Health
Related: About this forumWhen Trans Fats Were Healthy
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/11/when-trans-fats-were-healthy/281274/On Thursday the FDA proposed changing its classification of trans fats to no longer "generally recognized as safe," which means food companies would have to prove that the partially hydrogenated oils are harmless before using them. This new, higher bar could mean that trans fats will disappear from our diets altogether, since the most recent research shows that they contribute to plaque buildup in the arteries and heart attacks.
But surprisingly, science has only been against trans fats for the past few decades. Through the late 1980s, animal fat substitutes like Crisco and margarine were all the rage, and for a brief moment were even considered a health product. Heres the story of how America fell in love with, and then quickly slid away from, hydrogenated oils.
In 1902, the scientist Wilhelm Normann found that adding hydrogen to vegetable oil would make it solid, creating trans fats in the process.
From the start, trans fats earthy origins were a selling point over that of their rivals, beef fat and butter. When Procter & Gamble debuted Crisco in 1911, it was billed: "It's all vegetable! It's digestible! The shortening was also kosher, leading to the even better (worse?) slogan: The Hebrew Race has been waiting 4,000 years for Crisco!
***disclaimer: i use crisco in both my pie dough and in biscuits.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,014 posts)could use butter of course.....
xchrom
(108,903 posts)i've used both -- the lard pie crust came out quite good -- but it is a bit more work.
tridim
(45,358 posts)They are divine! I bet chilled coconut oil would work great in a pie crust.
I use both butter and lard, but not nearly as much these days. Crisco isn't allowed in my kitchen, it's still disgusting even if they pulled the trans-fats.
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,674 posts)winter is coming
(11,785 posts)It has a tendency to weep. I use all butter unless it's high summer, and then I spring for high-ratio shortening.
SheilaT
(23,156 posts)I stopped buying cakes from bakeries when I discovered (many years ago now) that they used Crisco for the frosting. Yuck.
Warpy
(111,245 posts)and have always gotten rave reviews on the buttery flavor. The texture is always good, too, as I make sure it's 75% butter, 25% clear oil.
Lard used to be the preferred fat for bakers and probably will be again as Crisco either manages to alter its formula or it disappears. And even lard is preferable to trans fats.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,014 posts)phylny
(8,379 posts)My grandma who used butter, olive oil, and drank scotch lived to the age 100. Neither used margarine.
Coincidence? I think not
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,674 posts)my family started using margarine instead of butter, Crisco instead of lard, etc., because my dad discovered his cholesterol was high (he lived to be 92 anyhow, after 40-some years of eating trans fats). It's just interesting (or frustrating) to find out that the stuff you always though was good for you, isn't.
tridim
(45,358 posts)Thank Gore for the Internets!
Warpy
(111,245 posts)I didn't taste real butter until I left home and it came as a complete revelation. Since I used less to get better flavor, I converted to butter and just never looked back. Julia Child's first book helped me along.
Imagine how great it felt to know that I'd been doing the right thing all along: use natural fats and oils but not too much of either.
My own parents smoked for 40+ years and felt deprived if they didn't eat meat three times a day. My dad lived to 89 and my mother to 94. They also both developed hypertension in their early 40s, probably due to the fat load from all that meat plus the trans fats from all that margarine and Crisco.
My dad always thought how long you lived was genetically determined. I just pointed out that how functional you were until you died probably had a dietary component.