Are you thinking of heading over to Long John Silver’s for a “Big Catch” meal?
Don’t.
I understand that a business is there to serve the needs of it’s customers but this is ridiculous.
The “Big Catch” is a combination platter of fried fish, onion rings, and hush puppies. Now look, we know no one is ever going to mistake this for health food, however, this is extreme, even for fast food.
The calorie count is 1,320…not awful, however when you dive into the details, it gets a little scary.
According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, the “Big Catch” has a jaw dropping 33 grams of trans fats!!! This is more trans fat than you should eat in forever…never mind one meal.
To round out the excellence there were 19 grams of saturated fat, just about a day’s worth and 3,700 mg of Sodium, about two days worth.
Plenty of foods are high in saturated fat and sodium, however, I have never, ever seen a meal that has 33 grams of trans fat. For those of you that just discovered the internet, trans fat has been considered public enemy #1 in the food arena for some time. In a nutshell trans fats lower your good cholesterol and raise your bad cholesterol. Diabetes, heart disease, and stroke are all linked to trans fat consumption. Those are bad things.
Walter C. Willett, chair of the nutrition department at the Harvard School of Public Health, said in a press release. “It might have been defensible to use hydrogenated oil in the 1980s, before trans fat’s harmfulness was discovered, but no longer. It is outrageous that Long John Silver’s foods are still loaded with artificial trans fat and that the FDA still permits it in foods.”
This brings us to a slippery slope. Where do we draw the line? Who draws the line? Personally, I see no reason to keep using hydrogenated oils that lead to these high trans fat meals. These oils are used because they are cheaper. While one may save a little now, what is the price on the public in terms of medical care for strokes, diabetes and heart disease.
It is time to outlaw partially hydrogenated oil. It serves absolutely no good and it’s time has run it’s course.
