When her son ate his classmate’s birthday cake, his mother angrily claimed in the WeChat group that he was “poisoned”. Is it really true that you can’t eat a single bite of vegetable cream?

A piece of social news has sparked heated discussions in the past two days. A netizen posted that a parent in a class WeChat group complained that his child had eaten a birthday cake shared by a classmate that contained vegetable cream, and even went so far as to say that his son had been "poisoned."

From the exposed chat records, the mother said that she had strict dietary standards for her children, saying that they occasionally ate animal cream on birthdays. She even forced her son to drink 50 ml of oil, hoping to expel the vegetable cream by inducing vomiting.

The reason why she got "10,000 times more angry" was that the vegetable cream in the cake contained trans fat, which the human body needs 50 days to metabolize before it can be completely excreted.

Is it really true that you can’t eat vegetable cream at all?

What is the difference between vegetable cream and animal cream?

First of all, let's clarify the difference between vegetable cream and animal cream. The cream sold on the market today is mainly divided into two categories: animal cream and vegetable cream.

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Animal cream, also called light cream or whipped cream, is separated from whole milk and has a natural rich milk aroma. During the separation process, the fat in the milk has different specific gravity, and the light fat globules will float to the top and become cream. The fat content in cream is only 20%-30% of that in whole milk.

Vegetable cream, also known as margarine, artificial butter, and vegetable fat cream, is often used as a substitute for light cream. It was invented by American Wei Yi in 1945. Vegetable cream is mostly made by hydrogenating vegetable oil and adding artificial flavors, preservatives, pigments and other additives.

The most intuitive way to distinguish these two types of cream is to rub them with your hands: apply animal cream and vegetable cream on the palm of your hand respectively and rub them. The animal cream will quickly disappear in the palm of your hand, and only a small amount of oil will remain in the palm, just like hand cream; while the vegetable cream will remain in the palm of your palm after rubbing for a long time, and as the rubbing time increases, the vegetable cream will even take shape in the palm of your palm.

Why is animal cream generally considered healthier?

As public health awareness increases, the general perception is that vegetable butter contains trans fats, while animal butter does not, so animal butter is healthy and vegetable butter is unhealthy.

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To understand whether this idea is correct, we need to first understand how trans fats in margarine are produced.

The raw material of vegetable butter is vegetable oil, which does contain trans fats, which is related to the hydrogenation industrial production process. But in fact, animal butter also contains trans fats. The reason why people think that animal butter is healthier is that the trans fat content of vegetable butter was higher under the industrial production at that time.

However, the production process of vegetable cream has been improved and the amount of trans fat has been controlled. It is difficult to say that vegetable cream definitely contains more trans fat than animal cream.

Whether it is artificial vegetable cream or natural animal cream, the fat content is relatively high. It is recommended to consume it in moderation, 2-3 times a week, about 30 grams at a time.

Safe levels of trans fat intake

So, can we avoid trans fat intake by not eating cream cakes? A new status report from the World Health Organization (WHO) found that 5 billion people worldwide are at increased risk of heart disease and death due to industrial trans fats.

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Trans fats are present in almost all daily foods. If you want to eat healthily, you need to pay attention to the source and control the intake. The Chinese Dietary Guidelines (2022) recommends that each person consume ≤ 2 grams of trans fatty acids per day.

Trans fats mainly come from the following places:

●Biotransformation by bacteria in the rumen of ruminants, such as beef, mutton, milk, etc.

●Produced by partial hydrogenation (or selective hydrogenation) of oils and fats.

●May come from the refining and deodorization process of vegetable oils or fish oils with high polyunsaturated fatty acid content.

● The oil temperature is too high during cooking (＞220℃)

When the energy supply ratio reaches 1% to 3%, it can have adverse effects on human health.

How can we avoid foods containing trans fats as much as possible?

First, learn to read food labels.

(1) Check the ingredient list: If you see words such as "margarine", "shortening", "hydrogenated vegetable oil", "refined vegetable oil", "non-dairy creamer", or "cocoa butter substitute" in the ingredient list, it means that the food may contain trans fatty acids and you need to choose carefully.

(2) Check the nutrition label: China's "National Food Safety Standard - General Rules for Nutrition Labeling of Prepackaged Foods" stipulates that when food ingredients contain or use hydrogenated and/or partially hydrogenated fats during production, the content of trans fats (acids) should be indicated in the nutrition label. If the trans fatty acid content per 100 grams or milliliters of food is less than 0.3 grams, it can be labeled as "0 trans fatty acids". Many processed foods now meet this standard. It should be noted here that "0 trans fatty acid food" does not mean healthy food. It is necessary to be vigilant that replacing trans fatty acids with saturated fatty acids also has health risks. Therefore, you need to make a comprehensive assessment when choosing packaged foods.

Secondly, control the amount of vegetable oil used for cooking every day.

The recommended daily intake of cooking vegetable oil is 25 to 30 grams. It is best to choose cooking methods such as steaming, boiling, and stewing, and avoid high-temperature frying and repeated use.

Sources:

"Trans fats are more terrible than sugar, and they are in the food you eat! Let's read the "confession" of trans fatty acids" by Bo Chunyan

World Health Organization: 5 billion people worldwide are at increased risk of heart disease and death due to industrial trans fats China Green Development Foundation

Science Popularization China