Coffee Creamer or Cigarettes?

I'm taking a brief break from the "14 Days of Beauty" posts to discuss an extremely important topic: cholesterol. Consider the following statistics for this individual:

Sex: Male

Age: 40

Height: 5'10"

Weight: 170 lbs

Activity level: active exercise everyday

Diseases or conditions: none, except for some moderate low back pain

Smoker: NO

Drinker: NO

Diet consists of mostly lean protein, grains, organic dairy, low to moderate amounts of fruits and vegetables, coffee and water. Individual consumes very little fast food- 1-2 x's per month.

This person sees their doctor regularly and at the age of 40 the doctor orders routine blood work. The patient gets the blood work and after a few days, calls the doctor for results of his blood work. The blood work shows the patient has high overall cholesterol levels; the LDL (bad cholesterol) levels are extremely high- so high they were off the charts and wouldn't register, HDL (good cholesterol) was low and triglycerides were too high. The results also showed a Vitamin D deficit.

He was dumbfounded. This person has been very active his entire life and makes it a point to engage in some type of physical activity everyday. He runs on a consistent basis. He recently lost about 2o-25 lbs by really cleaning up his diet. At the time of his blood work, he had been on a vegetarian diet for two weeks. And a Vitamin D deficiency? He is in the sun everyday and most of his workouts are outdoors. He immediately began looking at all aspects of his diet, looking for cholesterol and saturated fat content. It came down to what he thought was a minor splurge every day. He drank approximately 3- 20 oz cups of coffee daily with enough Nestle French Vanilla Coffee Creamer to make it taste good- which for him is about 7-8 tbsp per 20 oz cup.(OUCH!). When you look at the ingredients list, here is what you see:

Water, sugar, partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil, and less than 2% of sodium caseinate (a milk derivative), dipotassium phosphate, disodium phosphate, mono and diglycerides, natural and artificial flavors, cellulose gel, cellulose gum, color added, carrageenan.

Then you read the nutrition information and, hey it doesn't look so bad, right? For 1 tbsp, you get 1.5 grams of fat, none which are listed as saturated, trans, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated fats, no cholesterol, 30 mg of sodium, only 5 grams of sugar and no protein.

Here is the problem- the third ingredient, which you see highlighted in red. Partially hydrogenated oils are TRANS FATS!! I am not quite sure how Nestle is able to get away with saying there is no trans fat in their product.

This man I am speaking of is my husband and this angers me to my core.

Read this excerpt taken from http://www.becomehealthynow.com/article/conditioncardio/135

Poisons in Our Diet

Why not consume partially hydrogenated fats or oils? Because by the definition of "poison," partially hydrogenated fats and oils are poisons. Dorland's Medical Dictionary defines "poison" as "any substance which, when relatively small amounts are ingested ... has chemical action that may cause damage to structure or disturbance of function, producing symptomatology, illness, or death." (1) Partially hydrogenated oils do not exist in nature. Partially hydrogenated fats and oils are processed versions of naturally occurring fats and oils. In nature, most dietary fats and oils exist in a structural form which is called the "cis" form. When these natural cis form fats are processed by bubbling hydrogen gas through them at high temperatures, they become partially hydrogenated which changes their structure to the "trans" form. The natural cis fat has a bend and the processed trans fat is a straight molecule. This difference in cis and trans shapes is of major significance. When eaten, fats and oils are incorporated into cell membranes altering the composition of these delicate structures. When they interact with normal fat metabolism, they disturb function in a most deleterious manner. Hence, these substances meet the definition of a poison." Trans fats interfere with important, normal functions by inhibiting enzymes which are necessary for the body's normal metabolism of fats and they keep doing it for a long time.

Before I lost my weight, I used this in my coffee too. Then I read the label one day and researched a bit on hydrogenated oils and decided to stop drinking it. I brought this to my husband's attention and he figured that he had cleaned up his diet so dramatically that this is the ONE thing that he could indulge in. I began using coconut milk creamer in my coffee and have since dropped the coffee habit altogether and now start my day with loose leaf Yerba Mate.

My husband poured out the last bit of creamer about a week ago and began searching for other alternatives such as silk soy milk creamer. He has also cut back his coffee intake dramatically. He went from about 50-60 ounces a day to only 16 ounces. He is eating oatmeal daily and has increased his intake of fruits and vegetables. He is also taking a fish oil/borage oil/flaxseed oil supplement as well as the 5000 IU's of Vitamin D that the doctor recommended. (We're still not sure of the reason behind this.)

He purchased a home cholesterol test after being off the creamer for about a week. His overall cholesterol was back to a normal level- 170. His LDL was still high and his HDL was still low, but the numbers were better than they had been. So we are seeing improvement. He will return to the doctor in a few weeks for an official retest. Taken from the same source above, "When you eat normal cis fats, the body metabolizes half of them in 18 days. When you eat trans fats the body requires 51 days to metabolize half of them. This means that half of the trans fats you eat today will still be inhibiting essential enzyme systems in your body 51 days from now." I'd like to see his blood work in a few months.

This has been an emotional roller coaster for me. I couldn't help but feel responsible. I cook his food and buy his groceries. The meals that I prepare for him are healthy and organic. I should have put my foot down with the creamer. It disgusts me. I can't imagine what would have happened if he kept drinking it. He had been drinking that creamer for about five years. It seems like a person could get away with smoking cigarettes longer than they could get away with drinking that partially hydrogenated POISON.

A lesson I would like you all to take from this: Read your labels. Do not overlook ingredients that you know are bad for you. If there is an ingredient you are not sure of, look it up. Even better, if you can't pronounce it, stay away from it. The shorter the ingredient list, the better. Health is a gift....savor it.