Check the Oil, Please
(Originally Published in Barcelona Metropolitan, April 2007)
In one of the Extras sequences on the DVD release of Supersize Me, the Oscar-nominated 2004 film which documents the detrimental effects of an exclusively McDonald’s diet, there is an experiment titled The Smoking Fry. In it, director Morgan Spurlock monitors the decomposition of various items from the McDonald’s menu alongside a burger and fries from an unnamed “regular” restaurant.
He squints into the camera. “I’m just going to give you an idea of how this food is breaking down in your body.”
After ten weeks, all the food is unrecognizable, except for the McDonald’s fries. “It looks like we bought them yesterday,” observes Spurlock. How long they would have actually lasted remains unknown because –shortly thereafter—an intern mistakenly threw them out.
This miracle of nature is made possible by hydrogenated vegetable oil, known also as trans fats or saturated oil. Because of certain economic advantages, it is used in McDonald’s deep-fryers as well as in most areas of industrial food production. So-called because of the formation of their molecules –as opposed to a cis formation—trans fats have recently been banned in New York city. The only European country in which they are legally prohibited is Denmark, which allows only trace amounts.
The reason for this ban is simple: Hydrogenated vegetable oil can kill you.
“Trans fatty acids are sufficiently similar to natural fats that the body readily incorporates them into the cell membrane; once there, their altered chemical structure creates havoc with thousands of necessary chemical reactions,” reports an on-line article, The Oiling of America, by Mary Enig and Sally Fallon. Enzymes in the body get tied up trying to deal with these fats, an arduous task that results in the neglect of other fats in the body. The ultimate consequence of this is “a massive blood clot leading to obstruction of a coronary artery and consequent death.”
Before hydrogenation was discovered in 1901, natural saturated oils were extracted from animals and preferred for their higher burn temperatures and longer shelf lives. However, the general rule that it takes 100 kilos of vegetable matter to produce one kilo of animal made lard and butter a lot more expensive than vegetable oils, which tend to burn quicker and don’t last quite as long. Along came German chemist Wilhelm Normann, who sold his hydrogenation patent to Procter & Gamble, who in turn began marketing Crisco in 1911. It was cheap, lasted virtually forever, and at the time was believed to be healthier because it was extracted from the “good cholesterol” of vegetables. A half century would pass before their detrimental effects became evident.
“Many important scientific studies indicate that a 3% increase in the consumption of trans fats can produce a 29% increase in cardiovascular disease,” says Dr. Vicente Bertomeu, President of the Arterial Hypertension Section of the Spanish Society of Cardiology. “It’s a fat that is more dangerous because it’s treated to be more stable and more soluble. It’s homogenous and activates certain flavors. One other important reason trans fats are used in industrial food production is because the foods expire much later.”
Oliver Tickell is a journalist and campaigner on health and environment issues in the U.K. “The reason for doing partial hydrogenation,” he says, “comes down to the fact that standard soy oil or rapeseed oil is prone to oxidation, rancidity and degradation in the conditions of a deep fryer because it’s quite fragile. So, for the food industry it is an inconvenience and they get rid of it by hydrogenation. In the process, they also produce trans fats.”
Though the Danish government has observed a 20% reduction in deaths from heart disease since their prohibition took effect on January 1st, 2004, other countries in Europe are lagging in even considering legislation. Spain included. One reason for this Iberian legislative indifference is that the per capita consumption of saturated oils in this country is relatively low.
“The traditional Mediterranean diet doesn’t have trans fats, or they’re so few that they aren’t harmful,” says Dr. Bertomeu. “But every day, more and more people are buying food in commercial centers. If you look at the label, a pre-packaged merluza that you cook for 6 minutes in the microwave will tell you that it has saturated or hydrogenated vegetable oil. I would recommend that people read the package.”
Dr. Bertomeu’s advice may be sound, but an October article in El Mundo reports that in Spain there is no current legislation regulating their inclusion in the nutritional labels of store-bought food. Indeed, a quick inspection of an amazingly inexpensive bag of madalenas lists only aceite vegetal. The words hidrogenadas and saturadas are conspicuously absent. Yet, these off the shelf pastries won’t expire for two months, which makes one wonder if it might be wiser to make that extra stop at the bakery on a more regular basis.
Both the Catalan Baker’s and Pastry Guilds report that they don’t use saturated fats in any of their panaderías or pastelerías. “We have followed this issue,” says Joan Turull, President of the Gremio de Pastelerías, “and I speak from the heart that we are completely against the use of hydrogenated oils. One thing is very clear: the pastelería will survive in the face of all this globalization only with quality and service. There’s no other way. And if we begin to make a croissant with margarine, we’re going to lose our identity. We understand that perfectly and I believe that the quality of pastries in Catalunya is very high.”
Though Spain and the EU are still in the process of “conducting studies,” and are far away from enacting any legislation prohibiting the use of trans fats, many food retailers are voluntarily making the transition to phase them out. McDonald’s, who sells more food to customers in Europe than any other single entity, has followed in the footsteps of other food service retail giants like KFC and Pizza Hut by announcing recently its intentions “to achieve a substantial reduction in trans fatty acids in its cooking oil” by mid-2008.
“This isn’t necessarily in response to any legal status, but it’s more to do with our efforts in Europe to continuously improve the quality of our products,” says Caroline Weber, Senior Manager for Corporate Relations, McDonald’s Europe. “It’s very much about doing something which is best for our business, for our customers and for our suppliers.”
While this appears promising, McDonald’s made a similar –but failed—promise in the U.S. in 2002. Ultimately, they lost a multi-million dollar lawsuit brought against them by the organization Ban Trans Fats. When asked if history will repeat itself, Ms. Weber responds, “We’ve worked very closely with our suppliers on this because –obviously without them it wouldn’t be possible—and we’re confident that the rollout will be in all of our restaurants across Europe by mid-2008.”
Oliver Tickell is also optimistic about this commitment. “I would hope that they’ve learned from the American experience and that they are making this promise conservatively in knowing that they can fulfill it. A company like McDonalds shouldn’t make a mistake like that twice. So I have confidence that they will fulfill that promise.”