Just Say No To Crisco

Hydrogenated Oils (Shortening and Margarine) - It is important to note that hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils have been banned in many European countries because of the harm that they cause to our bodies. However, here in the good ole U.S.A. we are still using this poisonous ingredient in many food products. Hydrogenated oil was invented in order to get around the high cost of butter. They are oils that have been chemically changed by adding in hydrogen molecules to make them firm so they would resemble the texture of butter. It’s cheaper to produce hydrogenated oil than it is to put butter in food products.
Some of the effects of hydrogenated oil are that it causes weight gain, slows down your metabolism, raises the levels of bad cholesterol and lowers the good cholesterol levels, increases blood insulin, increases free radical formation, and affects the immune system. Hydrogenated oil is closely linked with the increase of diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and so much more.

My dietary alternatives for these are butter, palm oil, and coconut oil. For all of my baking that calls for shortening I use a palm oil put out by Spectrum. I love this oil; it should be known that this form was the shortening of choice, along with coconut oil for bakeries, until around the late 1950s. That was when the domination of partially hydrogenated soybean oil came about, with the claim that it was healthier - but it has proven to be anything but. Again, palm oil, coconut oil, and even butter are the better alternatives.

In conclusion, don’t let expense keep you from good health. Just bake less if it becomes a money issue. But remember that cheap products are the reason we’re in the predicament we’re in now. They want production to be cheaper, so they feed us poison. If we don’t pay for it now, we’ll pay for it later in medical costs, to say nothing of physical and emotional pain.