The development and popularity of artificial fat is linked to more cases of Type II diabetes. If you only know the history of margarine, artificial lard, and other processed fats, you will know what this means.
Understanding the Type II Diabetes Statistics
In 1880, there are only about 2.8 cases of diabetes per 100,000 persons. The rate rose to about 29.7 in 1949. However, in that same year, another report says that there are only 16.4 cases of diabetes per 100,000 people. No one can’t tell which statistics is correct because at that time, there is neither Type I nor Type II diabetes—only diabetes.
Today, around 10% to 20% of the world population has diabetes. Just see the far difference of this statistics from the roughly 0.0028% diabetics in 1880.
And, as many studies and researches said, this increased in diabetes cases is linked to the reengineering of our natural food supply.
The Food Industry and Type II Diabetes
As the world progresses, our health suffers. It’s evident with the different diseases we have now because of our food—because of man’s constant research on how to extend the shelf life of certain food.
It was noted in a certain study that some essential nutrients that foods naturally have are lost when these are processed and preserved. If we’ll look closely to the developments in the food industry, we’ll notice that the boom of preserved, processed, and artificial foods is surprisingly the same period when man have discovered diseases like the Type II diabetes.
Napoleon and the Margarine
The very first instance when people used artificial foods in their tables is way back the time of Napoleon. Napoleon launched a contest for the best palatable table fat invention. The Frenchman, Hippolyte Mege-Mouries invented a “palatable table fat” known today as Margarine. This invention was patented in 1869 in England.
Shockingly true, but the first ever Margarine is far way edible in today’s standard. In fact, when it was introduced in America in 1874, consumers never liked the taste of Margarine. Just imagine how would a combination of casein, gypsum, mashed potatoes, bleach, fat, gelatin, and hog fat taste eatable.
Invention of More Artificial Oil
In 1899, the cottonseed oil was developed by David Wesson. He marketed this oil as Wesson oil. Although this oil provided a cheaper alternative to olive oil and other cooking oil at that time, cottonseed oil is slowly compromising the health of those who eat this.
According to its detractors, cottonseed oil should not be considered a food, in the first place. It’s full of pesticides as well considering that growing cottons require too many pesticides. But still, cottonseed oil is so popular for potato chips and other junk food because it helps the food have a longer shelf life.
In 1903, the hydrogenation process was patented by William Norman. This process turned unsaturated fatty acids to saturated fats.
More artificial oil was developed after that—Crisco, transfat, and others to name a few.
People continued using these artificial fats believing that these will not cause any harm for the health. The health consequence is not immediately obvious, anyway. People even don’t realize that even insects stay away from these artificial fats because of the many pesticides included to these.
But the good news is, people are slowly being enlightened about the truth on using artificial fat. With the increasing number of Type II diabetes cases, people will surely become aware, whether they like it or not. You should not wait until you become a diabetes victim before you care about your health. It will be too late if you do.