The Popcorn

I’m not a big fan of microwave popcorn but I noticed that several major brands had come out with “all natural” versions. Only one of the three I bought actually tasted good (Orville Redenbacher), one of them tasted so salty it was inedible (Newman’s Own) and one required lots of liquid to get the cardboard down (Wild Harvest Organic). The Orville one tasted heavenly with tons of “butter” flavor and clearly gobs of some kind of oil in the bottom of the bowl. So I checked the boxes and they all used palm oil for that butter flavor. Now I’m thinking, is that natural? Is that one of the good fats? bad fats? Butter is natural but we’re not supposed to be eating tons of that either…

The Peanut Butter

Around the same time I bought some “all natural” peanut butter to compare. Remember when Laura Scudders came on the scene with their all natural peanut butter that you had to stir? It just had peanuts in it. That’s it. Peanuts. But honestly I don’t like to stir it. It makes a big mess and you always end up with oil dripping down your hand, the side of the jar and the counter. So I was excited when Skippy came out with an all natural because you didn’t have to stir it. Did I read the label? Not so much. I did now though – along with the labels of a new Jif all natural and do you know why you don’t have to stir it? Palm oil.

Palm Oil

Technically palm oil falls under the bad fats category because it’s a saturated fat like butter – although there are some claims that palm oil (along with Coconut Oil) is processed by our bodies differently than animal fat and can actually help you lose weight. This is definitely NOT a majority opinion but I guess I’ll find out because I have 5 jars of “all natural” peanut butter and I’m not throwing them away.

Types of Fats

Good Fats – polyunsaturated fats and monounsaturated fats
Actually the mono ones are favored even more than the poly ones; Monounsaturated fats help lower LDL (bad) cholesterol while also boosting HDL (good) cholesterol. The poly ones are considered a little less stable than the mono ones and may actually lower both good and bad cholesteroal. But the poly fats are often higher in Omega 3 fatty acids which help lower blood pressure, fight inflammation and protect your nervous system.

The best ones in order (based on amounts of Omega 3, 6, & 9 fatty acids) are:
Safflower Oil
Hazelnut Oil
Olive Oil
Grapeseed Oil
Sunflower Oil
Flax Seed Oil
Sesame Oil
Corn Oil*
Peanut Oil
Canola Oil (rapeseed)*
Walnut Oil
*you would need to avoid these if you don’t want to eat any genetically modified food

Bad Fats – saturated fat
We’ve been hearing for a long time that we need to reduce saturated fats to improve heart health and reduce our cholesterol. We automatically think of butter. But Palm Oil and Coconut Oil also fall on this list. The way to tell it’s a saturated fat is to check its consistency at room temperature. Saturated fats solidify (completely solid or semi-solid) at room temperature. These are in order with the least saturated fat at the top to most saturated fat at the bottom:
Palm Oil
Butter
Coconut Oil

Super Bad Fats – Trans fats
Trans fats are the worst type of fat because they can raise LDL cholesterol levels and lower HDL (or “good”) cholesterol. Foods high in trans fats include vegetable shortening and commercial baked goods that contain partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. If you want to really avoid all trans fats you have to read the ingredients because they are allowed to say 0 Trans Fat on the label but still have a small amount of trans fat that you can easily identify in the ingredients by looking for anything “partially hydrogenated”.

A Big Fat Mix of Fats

I noticed when I read my all-natural peanut butter labels that they had saturated fats on the nutrition labels that I assumed came from the palm oil only. Except the Laura Sucdders one with ONLY peanuts had saturated fat as well. HUH? Are they telling me that peanuts have saturated fat? Sure enough- they do. You always see the fats and oils separated into categories by type of fat – monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, saturated and trans – BUT they are in those categories based on the LEVEL of those kinds of fats they have in them. They ALL have a mixture of fats – check it out:

What Do We Make of it All?

If we are thinking in terms of the lesser of all evils – then Palm Oil appears to be a better choice than butter and coconut oil (less saturated fat combined with more good fats); but I’m going to be reading more labels and checking for it – if we start to see palm oil in everything then presumably we would need to track how much we are ingesting on a daily basis to try to keep it down. I’m hooked on Orville’s popcorn now so I definitely won’t be giving that up – and maybe I’ll have to go back to stirring my peanut butter – maybe they should package it with some kind of oil drip guard – or give us more room at the top for stirring??

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