"Egg Yolk Pies" and "Chocolate Pies" Affect Intelligence
Three Pies a Day Lead to Excessive Trans Fatty Acids
Affects Children's Intellectual Development, Harms Adults' Cardiovascular Health
In the eyes of many, "egg yolk pies" and "chocolate pies" are not only delicious but also nutritious, sounding sweet and trendy. However, they are unaware that these types of pastries often hide large amounts of trans fatty acids.
The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety, in collaboration with the Beijing Institute of Nutritional Sources, recently investigated 21 types of pastries available on the market and analyzed their trans fatty acid content.
The results found: in over 30% of the pastries, the trans fatty acid content was above 2%! The World Health Organization recommends that the daily intake of trans fatty acids should not exceed 1% of total energy intake, which is approximately 2 grams per day.
If you eat three such pies a day, your intake of trans fatty acids can easily exceed the limit! Excessive intake of trans fatty acids increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes in middle-aged people. For children, it affects intellectual development; for the elderly, it accelerates cognitive decline and increases the risk of dementia.
Why do these small pies hide so much trans fatty acid? In fact, the crispy, soft, and rich pie crusts, the rich fillings, and the chocolate coatings made from cocoa butter substitutes are all "hiding places" for trans fatty acids.
Check the label: vegetable shortening, cocoa butter substitutes, hydrogenated vegetable oil... these names are synonymous with trans fatty acids. Therefore, don't assume that an egg yolk pie truly contains the nutrition of an egg, or that a chocolate pie is as warm and cozy as the advertisements suggest.
When buying these pastries, pay special attention to the ingredient list on the label. If these ingredients appear in the first four positions, it means their proportion is relatively large, so you should be cautious about buying them and limit your consumption, otherwise, it will harm your health.
Additionally, if the "total fat content" on the label is also high, it's best not to buy it, as this could be a source of trans fatty acids.
Blacklist: Vegetable Shortening
Vegetable shortening is actually a type of hydrogenated vegetable oil. The earliest natural shortening was lard, so named because it makes biscuits crispy. Later, people processed vegetable oil through hydrogenation technology to create hard fats of suitable softness for use in the production of bread, cakes, and other foods, which is "vegetable shortening." Research has found that vegetable shortening contains a large amount of trans fatty acids, which can have adverse effects on human health.
Vegetable cream has many appealing names—non-dairy creamer, creamer powder, shortening, margarine, artificial fat, vegetable butter, or margarine.
The Harm of Trans Fatty Acids
The food highest in trans fatty acids is vegetable cream. The human body cannot absorb vegetable cream; on the contrary, it causes harm to the body. Research shows that trans fatty acids can cause at least the following harms: weight gain, easy induction of coronary heart disease, effects on male fertility, reduced memory, easy formation of blood clots, effects on growth and development, diabetes, and affecting the absorption of essential fatty acids in adolescents during their growth period. So how can you refuse trans fatty acids?
To Prevent Trans Fatty Acids, Eat Less Western Food and Pastries
Why do the foods we often eat contain trans fatty acids? Experts say: "Because foods containing trans fatty acids not only have a special good taste and texture, but they are also low-cost and easy to store. Because they are delicious, everyone loves them, such as biscuits, crispbreads, shortbread pastries, chocolate, salad dressing, french fries, doughnuts, cream cakes, large pancakes, potato chips, fried instant noodles, etc., all contain varying amounts of trans fatty acids."
"Little do people know that the possibility of trans fatty acids forming in nature is very small; they are almost all man-made and belong to a typical category of food additives. Therefore, controlling what you eat, especially Western fast food, is the best way to reduce your intake of trans fatty acids."
Always Check the Ingredient List When Buying Food
Supermarkets are simply too tempting, with almost all kinds of delicious foods available. However, experts say: "We found in a survey of a supermarket that nearly three-fifths of nearly 100 types of biscuits and cakes contain artificial fats, and bread, candy, ice cream, and frozen glutinous rice balls were not 'spared' either."
Subsequently, a reporter went to a supermarket to verify and found that even in products from brands like Master Kong, Want Want, Oreo, Kangyuan, ASO, Dove, and Hsu Fu Chi, words like artificial fats, vegetable butter, and creamer powder could be found, not to mention similar products from other brands. Therefore, all we can do is to carefully check the ingredient list when we go to the supermarket to buy food, carefully discern them, and buy less or not buy foods containing trans fatty acids at all.
In addition, experts remind: Currently, foods known to have high trans fatty acid content include: coffee creamer (instant coffee), pearl milk tea, cream cakes, cream bread, egg yolk pies, strawberry pies, chocolate, potato chips, french fries, salad dressing, crispbreads, ice cream, instant noodles, shortbread pastries, most biscuits, and various fried meat skewers.
Excessively High Cooking Oil Temperature at Home
Can Also Create Trans Fatty Acids
If you cook at home, don't accidentally create trans fatty acids yourself, as that would be counterproductive. Fan Zhihong reminds reporters that when cooking, especially when frying fish, shrimp, meat and vegetable balls, peanuts, shrimp chips, etc., with cooking oil, do not reuse the same pot of oil repeatedly. It's best to fry a batch at a time. Also, avoid using too high a heat, which would cause the oil temperature to become too high. This is because the oils we use at home today are almost all refined, and when heated to excessively high temperatures, some cis-fatty acids will convert into trans fatty acids.