way of showing affection and reward to our kids… Crunchy fried chicken and french fries.  If we indulge in these kinds of foods once in a while or only during children’s parties .. its acceptable BUT if our kids eat only fried foods because that’s the only food they will eat then it will do no good to their future!

Start training them young.  My friend Maxim is one nice guy to dine with because he’s health conscious and therefore you tend to follow what he eats or be conscious of what you order.  And I guess there is so much truth to the study that showed…if your friends are obese, the more likely you will too….

A Feast with French Fries is A Feast with Trans Fat!