Acid Rain

Acid Rain is still a problem, even though it has dropped off the radar as a media-attention grabber. As usual, it was Canada's protest during the 80's that got us to pay attention. If we were the only first-world country in the whole of the Western Hemisphere, I doubt that in our Tocqueville-described isolation we would ever consider our impact on the environment and the world.

Even now, Canada's attempt to ban trans-fats reverberates here in our struggling campaign, resulting in FDA requirement that any processed food must have Trans-fat on the Nutrition label. Find out more about partially hydrogenated oil, the other name for trans-fat. It can be soybean oil or other kinds of oil that are partially hydrogenated.

Fully hydrogenated oil is the same as saturated fat, so you will have no problem with it (saturated fat, consumed in lower quantity, is not bad). The devilish part is when they say simply "hydrogenated oil" because it doesn't tell you whether it's partially or fully hydrogenated.

You might have seen the "Partially Hydrogenated Oil" in every baked goods and processed goods. DON'T EAT THEM AT ALL. You might see the word "O gram of trans fat" on the nutrition label, but see the "Partially Hydrogenated Oil" in the ingredients. That's because FDA allows any goods with less than 500 milligrams of partially hydrogenated oil to pass as 0 grams. For those who are metric-deficient, 500 milligrams is equal to 0.5 gram.

If you're wondering what's the normal name for the fat before it becomes partially hydrogenated. You would say they have the cis configuration, and they are simply unsaturated fats.

This was originally going to be about acid rain, but I felt compelled to include a lecture on partially hydrogenated oil as a danger of our time because it may cause a metabolic breakdown that is leading to obesity problems, diabetic problems, cardiovascular problems, and much more that we haven't studied or understood yet.