Crisco And Margarine: The Medical Establishment Changes Its Mind

In the 20th century, hydrogenated or partially-hydrogenated vegetable oil (safflower, soybean, etc.) began to be used and praised in America. The public was warned by the medical community and the government to avoid time-tested foods like real butter (Genesis 18:8, 2 Samuel 17:29, Job 29:6, Isaiah 7:15, etc.), etc. “Butter is dangerous for your heart,” we were told. Certainly, pesticides, and cows raised in pens, instead of being grass-fed, limited the nutritional qualities of much that was sold as butter. But at least people were eating a real food. We might also add that there are much healthier things in the universe than pork lard! But at least it was “food.” But then came the scare!

Millions switched to (supposedly) “heart healthy” hydrogenated oils (e.g. margarine, Crisco, etc.). These were imitation foods. Suddenly, almost every packaged product on the shelves contained hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. Almost every restaurant used them, and even boasted in them: “We use heart-friendly vegetable oil.” Americans could indulge in fried foods without having to worry about unhealthy pig lard. They could now enjoy fried foods at the local diner (fried potatoes, fried sandwiches, fried everything). It was all fried in 100% vegetable oil (partially hydrogenated oil).

The process of hydrogenation was used in 1907 for soaps and candles! But why not use the new, easy-to-make product for food? Crisco was first sold to the public for food consumption in 1911. It was later marketed to “sophisticated women” as the “new thing.” It was the dawning of the chemical, imitation age. And many women were ready to cut off their hair, as well as try the new, imitation, cheap foods. There were no more odors. It was easy to use. And hardly anyone (at least at first) questioned whether the partially hydrogenated oils in Crisco (the trans fats) were healthy. To these women, Crisco made as much sense as the newly invented appliances.

This new product made many “food” companies very happy. They could now fill their products with hydrogenated oils and thereby prolong the shelf-life of their processed foods (i.e. bugs will eat real food, but they do not like to eat plastic!). Housewives were told that these new “fats” were “easy to digest” by the children. Mothers were made to feel that they were not being “thoughtful” unless they jumped on the new bandwagon. Notice a newspaper article in 1922. Watch for the propaganda. I have placed important words in capital letters:

“The fats they need – now easy to digest – what this digestible shortening means to THOUGHTFUL mothers: That ‘hollow-legged’ son of yours! That gentle, shy little daughter! What a glad RESPONSIBILITY is their rearing! We know, for example, that buoyant health, in middle life often depends on childhood food – on mother’s LOVING supervision of the kitchen. DR. ROBERT HUTCHISON (the English AUTHORITY) says that your 14 year old boy needs practically as much food as a grown-up man. But he stresses the need for SPECIAL DIGESTIBILITY in the child’s foods…Many OFFICIAL investigators interested primarily in the health of our American children have made this discovery…So, nowadays, WELL-INFORMED mothers appreciate the importance of DIGESTIBILITY in family foods…In homes where the mother herself keeps a WATCHFUL eye on the family health you will find that CRISCO is displacing less digestible fats. These mothers prefer – because of its digestibility – this vegetable shortening, Crisco. Crisp, easily digested fried foods! Wholesome, delicious cakes, pies and cookies. What a real comfort to bake and to fry with Crisco – free from ANXIOUS DOUBTS about the digestibility of the foods you serve…UP-TO-DATE grocers everywhere take real pleasure in selling this HEALTHFUL food ingredient – Crisco.” (“The Oakland Tribune,” Aug. 6, 1922)

Proctor & Gamble offered a free cookbook that replaced traditional fats with the new Crisco. They used pictures of smiling, happy children, with an open Crisco-tub in the foreground. This is how it all began: Mothers who use Crisco will keep their house smelling fresh; there will be no smoke; it costs less, since you use less; and, most of all, the children will be healthier!:

“[In] New York City…the Bureau of Child Hygiene estimated that 216,000 school children, prosperous and poor alike, were seriously under-nourished.” (“The Oakland Tribune,” May 15, 1922)

And what was the suggested answer for this problem? Switch to Crisco! (And why not “bob” your hair while you are at it? After all, “everyone is doing it!”). It was marketed to sophisticated mothers (i.e. the new generation) as the “prized kitchen companion” (sounds like a devil!). It “stays sweet and fresh,” (“Modesto News-Herald,” January 9, 1926). Indeed, this was another main reason why so many women switched; you could reuse it more than just two or three times (like liquid plastic!).

The worst part of all of this was that the medical establishment (the people who pride themselves on saving the “common people” from quackery and scams) led the way into the jaws of death and disease:

“No one among you – though the picture of health now – can really afford to cook without Crisco. Crisco is HEALTH-VALUE…Crisco itself digests quickly – doesn’t overtax your stomach!…Why Crisco is quick-digesting – recommended by MANY DOCTORS – When you open a can of Crisco it’s like looking at glossy, molded cream. By a MODERN MIRACLE, pure, wholesome vegetable oils are creamed into the lightest, creamiest shortening you can imagine…It stays sweet and fresh without refrigeration!…{IT] SAVES THE FOOD FROM BECOMING FATTENING. DOCTORS KNOW THIS – that’s why they often ADVISE frying foods with Crisco!…” (“The Mansfield News Journal,” March 22, 1935)

Few thought to ask why it does not stay in the stomach for digesting; the answer is probably that none of the millions of critters in the stomach want anything to do with it! Few thought to ask why it stays fresh without refrigeration! It wasn’t really food! (The bugs were smarter than modern humans).

It was not long before there was an epidemic of heart disease in America, as never before. And what did the medical establishment suggest? Did they examine Crisco and margarine? No. They silenced the people who tried to warn the public. And instead of confessing their errors, they suggested that the best way to avoid this new epidemic of heart disease was to, “Eat more partially-hydrogenated vegetable oils and margarine!” Notice the “professional” advice in 1972:

“Most shortenings, cooking and salad oils on the market are lightly hydrogenated because, of the desirability (from the viewpoint of ‘HEART HEALTH’) to replace a good amount of the saturated fats of the diet with polyunsaturated fats.” (“In Defense of the Nitrates”; Long Beach “Independent,” November, 30, 1972)

After millions had died or become ill for many decades, and the information could no longer be suppressed, and lawsuits were soon to arise, many experts began to give new advice:

“Admonished for decades to cut back on saturated fats to lower their cholesterol, millions of Americans made sensible dietary changes that they thought would protect their hearts. They switched from butter to margarine, looked for ‘made with pure vegetable shortening’ on packages of baked and fried products, sought fast foods that were not fried in beef fat and many even gave up eating meat….But now they are hearing disturbing news that margarine may not be so good for the heart after all, that vegetable shortening is even less advantageous than margarine, that at least some of the saturated fat in red meat does not raise cholesterol…It is enough to make a health-conscious person wonder whether to return to the eggs-butter-cream-and-steak diet…In a report this month from the continuing Nurses’ Health Study at the Harvard School of Public Health, frequent consumption of margarine and vegetable shortening was linked to a 50 percent higher rate of coronary deaths…” (“The Mountain Democrat,” May 10, 1993)

“Trans Fatty Acids and Coronary Heart Disease – By the early 1990s it became apparent that the consumption of trans fatty acids (hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils) had uniquely adverse effects on blood lipid levels in metabolic studies and was associated with an INCREASED RISK OF CORONARY HEART DISEASE…Many fast foods contain high levels of trans fatty acids, are exempt from labeling regulations, and can even be advertised as cholesterol-free and cooked in vegetable oil.” (“The New England Journal of Medicine,” June 24, 1999 Vol. 340, No. 25)

“In short, trans fats are poisons, just like arsenic or cyanide. They interfere with the metabolic processes of life by taking the place of a natural substance that performs a critical function. And that is the definition of a poison. Your body has no defense against them…Walking down supermarket aisles in America, you find product after product with partially hydrogenated oil – often in products you would never expect. But why not? After all, it’s cheaper than butter. And it’s not illegal. Yet. When you eat out, restaurant breads and fried foods are loaded with stuff. As a result, Americans are consuming soybean oil -partially hydrogenated soybean oil – in virtually everything they eat. It’s no wonder that America is experiencing epidemic levels of diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and cancer…Now, deep frying all by itself is pretty bad. After all, you are applying a lot of heat. But if that heat is applied to a saturated fat, there is a limit to how much harm it can do…For commercial deep frying, though, butter is prohibitively expensive. Things were better when foods were fried in beef tallow and coconut oil, because they had a lot of flavor and the saturated fats aren’t harmed by the heat. But all that saturated fat sounds bad, so restaurants switched to partially hydrogenated vegetable oils…the absolute worst commercial frying is done by the fast-food chains, who almost uniformly do their deep frying in cheap, deadly partially hydrogenated oil.” (http://www.treelight.com/health/nutrition/PartiallyHydrogenatedOils.html)

In light of this new research, notice how supermarket chains have changed their tune! For example, Kroger now recommends that you beware of many of the products in its store that have hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils:

“Margarine was developed in the late 1800s as an inexpensive alternative to butter. Typically margarine is made from one or more partially hydrogenated vegetable oils (soy, corn, sunflower, or safflower), but it may also contain animal fats. Packaged baked goods, crackers and chips. Most processed foods contain partially hydrogenated soybean, coconut, or palm oil. Vegetable shortening…Among the most important dietary changes in protecting arteries from atherosclerosis is avoiding foods that contain trans fatty acids (margarine, some vegetable oil and many processed foods containing vegetable oil). Increasingly, the importance of avoiding trans fatty acids is being accepted by the scientific community. Leading researchers have recently begun to view the evidence linking trans fatty acids to markers for heart disease as ‘unequivocal.’…Margarine consumption is linked to increased risk of unfavorable changes in cholesterol levels and heart disease. Therefore, margarine and other processed foods containing partially hydrogenated oil should be avoided.” (http://www.kroger.com/hn/Food_Guide/Trans_Fats.htm)

This is amazing advice! But it is not quite as amazing as the new advice given by the American Heart Association:

“Effective Jan. 1, 2006, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires food companies to list trans fat content separately on the Nutrition Facts panel of all packaged foods…This labeling requirement applies only to packaged food products, NOT FOODS SERVED AT RESTAURANTS. However, it is important to note that the FDA is extending the trans fat deadline for those companies who seek a petition. Therefore, consumers should be aware that just because they do not see trans fat on the label of the product, does not mean that the product is trans free…Trans fat (also called trans fatty acids) is formed when liquid vegetable oils go through a chemical process called hydrogenation, in which hydrogen is added to make the oils more solid. Hydrogenated vegetable fats are used by food processors because they allow longer shelf-life and give food desirable taste, shape, and texture…The majority of trans fat can be found in shortenings, stick (or hard) margarine, cookies, crackers, snack foods, fried foods (including fried fast food), doughnuts, pastries, baked goods, and other processed foods made with or fried in partially hydrogenated oils. EVIDENCE SUGGESTS that consumption of trans fat raises LDL (‘bad’) cholesterol levels and lowers HDL (‘good’) cholesterol levels, CAUSING THE ARTERIES TO BECOME CLOGGED and increasing the risk of developing heart disease and stroke.” (http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4776)

And there you have it! Quietly, with no apology, they simply tell you, “By the way, make sure that you don’t take the advice that we professionals have been bombarding you with for many decades. It will kill you!”

Meanwhile, even many hospitals feed their sick patients this “life-giving,” “healthy, creamy margarine! (After all, it keeps the customers coming back, doesn’t it?):

“Trans fatty acids, also known as trans fat, is an artery-clogging fat that is formed when vegetable oils are hardened into margarine or shortening. It is found in many other foods besides margarine and shortening, however, including fried foods like french fries and fried chicken, doughnuts, cookies, pastries and crackers. In the United States, typical french fries have about 40 percent trans fatty acids and many popular cookies and crackers range from 30 percent to 50 percent trans fatty acids. Doughnuts have about 35 percent to 40 percent trans fatty acids…Trans fat is known to increase blood levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL), or ‘bad’ cholesterol, while lowering levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL), known as ‘good’ cholesterol. It can also cause major clogging of arteries, type 2 diabetes and other serious health problems, and was found to increase the risk of heart disease. Many food companies use trans fat instead of oil because it reduces cost, extends storage life of products and can improve flavor and texture…” (Dr. Joseph Mercola, “Trans-Fat: What Exactly is it, and Why is it so Dangerous?”)

“Investigators reviewed medical and dietary data from more than 84,000 women who did not have diabetes, heart disease or cancer when the study began in 1980. Results show that intake of total fat, saturated fat and monounsaturated fat found in nuts, seeds and avocados did not influence diabetes risk. But a 2% increase in calories from trans fatty acids RAISED THE RISK BY 39%…(American Journal of Clinical Nutrition June 2001;73:1001-1002, 1019-1026)…Believe me, folks, you do not want to mess around with trans fats. They are one of the worst things that you could be eating, no matter how good they taste.” (Mercola, “Trans Fats, NOT Saturated Fats, Increase Diabetes Risk”)

“Both primate and human studies have shown inappropriate handling of blood sugar; trans fatty acids decrease the response of the red blood cell to insulin, thus having a potentially undesirable effect in diabetics. The primate research was initiated at Maryland in collaboration with the U. S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health, and the human research is from the University of Pittsburgh and quite recent…Recent research from outside the U. S. has indicated that trans fatty acids interfere with reproductive attributes and of concern is the finding that trans fatty acids lower the amount of cream (volume) in milk from lactating females in all species studies including humans, thus lowering the overall quality available to the infant. The latter research was done at Maryland by my colleague Dr. Beverly Teter…Dr. Ancel Keys had originally claimed that the partially hydrogenated vegetable oils with their trans fatty acids were the CULPRITS IN HEART DISEASE. This was in 1958, and the edible oils industry was very swift in their squelching of that information; they shifted the emphasis to ‘saturated’ fat and started the phony attack on meat and dairy fats.” (Dr. Mary Enig Interviewed By Richard A. Passwater, Ph.D.; Mercola)

What is the moral of all of this? The moral is that we should always trust our Bible – even when it speaks about physical health and food! If the Bible says an egg is good (Luke 11:12-13), then it is good, regardless of what the medical community thinks about it! If Jesus ate butter as a child, and the Bible speaks of it as a good thing (Isaiah 7:15), then it is certainly good for us. We should, of course, make sure that these foods come from healthy animals that have not been abused, poisoned or fed chemicals, blood or trash. But the foods themselves are good, regardless of what the doctors or scientists teach.

There are many Christians that will laugh at scientists who teach that we come from monkeys. But any scientist who teaches that Bible foods are in themselves bad for us should be rejected in the same manner. At the same time, we must beware of marketing hype, and be sure to read labels and understand them (yet we must know that sometimes these food companies have been given freedom to lie on their labels).

The Bible is true on every subject upon which it speaks, whether it is geography, science, astronomy, history, nutrition, health or salvation! And when “science” disagrees with the Bible, you can be sure that you are dealing with “science falsely so called” (1 Timothy 6:20). It should be immediately rejected. The so-called wisdom has probably been purchased in order to make more money to the hurt of millions of people (1 Timothy 6:10).

I am not at all preaching down to the generation of my fathers who were raised on Crisco, margarine, high-fructose-corn-syrup (things outlawed in many other countries of the world), white sugar and white flour, etc. I also grew up on most of these things. It saddens me to think of those who have already passed away, as well as my dear brethren who are already sick, or who are getting sick. My point in this it may not be too late to change, and have some productive years added to our lives. And we should learn that we cannot trust the medical establishment and the “authorities.” Anyone who says that we can trust them needs to explain why the people of America were indoctrinated for 80 years with advice to give up their wholesome foods and replace them with imitation foods that these same professionals now tell us will give you diabetes and heart disease! Where is the apology? Where is the national outcry? Men have become too passive. Our forefathers at the start of the 20th century were led to believe that professionals would do the thinking for them in many areas. They left the thinking to women, and abandoned their leadership roles. And the women were puffed up with pride by the marketers who crept into houses with their soap operas and advertisements. They made the women feel that it was all up to them – and that to save their homes, they MUST listen to the professionals. Therefore, Granny’s butter was thrown out, and Crisco replaced it. The Bible was thrown out, and Dr. Spock’s psycho-babble replaced it (i.e. “spanking only creates rebels”). Finally, once the women were led to abandon their homes, the family’s nutritional health was left in the hands of fast-food restaurants and pre-packaged, card-board products, filled with hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils, chemicals, dyes, refined sugar or fructose, etc. But maybe it was all a great conspiracy to keep from having to pay out so much social security to the baby-boomer generation.