I found out that Cool Whip is low in calories and has no trans fat or cholesertol. I use it now for parfaits in the morning instead of cereal. Feels like a guilty pleasure, but it's not!!!

This is not a good food choice at all, livestronger.

Last I viewed a cool whip label a "serving size" is rather small. Within that, there are 3 or 3.5 gms of carbs. Withing that are hydrogenated (trans) fat and high fructose corn syrup. Check it out here.

BTW, there's nothing unsafe about ingesting cholesterol. Dietary cholesterol does not raise blood cholesterol.

You're much better off buying some heavy cream and adding some stevia or other artificial sweetener and whipping it up. (you can sprinkle some gelatin over the cream before whipping to keep it stablized - not prone to separation on storage.)

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almost every variety of cool whip is made with high frutose corn syrup, including the "lite and "free" versions; even the "sugar free" variety contains regular corn syrup. (nuturition info under the "learn more links - http://www.kraftfoods.com/coolwhip/CoolWhipProducts.htm)

homemade whipped cream with truly sugar free sweetners, consumed in moderation, is a much better LC choice.

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oops. we posted at the same time.

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Aww, it can't be that bad. And besides, just because it has hydrogenated oil, doesn't mean it has trans fat. The truth is that only partially hydrogenated oil has trans fat. I think we should give it another try.

Hydrogenated oil equals trans fat. See the FDA fact sheet on trans fats:

What Every Consumer Should Know About Trans Fatty Acids

A quote from the page:
"Q: How can consumers know if a product contains trans fat if it's not identified on the nutrition label?
A: Consumers can know if a food contains trans fat by looking at the ingredient list on the food label. If the ingredient list includes the words "shortening," "partially hydrogenated vegetable oil" or "hydrogenated vegetable oil," the food contains trans fat. Because ingredients are listed in descending order of predominance, smaller amounts are present when the ingredient is close to the end of the list."

And from Wikipedia:

Unlike other dietary fats, trans fats are neither essential nor salubrious[1] and, in fact, the consumption of trans fats increases one's risk of coronary heart disease[2] by raising levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol and lowering levels of "good" HDL cholesterol. [3] Health authorities worldwide recommend that consumption of trans fat be reduced to trace amounts. Trans fats from partially hydrogenated oils are more deleterious than naturally occurring oils.[4]

And Cool Whip also has corn syrup, which is dangerous in any amount:

The Double Danger of High Fructose Corn Syrup

Besides, why would anyone settle for fake whipped cream when you can whip up the real thing in just seconds?

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Nita

well, livestronger, i'm certainly not going to tell you what to eat...! if you do have issues with losses on your low carb plan, however, i would suggest that any form of sugar intake is an excellent place to start looking for potential problems.

high frutose corn syrup IS sugar. this is what they use to sweenten most soda with...for me, sugar is addictive and dangerous and were I to start consuming sugar again regularly, i believe without question my hundred-pound loss would come raging back and i'd be back right where i was a few years ago, staring down a case of diabetes. heck, even the times i tried "just a little" here and there of the stuff i used to eat, i gained weight and lost some of my sense of control. it's just not worth it to me to monkey around with the gifts lc has given me.

so no, i'm personally not going to give cool whip "another chance." while i certainly wish the company no ill, i value my own health too much to eat the kinds of stuff i used to live on.

but like everything else, people have to make their own choices. i wish you the best in making yours.

peace out.

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Here is a quote discussing hydrogenated oil.
"Hydrogenated oil is made by forcing hydrogen gas into oil at high pressure. Both animal and vegetable fats can be and are hydrogenated. In general, the more solid the oil is, the more hydrogenated it is. Two common examples of hydrogenated oil are Crisco and margarine. In the 1990s, it was realized that these products might have deleterious health effects, a tragic irony since they were originally produced and promoted as being healthier than conventional oils.
The unstable fatty acids in oils happen to be unsaturated fats, which have been determined to be healthier for consumers, acting to reduce cholesterol in some cases. When hydrogenated oil is made, these healthy fats are converted into a new type of fatty acid, known as a trans fat. Trans fats are not at all good for one's health. In some highly hydrogenated oils like margarine, trans fats can make up almost half of the total fat content.
Trans fatty acids work to increase LDL, or "bad" cholesterol, and they also decrease HDL cholesterol, which is "good" cholesterol. This means that the fats in hydrogenated oil are far more damaging than even saturated fats, which medical professionals have already determined to be harmful. There is also evidence to suggest that trans fatty acids may bioaccumulate in the body, because the digestive system has difficulty figuring out what to do with them. As a result, a diet high in trans fats will result in weight gain."

Based on the nutritional label on Cool Whip, which lists 0 trans fat, and since the only fat listed is hydrogenated oil, I have a question as to the accuracy of the nutritional label on the product

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Henry

Henry, I read somewhere that if a label says 0 trans fat, then it can have trans fat (just like items with 0 carbs can have less than one carb), but if the label says No trans fat, then it doesn't contain any trans fat. We'd all assume that 0 means zip, zilch, nada, but in the case of nutritional data, I guess not!

With corn syrup, when I had my allergy to all things corn related, just a little would cause me to break out in huge hives, so if the label says corn syrup when it claims sugar free, I avoid it, just to be safe. Don't need no stinkin' hives!

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Nita

Nita, what I was musing about was that the nutritional label lists 0 trans fat. However, it also lists 1 gram of fat per serving. As hydrogenated oil was the only fat listed in the ode to modern chemistry on the ingredient list, and hydrogenated oil is a trans fat, I was not sure of the accuracy of the label.

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Henry

It's a marketing ploy to get people to buy the product, thinking that they are getting a "healthy" food. Most people don't read the nutritional label; they just look at the blurb on the front. If it says zero trans fat, then they truly believe it's zero. And I suppose most people wouldn't worry about a fraction of a gram, either. Only those of us who actually read those labels would spot the inaccuracy there.

It reminds me of my sister-in-law, who was told to eat more fiber, so instead of buying white bread, they bought "wheat" bread, which had the same amount of fiber as the white bread. I pointed this out to her, and told her to buy whole grain bread, and read the label! They just assumed that since it said "wheat" bread, it had more fiber. Good grief, all bread is made from wheat, they just dye white bread and call it "wheat" bread to make people think they're getting something more nutritious. And I think we've all been guilty of buying something without reading the nutritional label, thinking we're getting something good when it's really nothing but garbage. Now I read all the labels, even stuff I've bought for years, because you never know when they are going to change the formula and change it all up.

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Nita

Wow! Cool Whip really started a fire storm! LOL!

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