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How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Industrial Food

smithsonianmag.com

71–80 of 193 posts

Re: How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Industrial Food

#71
quick rule of thumb I developed - if product has long shelf life and does not require refrigeration - it is probably unhealthy.

fruits and veggies get optimized for heavier weight per piece and longer shelf life, instead of taste. Same thing for every other grocery product.

Re: How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Industrial Food

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's OK if there's not a universal definition of every concept. Some things in life are culturally subjective - especially cuisine. However, I think an intelligent person can look at string cheese and say that's fake food. I've started realizing that there is very little space for nuance and subjectivity in discussing things on HN

Anything frozen & prepared seems to be taboo -- like a frozen pizza. But frozen peas and berries are fair game. Everything else seems to come down to branding. I've seen premade refrigerated pizza fly off the shelf. I've seen drinks with all kinds of highly processed ingredients sell like hotcakes. I've seen condiments with a list of ingredients as long as a phone book purchase by plenty of people that eat only "real…

consider signaling. if you only eat "real food", you give off a vibe (not proof) that you're some mix of: educated, with disposable income, purveyor of quality

this is largely the same with other quasi-positive labels (esp. political ones). lots of $$ to be made here, as people generally want to reinforce both their own and others' perceptions of them.

Re: How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Industrial Food

#73
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only that, but fully hydrogenated oils are supposed to be quite bad for you. I think. It’s really hard to keep current on nutrition debates and “healthy” is a fairly nebulous concept when it comes to food.

Aren't hydrogenated oils just saturated fats?

They're trans fats: https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-s...

Re: How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Industrial Food

#74

quick rule of thumb I developed - if product has long shelf life and does not require refrigeration - it is probably unhealthy. fruits and veggies get optimized for heavier weight per piece and longer shelf life, instead of taste. Same thing for every other grocery product.

exceptions: nuts, olive oil, pasta, flour, water, rice, potatoes, apples, etc.

But i like the idea

Re: How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Industrial Food

#75
post #3

Pretty amazing this entire article never mentions trans fats.. which cause approx 500,000 premature deaths worldwide each year. For decades, Original Crisco had four grams of trans fat per tablespoon.

It's insane. Crisco was basically an industrial product disguised as food. It took almost ninety years for science to figure out that trans fats caused heart disease. Whenever somebody tells me how safe a new food product is, I think about how many people were killed by trans fats before anyone knew how bad they were.

Re: How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Industrial Food

#76
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aren't hydrogenated oils just saturated fats?

They're trans fats: https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-s...

> The primary dietary source for trans fats in processed food is “partially hydrogenated oils." Look for them on the ingredient list on food packages.

Crisco ~removed (FDA lets you state 0 trans fat if it's less than .5g per serving) trans fats, and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil is no longer an ingredient.

Hydrogenating oils saturates them. According to Wikipedia,

> Partial hydrogenation of the unsaturated fat converts some of the cis double bonds into trans double bonds by an isomerization reaction with the catalyst used for the hydrogenation, which yields a trans fat.

So apparently fully hydrogenating an oil won't produce trans fat.

Re: How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Industrial Food

#77

quick rule of thumb I developed - if product has long shelf life and does not require refrigeration - it is probably unhealthy. fruits and veggies get optimized for heavier weight per piece and longer shelf life, instead of taste. Same thing for every other grocery product.

I have a similar rule of thumb: if it's not part of any culture's traditional cuisine, it's probably unhealthy.

Long shelf life is not necessarily an issue; I've eaten home-made canned cherries & plums that were 10 years old. Wine can also have a long shelf life (though most don't).

But your point stands with the varietals optimized for appearance and tolerance to shipping as opposed to flavor. I've come to realize why many consider fruits and vegetables not very appealing is that almost all of what is available is tasteless.

Re: How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Industrial Food

#78
post #77

quick rule of thumb I developed - if product has long shelf life and does not require refrigeration - it is probably unhealthy. fruits and veggies get optimized for heavier weight per piece and longer shelf life, instead of taste. Same thing for every other grocery product.

I have a similar rule of thumb: if it's not part of any culture's traditional cuisine, it's probably unhealthy. Long shelf life is not necessarily an issue; I've eaten home-made canned cherries & plums that were 10 years old. Wine can also have a long shelf life (though most don't). But your point stands with the varietals optimized for appearance and tolerance to shipping as opposed to flavor. I've come to realize w…

I doubt that. Pretty much all of Northern European preserved meats are terrible for you.

Re: How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Industrial Food

#79
post #74

quick rule of thumb I developed - if product has long shelf life and does not require refrigeration - it is probably unhealthy. fruits and veggies get optimized for heavier weight per piece and longer shelf life, instead of taste. Same thing for every other grocery product.

exceptions: nuts, olive oil, pasta, flour, water, rice, potatoes, apples, etc. But i like the idea

Even many of those exceptions sacrifice taste in the name of shelf life and consistency: Mass-market olive oil has much less flavor than fresher, smaller-batch olive oil. Fresh pasta tastes better than dried pasta. Flours made from heritage grains are making a comeback in gourmet baking. Red delicious/golden delicious/granny smith apples taste far worse than many of the less mass-market alternatives. Etc.

Re: How Crisco Made Americans Believers in Industrial Food

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's OK if there's not a universal definition of every concept. Some things in life are culturally subjective - especially cuisine. However, I think an intelligent person can look at string cheese and say that's fake food. I've started realizing that there is very little space for nuance and subjectivity in discussing things on HN

If you heat and then stretch mozzarella cheese, you get string cheese. Is it the heat that turns real food into fake food or the stretching?

Ingredients: Dairylea Strip Cheese: cheese (70%), skimmed milk (water, skimmed milk powder), butter, skimmed milk powder, stabilisers (sodium carbonate, citric acid), calcium phosphate, milk protein, flavouring, emulsifying salt (potassium citrate).

This is a string cheese sold on the UK. It looks like the product varies significantly between and within countries.

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