Fatty’s Fat Phobia

Being that today is my birthday (yeay being old and cranky- instead of young and cranky!) I thought this would be a great time to write about cake. I love cake. Anyone who says they don’t love cake is a dirty liar. Cake is awesome. BUT- keep an eye on what’s in that cake.

Cake mixes, cookie mixes, quick mix together stuff is great. It makes life easier, and there are great brands out there without a lot of crap in it. ALWAYS look at the ingredient list. Almost all mixes- quick and easy store bought stuff- has partially hydrogenated oils in it. Now, thanks to advertising and fitness/nutrition gurus everyone knows that trans fat is bad. But why? Why is it so bad? For once, I won’t say “because I said so, and this is my blog”. I’ll actually break it down for you in a basic, small word summary.

Trans fats don’t exist in the real world. Because the body hates to waste anything (thanks a lot body, way to keep all that fat packed on me for “survival” during a “famine”), it stores it. Since it has nowhere else to store it- it puts it in your arteries. That’s the prefect place for it because I wasn’t using those anyway. And so when you eat enough of it, it coats those arteries until there’s no room for the blood to reach the heart. Just so you know- that’s a bad thing. Don’t do that.

So if you want a cake mix, or a cookie, or anything made in a store- go for it. But look at what’s in it. Trans fat= NO. Don’t do it. Now, I’m no hippie. If you want to eat non-organic cake smothered in beef pate deep fried in high fructose corn syrup- go for it. Just don’t add trans fat to it because THAT is what will kill you. Well, that and eating too much deep fried sugared beef. But I guess that’s a whole different blog.