Just moved, and was surprised to learn that trans fats are still a thing in Japan.
Today, I was looking at the label for family marts grilled black pepper chicken breast. I see they use vegetable oil(which could have trans fats), but don’t describe what oil or how much trans fats there are.
Is there a way to know what foods have trans fat? I’ll avoid the fried foods for sure, but am hoping to find more nutritional info about the other foods.
Thanks in advance!
17 comments
You know konbini food is garbage filled with sugar and salt, right ?
While I do see Google results for trans-fats in vegetable oils, I don’t understand why there would be.
Trans-fats are unnatural bonds that form during hydrogenation of oils to increase their viscosity. But why would (regular/liquid) vegetable oil be hydrogenated at all? I would wager anything that is labelled as vegetable oil is low in trans-fats. I’d mainly worry about margarine and vegetable-based shortening.
Anyone care to update my understanding?
Why are you shopping for “nutritious foods” in a fucking FamilyMart? Go to a supermarket and buy/cook your own stuff.
that’s the thing! you don’t! apparently the jp gov doesnt want you to know
I just avoid anything that’s suspicious (has margarine/shortening/vegetable oil and needs thickening [cookies, ice cream, peanut butter, those curry blocks etc])
I’m a Japanese person with some mindfulness to healthy foods and I have never considered combini food to be healthy.
Do you know how awful the industry competition is in the combini world? Constant shrinkflation, thinning out ingredients, skirting the legal lines with additives to eek out a bit more calorie per yen than the competitors, and so on.
I’ve been around long enough to know fami-chickens that were twice the size, used whole and un-trimmed breasts, and going for 128 yen. I remember 7-eleven breads that had fillings going all the way through the bread instead of just having tiny knobs sticking out from the ends. Sandwiches were properly filled too. This was 15 years ago.
Calorie numbers on the back of the packaging never seems to go down, though. So you tell me, how much trans fats do you think combini foods have?
Convenience stores = paying more for saving time. And unless it’s a banana or eggs, it is processed or adulterated in some way. It’s generally a reasonable trade off. If you eat from there too often there are risks but once or twice a week is no big deal for most people. (Famichicki soo good, though.)
Some of the comments are pretty funny. Yah, convenience store food is…convenient but, mostly, unhealthy and can get pricey. But the struggle of being new to Japan means you might not have access to healthy food whether it’s a supermarket or things to cook with. Given that…I don’t know how to check for trans fats myself, 😂. I tend to poach chicken myself rather that buy it. I’m cheap and hungry.
If it’s from the grill counter, you guess is as good as mine.
If it contains fats at all, probably the same.
If it’s chocolate… depends on manufacturer.
In short, you’re only safe if you buy something that has no fat at all.
To answer your (fair) question op – you can’t.
That said if you’re eating it in quantities/frequency where it could have a noticeable health impact then you probably need to rethink your choices/habits rather than what’s in them.
トランス脂肪、マーガリン、ショートニング、are the usual label for trans fat.
Veggie oil might not be trans fat, because some of them could be made cold-press. If it makes you feel better, Japanese live the longest life consuming veggie oil, I wouldn’t worry too much about it if you just eat it once in a while. To add, veggie oil is the least of your concern in that chicken, there are other substances, especially the one that tenderize the chicken, that are more harmful to the body.
If you really want to avoid them, you should cook yourself, can’t complain “no time”, if you care for your own health.
If you want fresher konbini food, look for a Daily Yamazaki DailyHot (some locations don’t say DailyHot).
They have their own kitchen and a special rotating menu of homemade obento items.
Hint: If you want healthy foods, a convenience store should probably not be the place you’re looking for them in.
Also consider buying pasco bread exclusively if you buy shokupan and can’t get decent whole grain; all the others put margarine or weird things in the bread.
worked part time in seven eleven and family mart for four years. needless to say I only eat occasional onigiri from combini now.
Well, nonetheless I can see a lot of office folks carrying bentos form seven/fami, so they eat conbini food at least once a day, 5 days a week, every week. Not everyone has enough lunch time to spend in a line waiting for the restaurant meal.
Guinness doesn’t have trans fat. And it’s good for you.
so are you transphobic?