Thick N Fit Kitchen: What Are Mono- And Diglycerides
Hi Queens!
Welcome back to my Thick N Fit Kitchen! For this week’s tip I wanted to bring your attention to an important food additive that could be impacting your health and fitness results…
This additive is called mono- and diglycerides. Many food companies like to use it to preserve their food for longer, and it is commonly used in ice creams, whipped creams, and baked goods -- basically all the good shit.
But many people are not aware of the fact that mono- and diglycerides are linked to trans fat, which is an extremely unhealthy fat that should be avoided.
Mono- and diglycerides are part of the trans fatty acid family. However, because they have different properties than the fatty acid that makes up trans fat, many companies do not have to count it as being a trans fat on their labels due to a loophole (you can read more about ithere).
So unfortunately this means that there are many foods that can be labeled as containing 0% trans fat, but still contain trans fat.
Know the food industry sucks. So the greatest piece of advice that I could give to you this week is to be mindful of the ingredients of some of your favorite foods, and check to see:
if they contain mono- and diglycerides
how far up on the ingredients list are the mono and diglycerides?
For those of you that are unfamiliar to how ingredients lists are organized, they go from the most used ingredients at the top all the way down to the least used ingredients at the bottom. So for instance I used to eat these Lenny & Larry's complete cookies until I realized that they not only used vegetable monoglycerides (along with palm oil which is another unhealthy ingredient), but the vegetable monoglycerides were really high up on the ingredients list (along with many other ingredients that were unfamiliar to me).
So I decided to kick the cookies to the curb. However, if any of you follow me on Instagram then you KNOW how obsessed I've been recently over this brand-new Reddi-whip non-dairy whipped cream. And like I mentioned earlier, most whipped creams from a can contain mono- and diglycerides.
But I'm always trying to straddle the balance of being healthy and human, and given that the mono- and diglycerides are pretty low, and I'm eating a low serving of whipped cream typically, I was comfortable with leaving it in my diet. But I definitely try to eat it much more in moderation.
So my Thick N Fit Kitchen homework for you this week is to take a peek into some of the foods that you like to eat a lot, and double check to see if they contain mono- and diglycerides, and how high up on the ingredients list they are. If it's pretty high on the ingredients list, and you consume a lot of it regularly, you might want to reconsider how much of it you consume on a daily basis.
I think it's so important when you're adopting a healthy lifestyle to not abandon foods that you love, because it's all about creating a sustainable lifestyle. I would just make sure that you eat it more in moderation, or as a treat every now and then.
I hope you found this tip helpful, and don't forget to follow me on Instagram to catch my next tip!
In love, peace, and unapologetic thickness!