Have a garden?  Love getting fresh produce from the farmer’s market?  Always looking for new ways to use up some veggies (or get them into your kid’s diet)?  Giant zucchini’s seems to be plentiful this year, and when they start growing it’s like they multiply overnight.  Here’s a great recipe that incorporates some garden fresh vegetables, fiber, and healthy fat – canola oil utilized in Coasun’s shortening alternative, alongside flaxseed meal with the addition of some nuts and seeds.  (Recipe adapted from Bob’s Red Mill).

Recipe & Method:

1 ½ cup all purpose flour

¾ cup flax seed meal

¾ cup oat bran

1 cup brown sugar

2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/2 cups zucchini, shredded

2 hard pears peeled and shredded

¾- 1  cup inclusions (optional) (I used ¼ c. pumpkin seeds, ¼ c. hazelnuts, ¼ c. raisins/cranberries)

½ cup milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)

½ cup Coasun’s shortening alternative

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Pre-blend dry ingredients for 1 minute on speed ‘stir’ in your KitchenAid mixer
2. Cut Coasun’s shortening alternative into dry ingredients on speed ‘Sitr’ for 2 min.
3. Stir in zucchini, pears and nuts
4. Combine milk, egg and vanilla and add to mixer bowl
5. Fill muffin cups ¾ full.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes.

These “skinny” oatmeal raisin bars were inspired by a health blogger www.carrotsncake.com.  I took the recipe and modified it to be further skinnyfied using Coasun’s shortening alternative, and added some extra protein so the bars would classify as a well balanced snack all by themselves.  Overall they were delicious and I devoured them over the course of the day- sharing of course! They aren’t too sweet and I replaced ¼ of the raisins with dark chocolate chips, though that wasn’t further skinnying the bars it was a special treat and satisfied my cravings

Recipe:

“Skinny” Protein Oatmeal Raisin Bars

(inspired by www.carrotsncake.com)

Makes 18 bars

Ingredients:

4 cups dry oats

½ cup all-purpose flour

½ cup wheat bran

2 tbsp. flaxseed powder

¼ cup protein powder (vanilla adds some extra flavour)

½ cup packed brown sugar

¼ cup agave syrup

½  cup Coasun’s shortening alternative

2 eggs

2 egg whites (60g liquid egg white)

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 ¾ cup raisins

¼ cup dark chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350*F. Spray 9 x 13 inch baking pan with non-stick cooking spray.

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine ingredients until smooth.

3. Spread batter in prepared baking pan, and bake for approximately 20-25 minutes until bars are cooked all the way through.

4. Let bars cool completely in pan before cutting.

The following table summarizes the common fatty acids found in foods and indicates the current knowledge about their effect on the human body.

Fatty acids and known biological effect

This article summarized the nutritional differences between Coasun’s shortening alternative made with different liquid oils.  As mentioned in previous articles, CoasunSA can be made with any liquid vegetable oil or blend of oils. 

This enables you to tailor the nutritional profile of the fat in your products and manipulate the nutitrional claims and health claims the are presented with your product.

The table below summarized the nutritional information for a 100 gram sample of CoasunSA made with various oils including commonly available commodity oils and new fatty acid profile oils that are emerging.

By comparison typical partially hydrogenated shortenings containing trans and saturated fat have the following nutritional attributes:

By comparing CoasunSA made with commodity canola oil to typical shortening the dramatic difference in saturated and trans fat content is obvious.  CoasunSA contains significantly less saturated fat and virtually no trans fat. 

In the charts below CoasunSA made with canola oil is represented by the GREEN bar.

Caloric compparison between CoasunSA and typical shortenings per 100 gram sample

Saturated fat content comparison between CoasunSA and typical shortening per 100 gram sample

trans fat comparison between CoasunSA and typical shortening per 100 gram sample

Note:

All refined, bleached, and deodorized vegetable oils contain some trans fatty acids introduced by the deodorization process.  Typically vegetable oil refiners specification states that deodorized oil contains between 1% and 2% trans fatty acids.  In practice this may be less.

Trans fatty acid content in CoasunSA is even lower (roughly 40% less TFA) than what would normally be found in refined, bleached, and deodorized oils.

News coverage about the harmful effects of trans fatty acids in food products will influence consumers to stop purchasing these products for a short time (3 or 4 weeks).However, news coverage does not seem to impact long term purchasing behaviour for a majority of the population.

Although the RWJF study does not address saturated fats in food products it is reasonable to assume a similar phenomena could exist. Media attention directed to the negative impact of saturated fat from tropical oils such as palm fat may have a short term effect on purchasing decisions.

News coverage alone is apparently not enough to halt the epidemic of obesity, type II diabetes, and cardiovascular disease and the burden these health conditions present to public health systems. It seems that robust nutrition labelling and regulated advertising is necessary to ensure consumers get the best information possible over the long term.

The RWJF Health & Society Scholars Program is designed to build the USA’s capacity for research, leadership and policy change to address the broad range of factors that affect health. Information about the RWJF Health & Society Scholars Program, including application information, can be found at www.healthandsocietyscholars.org.

The following article is a reprint that can be found at: http://www.healthandsocietyscholars.org/1866/26872/56626 :

 20 April, 2009 

Trans Fat Prompts Shoppers to Avoid Certain Products-But Change in Shopping Habits Doesn’t Last Long
News coverage about the harmful effects of trans fat, combined with labeling information, may influence consumers’ short-term purchases of foods high in trans fat, but is not enough to prompt shoppers to avoid these potentially artery-clogging purchases over the long term, according to a study in the May issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
“Our study found that when consumers are exposed to information about the harmful effects of trans fat on the local news, they buy fewer products high in trans fat. In the absence of broader changes in food policy and public education, news coverage may be insufficient to produce lasting reductions in trans-fat purchases and consumption,” said Jeff Niederdeppe, Ph.D., who conducted the research as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at the University of Wisconsin, and is the lead author of the study, “News Coverage and Sales of Products with Trans Fat: Effects Before and After Changes in Federal Labeling Policy.”
In 2006, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandated that the amount of trans fat per serving be listed on nutrition labels. This federal policy requires food products to list the amount of trans fat if it exceeds 0.5 grams per serving. The study examined news effects on the sale of seven brand-specific products that contained trans fat at the time of the study, including buttered popcorn, vegetable shortening, buttermilk biscuits, sandwich cookies, stick margarine, crescent rolls and hotdogs.
For up to one week after the stories appeared, consumer purchases dropped significantly for six out of seven products, with hot dog purchases being the exception. Three weeks later, consumer purchases went back up for half of these products.
Trans fat is found in partially hydrogenated (partially hardened) oils and is associated with a substantially increased risk of coronary heart disease.
Efforts to reduce trans-fat consumption include the implementation of state and local laws to force the food industry to replace trans fat with more healthy liquid vegetable oils. The federal government has also taken steps to lower trans-fat consumption by requiring that the amount of trans fat be listed on nutrition labels for all conventional foods and dietary supplements. Many food companies have voluntarily reduced the amount of trans fat in their products since the labeling policy went into effect.
“While news coverage is a potentially valuable source of information, and one that can help the public to make informed decisions about their health, this study shows that news coverage alone is not enough to sustain changes in consumer behavior,” said Dominick L. Frosch, Ph.D., co-author of the study and an alumnus of the RWJF Health & Society Scholars Program. “Since the FDA labeling change, there has been no coordinated effort to educate the public about the dangers of trans fat.”
Frosch is an assistant professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles and an associate staff scientist at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation Research Institute.
Researchers examined news coverage about trans fat and sales data for seven products containing trans fat from a major grocery store chain in Los Angeles County, Calif., before and after the federal labeling change. A recurring theme of the news coverage included the relationship between trans fat consumption and coronary heart disease.
Los Angeles County was selected for the study’s location because it is served by a single major daily newspaper (the Los Angeles Times), had substantial news coverage about trans fat due to a pending state ban and represents an economically and ethnically diverse population.