Healthy eating for weight loss is the only real way to even attempt to lose weight. Why put your health at risk by doing it any other way? Most people who are looking for ways to lose weight known about the fattening aspect of french fries. But do you also know about the other side, the harm they do to you?
Fast food outlets and restaurants do a burgeoning trade in french fries. They remain one of the most popular foods there are. Many people have cravings for them and consume them every day. However, the fat used to fry them is questionable at best.
The cheapest oil used is also the most popular – canola oil. In any form, canola oil is harmful, but when it is raised to high temperatures, it is more harmful. Canola oil is also one of the most common GM foods.
Canola oil, the old name is rapeseed oil, has been used for many years as a fuel for diesel engines. It is a member of the mustard family of plants. It contains two harmful substances – erucic acid and glucosinolates. Genetic engineering has reduced, but not eliminated these. It also contains high levels of sulphur and can go rancid quickly.
Erucic acid is a long chain fatty acid associated with fibrotic lesions of the heart and destroying the protective sheath around nerves. The trans fatty acids that are a result of heating and processing oils have been found to have a definitive correlation with cardiovascular disease. Glucosinolates are known to inhibit growth.
However, there is an additional problem with french fries. In any form of high temperature cooking, whether from baking, roasting or frying, starchy foods such as potatoes create potent carcinogens called acrylamides. This comes about as a result of the sugars in the starchy potato combining with amino acids (proteins) found in the oil.
Acrylamides can also be found in any other starchy foods such as processed grain (breakfast cereals, bread, cookies, biscuits). Interestingly, coffee also contains this potent carcinogen, presumably because the coffee bean is roasted at high temperatures and contains both starch and fat.
Other common, cheap, usually GM and equally health hazardous oils used in cooking are cottonseed, soybean and corn. These are all hydrogenised oils, a very unhealthy part of processing.
The meal that is left over from processing these oils are used for animal fodder, to quickly fatten them. So if you have a burger with french fries, you will be getting a double helping of hazardous and carcinogenic foods.
Healthy Eating For Weight Loss shows you the healthiest oily foods to consume and to cook with.
