Nutrition and McVeggie

[Guest guest]

In addition to all the points brought about the McVeggie burger, it is important to note that transfats (from partially hydrogenated/hydrogenated oils) have actually been added to the patties supplied by Yves, which previously did not use trans fats in their patties. Yves sold out... This is after McDonald's said that it would reduce the amount of transfats in its foods.

"The bun is a nutritionist's nightmare. Although the sandwich is labeled as containing a whole-wheat bun, the first ingredient is bleached white flour. Nutritionists would shudder after reading a label that lists high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oil along with a myriad of preservatives and stabilizers. Though not highly nutritious, the bun is vegan.

The nutritionist would instantly notice the sandwich contains 8 grams of fat with 1.5 grams saturated. Doing the math would reveal that 6.5 grams were a combination of polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, and trans fat. Trans fat is now considered as much of an artery clogger as saturated fat. With the new labeling soon to be introduced, companies like McDonald's will have to indicate how much of that 6.5 grams is trans fat. A nutrition savvy person would also raise an eyebrow reading that the sandwich has 1490 mg of sodium, more than half of what a person should eat in an entire day. " -Vegparadise News Bureau

- J. Lisa

 

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[Guest guest]

> In addition to all the points brought about the McVeggie burger, it is

important to note that transfats (from partially hydrogenated/hydrogenated

oils) have actually been added to the patties supplied by Yves, which

previously did not use trans fats in their patties. Yves sold out... This

is after McDonald's said that it would reduce the amount of transfats in its

foods.

> " The bun is a nutritionist's nightmare. Although the sandwich is labeled

as containing a whole-wheat bun, the first ingredient is bleached white

flour. Nutritionists would shudder after reading a label that lists high

fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oil along with a myriad of

preservatives and stabilizers. Though not highly nutritious, the bun is

vegan.

> The nutritionist would instantly notice the sandwich contains 8 grams of

fat with 1.5 grams saturated. Doing the math would reveal that 6.5 grams

were a combination of polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, and trans fat. Trans

fat is now considered as much of an artery clogger as saturated fat. With

the new labeling soon to be introduced, companies like McDonald's will have

to indicate how much of that 6.5 grams is trans fat. A nutrition savvy

person would also raise an eyebrow reading that the sandwich has 1490 mg of

sodium, more than half of what a person should eat in an entire day.

" -Vegparadise News Bureau - J. Lisa

 

I wonder what this person defines as a " nutritionist. " While people should

limit their intake of tans fats, having some in your diet is unlikely to be

harmful. At least, there is no data that they will cause noticeable damage

or decrease your life span. And why would someone worry about high fructose

corn syrup, of all things?

 

The sodium *is* very high. (Maybe that's why it tastes so good. : )

 

As for the conversation about calcium, acid, and bones we were having,

someone just sent me an abstract of a review they did on lacto-ovo

vegetarians and bone health. I thought some of the people on the list might

be interested in it, so I've posted it below. I can send people the actual

PDF which includes some charts and references in addition to the Abstract,

if anyone wants one.

 

Jack Norris, RD

Vegan Outreach

Sacramento

 

Bone mineral density in vegetarians and omnivores: a

 

comparative review 1,2

 

Björn R Pettersson

 

ABSTRACT

 

Introduction: Osteoporosis is an important public health problem, as

exemplified by the 70 000

 

fractures in Sweden each year.

 

About 18 000 cases are hip fractures, which is a particularly devastating

injury.

 

The mortality rate during the year following a hip fracture is 10-15% higher

in subjects suffering

 

such fracture compared with age and sex matched subjects not suffering such

fracture.

 

In Sweden the lifetime risk of suffering one or more fractures, for the

middle age person, is 50% in

 

women and 25% in men.

 

Recent figures show that the annual social-economic cost for osteporosis in

Sweden is 3.5

 

billions (SEK). Hip fractures stand for more than half of this cost.

 

The most important explanation for the increased fracture rates in Sweden

and other developed

 

countries is that the average range of life has increased during the last

decades.

 

But studies also indicate that osteoporosis now is more prevalent in some

younger age groups.

 

Also, countries with the same average range of life as Sweden have much

lower fracture rates (e.g.

 

France).

 

Bone mass is one important factor that influences bone strength and hence

fracture risk.

 

Bone mass is influenced by genetics, by nutrition, by hormonal status, and

by lifestyle factors,

 

such as physical activity, smoking and drinking.

 

If nutrition and lifestyle factors that promote bone health can be

identified to a larger degree

 

such knowledge will have the potential to decrease human suffering as well

as improving the

 

economy in developed countries.

 

Background: Some early research suggested that a vegetarian lifestyle could

have a positive

 

impact on bone health. The proposed positive association with vegetarianism

and bone health was

 

largely based on the thesis that vegetarians had a lower net endogenous acid

production which

 

resulted in a lower urinary calcium loss, thought to conserve bone.

 

Meat-based diets generate high net endogenous acid production while

vegetables and fruits are

 

net base producing, thereby reducing urinary calcium excretion.

 

Objective: The objective of this review was to determine whether the

scientific evidence supports

 

the hypothesis that vegetarians have a better bone health compared with age

and sex matched

 

omnivores. A vegetarian was defined as someone who does not consume meat,

fish or fowl but, on

 

the other hand, eggs and/or dairy products in addition to plants.

 

Method: A MEDLINE search was conducted using the key words vegetarians or

vegetarian plus

 

osteoporosis, bone, BMD or fracture. Additional publications were identified

from review articles

 

and references provided in original papers. Studies were categorized as

having a statistically

 

nonsignificant effect, a favorable effect, or an unfavorable effect of being

a vegetarian compared

 

with being an omnivore. Only outcomes, for which P£0.05, were included in

the favorable and

 

unfavorable categories. Outcomes were also categorized according to the age

of the subjects.

 

Result: Fifteen studies that fulfilled the criteria were identified. All

studies examined the bone

 

mineral content (BMC) and/or bone mineral density (BMD) and no study

examined fracture rates.

 

Since studies that examined both BMD and BMC did not differ in result

between these two

 

measures the BMD figures were included only.

 

Since some studies reported BMD at different sites and in different age

groups the total number

 

of outcomes was twenty-six.

 

In twenty-three (88.5%) outcomes there was no significant difference between

the groups, while

 

one (3.8%) outcome reported a favorable effect and two (7.7%) outcomes an

unfavorable effect.

 

The two unfavorable outcomes were reported from one single Chinese study in

which the

 

vegetarian diet differed considerably from typical western vegetarian diets.

 

If the review was limited to include outcomes from groups of western

vegetarians only, the

 

result was as follows: ~95% a nonsignificant effect and ~5% a favorable

effect.

 

Conclusion: The bone health of western vegetarians, measured as bone mineral

density, does not

 

differ significantly compared with age and sex matched omnivores.

 

Whether there is a difference in actual fracture rates between the groups

remains to be clarified.

 

It should be noted though that the conclusion of this review does not rule

out the possibility that

 

dietary-induced changes in acid-base metabolism can affect bone health.

 

None of the studies included in this review was designed to find such

relationship. Recent

 

epidemiological studies of such design support the theory that fruits and

vegetables, foods with an

 

alka line load, promote bone health.

[Guest guest]

"Trans fat, like saturated fat and dietary cholesterol, raises the LDL cholesterol that increases your risk for CHD. Americans consume on average 4 to 5 times as much saturated fat as trans fat in their diets.

 

Although saturated fat is the main dietary culprit that raises LDL, trans fat and dietary cholesterol also contribute significantly." -FDA http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2003/503_fats.html

"Harvard nutritionist Walter Willett blames trans fats for at least 30,000 premature deaths a year, calling their introduction in the 1940s the "biggest food-processing disaster in U.S. history." And pioneering trans-fats researcher Mary G. Enig, Ph.D., formerly at the University of Maryland, says: "Several decades of research show consumption of trans fatty acids promotes heart disease, cancer, diabetes, immune dysfunction, obesity and reproductive problems." If Americans could detect the danger on food labels, they would cut back on trans fats, reasons the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FDA wants new food labels to reveal trans fats, contending such labels would save lives by forcing food manufacturers to eliminate trans fats. Just removing trans fatty acids from all margarines (70% now are high in trans fats) would prevent 6,300 heart attacks a year. Also eliminating trans fats in just 3% of breads and cakes and 15% of cookies and crackers would save

up to $59 billion in health care costs in the next 20 years, the FDA predicts. " http://www.usaweekend.com/01_issues/010304/010304eatsmart.html

"This review explores whether fructose consumption might be a contributing factor to the development of obesity and the accompanying metabolic abnormalities observed in the insulin resistance syndrome. The per capita disappearance data for fructose from the combined consumption of sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup have increased by 26%, from 64 g/d in 1970 to 81 g/d in 1997. Both plasma insulin and leptin act in the central nervous system in the long-term regulation of energy homeostasis. Because fructose does not stimulate insulin secretion from pancreatic ß

cells, the consumption of foods and beverages containing fructose produces smaller postprandial insulin excursions than does consumption of glucose-containing carbohydrate. Because leptin production is regulated by insulin responses to meals, fructose consumption also reduces circulating leptin concentrations. The combined effects of lowered circulating leptin and insulin in individuals who consume diets that are high in dietary fructose could therefore increase the likelihood of weight gain and its associated metabolic sequelae. In addition, fructose, compared with glucose, is preferentially metabolized to lipid in the liver. Fructose consumption induces insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance, hyperinsulinemia, hypertriacylglycerolemia, and hypertension in animal models. The data in humans are less clear. Although there are existing data on the metabolic and endocrine effects of dietary fructose that suggest that increased consumption of fructose may be detrimental in terms of body weight and adiposity and the metabolic indexes associated with the insulin resistance syndrome, much more research is

needed to fully understand the metabolic effect of dietary fructose in humans." -Fructose, weight gain, and the insulin resistance syndrome. Elliott SS, Keim NL, Stern JS, Teff K, Havel PJ.http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/76/5/911?maxtoshow= & HITS=10 & hits=10 & RESULTFORMAT= & fulltext=fructose+weight & searchid=1076615356914_9497 & stored_search= & FIRSTINDEX=0 & sortspec=relevance & journalcode=ajcn-J. Lisa

>While people should>limit their intake of tans fats, having some in your diet >is unlikely to be>harmful. At least, there is no data that they will cause >noticeable damage>or decrease your life span. And why would someone worry >about high fructose>corn syrup, of all things?

 

Finance: Get your refund fast by filing online

[Guest guest]

I promise the list moderators this will be my last post on the subject for

now...

 

In the snippet from my email below, " While people should limit their intake

of tans fats, having some in your diet is unlikely to be harmful. At least,

there is no data that they will cause noticeable damage or decrease your

life span, " I meant that there was no data that " some " is harmful. However,

how much is " some " and how much is " more than some " ? A few months ago, I

tried to figure that out and could not find much at all. If you go to

PubMed:

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=Search & DB=PubMed

 

and put in: " trans fat* " (with the quotation makrs) you only get 49 studies

and most of them are irrelevent to the question.

 

I try to limit hydrogenated oils and would encourage everyone to. But just

because something has some hydrogenated oil in it, doesn't mean it's poison.

Mary Enig (mentioned J. Lisa's post below) is also an anti-soy person, and I

notice she didn't mention that animal products contain much more trans fats

than do plant foods with the exception of hydrogenated plant oils. I found

the following interview with her in which she discusses trans fats:

 

http://www.healthy.net/asp/templates/interview.asp?PageType=Interview & ID=163

 

There were only 2 papers mentioned that show trans fats to be unhealthy in

humans long term and they were both by Walter Willett. One was a

presentation at a conference and the other was this one:

 

http://tinyurl.com/2te5q

 

which does show that large amounts of trans fatty acids over time were

correlated with heart disease. I will get a copy of that article and perhaps

we can determine from it how much trans fat was damaging and how much a

typical McDonald's burger has. However, as people who have followed research

coming out of Harvard School of Public Health probably know, the results are

often contradictory over time and over different populations and they often

contradict research done in other places. This is just the way things

work -- you need numerous studies to verify a theory before it should be

considered a hard truth.

 

As for high fructose corn syrup, the abstract below specifically states that

data on fructose in humans in unclear. My understanding is that high

fructose corn syrup contains about the same amount of fructose as table

sugar. (Almost) any time someone makes a lifetime habit of eating more food

than their body burns, things like insulin resistance or other problems are

going to crop up. That is true of fat, protein, fructose, sucrose, starch,

alcohol, etc. Yet all these things are fine in moderation and sometimes even

healthy. I don't think people would say that McDonalds' bun was a

nutritional nightmare because there was a bit of table sugar (sucrose) in it

(or, at least, they shouldn't), and I don't see how having corn syrup could

be different enough to cause harm to people should they regularly eat

McDonald's buns.

 

Jack

 

 

-

so_oy delicious

 

Thursday, February 12, 2004 12:00 PM

Re: Nutrition and McVeggie

 

 

" Trans fat, like saturated fat and dietary cholesterol, raises the LDL

cholesterol that increases your risk for CHD. Americans consume on average 4

to 5 times as much saturated fat as trans fat in their diets.

Although saturated fat is the main dietary culprit that raises LDL, trans

fat and dietary cholesterol also contribute significantly. " -FDA

http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2003/503_fats.html

" Harvard nutritionist Walter Willett blames trans fats for at least 30,000

premature deaths a year, calling their introduction in the 1940s the

" biggest food-processing disaster in U.S. history. " And pioneering

trans-fats researcher Mary G. Enig, Ph.D., formerly at the University of

Maryland, says: " Several decades of research show consumption of trans fatty

acids promotes heart disease, cancer, diabetes, immune dysfunction, obesity

and reproductive problems. " If Americans could detect the danger on food

labels, they would cut back on trans fats, reasons the U.S. Food and Drug

Administration. The FDA wants new food labels to reveal trans fats,

contending such labels would save lives by forcing food manufacturers to

eliminate trans fats. Just removing trans fatty acids from all margarines

(70% now are high in trans fats) would prevent 6,300 heart attacks a year.

Also eliminating trans fats in just 3% of breads and cakes and 15% of

cookies and crackers would save up to $59 billion in health care costs in

the next 20 years, the FDA predicts. "

http://www.usaweekend.com/01_issues/010304/010304eatsmart.html

" This review explores whether fructose consumption might be a contributing

factor to the development of obesity and the accompanying metabolic

abnormalities observed in the insulin resistance syndrome. The per capita

disappearance data for fructose from the combined consumption of sucrose and

high-fructose corn syrup have increased by 26%, from 64 g/d in 1970 to 81

g/d in 1997. Both plasma insulin and leptin act in the central nervous

system in the long-term regulation of energy homeostasis. Because fructose

does not stimulate insulin secretion from pancreatic ß cells, the

consumption of foods and beverages containing fructose produces smaller

postprandial insulin excursions than does consumption of glucose-containing

carbohydrate. Because leptin production is regulated by insulin responses to

meals, fructose consumption also reduces circulating leptin concentrations.

The combined effects of lowered circulating leptin and insulin in

individuals who consume diets that are high in dietary fructose could

therefore increase the likelihood of weight gain and its associated

metabolic sequelae. In addition, fructose, compared with glucose, is

preferentially metabolized to lipid in the liver. Fructose consumption

induces insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance, hyperinsulinemia,

hypertriacylglycerolemia, and hypertension in animal models. The data in

humans are less clear. Although there are existing data on the metabolic and

endocrine effects of dietary fructose that suggest that increased

consumption of fructose may be detrimental in terms of body weight and

adiposity and the metabolic indexes associated with the insulin resistance

syndrome, much more research is needed to fully understand the metabolic

effect of dietary fructose in humans. " -Fructose, weight gain, and the

insulin resistance syndrome. Elliott SS, Keim NL, Stern JS, Teff K, Havel

PJ.

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/76/5/911?maxtoshow= & HITS=10 & hits=10 & RES\

ULTFORMAT= & fulltext=fructose+weight & searchid=1076615356914_9497 & stored_search= & F\

IRSTINDEX=0 & sortspec=relevance & journalcode=ajcn

-J. Lisa

 

 

>While people should

>limit their intake of tans fats, having some in your diet >is unlikely to

be

>harmful. At least, there is no data that they will cause >noticeable damage

>or decrease your life span. And why would someone worry >about high

fructose

>corn syrup, of all things?

 

 

 

 

 

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