Filed by Anne Braly
I keep hearing of more restaurants making the change from frying food in vegetable oil to more healthful oils. Take, for instance, locally owned Mojo Burrito. A year ago, owner Eve Williams made the switch. Mojo’s tortilla chips are now fried in soy oil. And look toward Wendy’s, which will soon be doing the same.
In a move that significantly reduces trans fatty acids on its menu, the burger giant is making the switch beginning the first of August to non-hydrogenated cooking oil for its french fries and breaded chicken items. As a result, the breaded chicken sandwich will have no trans fat and, depending on the size, the fries will range from zero to 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving. Kids meals will have no trans fats, as well.
Trans fats, by the way, are found in foods fried in hydrogenated oils, such as pure vegetable oil, that clog arteries and do other yucky things to your insides. In the ideal life, we need no trans fats at all to survive, but if you must have them, the American Dietetic Association says on its Web site, www.eatright.org, that we should have no more than two grams of trans fats per week.
So, the next time you pick up that bag of potato chips, think light. I recently picked up a bag of Lay’s Light chips with zero fat of any kind. And they’re as good as the regular chip. Wonder how they did that? It’s in all those fast fried foods that you’ll find enough trans fat to clog you up for good.
E-mail Anne Braly at abraly@timesfreepress.com
