Deep fried Oreos! Is this a joke?

The first time I heard someone mention deep fried Oreos, I thought they were kidding.

Could it be that someone came up with the idea to take an Oreo (a combo of white flour, sugar, chocolate and hydrogenated fat) and toss it in a vat of trans fat to make such an artery, liver and brain-clogging end result? WOAH! It’s no wonder we’re facing a health care crisis. There’s no easy antidote for deep fried Oreos.

In the food industry, the balance between saturated and unsaturated fats has been totally out of hand for some time. Now the carnivals and county fairs have gotten into the act with traveling deep fried Oreo concessions.

Some time ago, the food industry played Frankenstein and created hydrogenation. During this process, a canister of hydrogen gas is positioned below a vat of oil, and the hydrogen gas is allowed to bubble up into the oil. In this way, some of the oil molecules can be convinced to bond with additional hydrogen atoms and unsaturated fatty acids can be transformed into saturated ones. This transformation produces a semi-solid fat that is less likely to go rancid. The business benefit is a product with a longer shelf life. The added cost to consumers comes down the road, in weight gain and poor health.

Hydrogenation not only lowers the quality of the oil by removing some of its delicate unsaturated fatty acids, it actually converts some of the unsaturated fatty acids into a new form, known as trans fats. This unhealthy trans – formation is a big step away from nature and towards the artery-hardening end result.

Barb Jarmoska