Jinja and Shoga: Life in the Land of the Rising Sun

    Lo and behold, a miracle: I have actually discovered trans fat-free bread somewhere other than in the organic store here! Admittedly, it's still comprised of 100% white flour and the package proudly boasts that it contains real cream, but baby steps are being made! Maybe one day we'll be able to buy whole wheat bread made with canola or olive oil....until then, I'll keep baking my own. (If you're confused about trans fats and why I hate them so, refer to this Mayo Clinic article.)
   Sadly, the trans fat manufacturers pulled one over on me last weekend...I'll blame it on lack of sleep, but when trying to purchase some cheese for pizza and discovering that our usual brand was out, I grabbed a package bragging that it had 50% less cholesterol than regular cheese. Should've realized then and there that it contained hydrogenated oils, but I was in such a hurry and so tired that it didn't register until we got home. Yuki looked it up online after being unable to figure out some of the listed ingredients (my suspicions were aroused by that point, so I asked him to translate for me), and it's produced by a margarine manufacturer. I pretty much lost it at that point, seeing as the oven was already preheating for dinner. Thankfully, my wonderful husband saved the day by running back out for some real cheese...after telling me to just pitch the offending and unhealthy fake stuff. So 800 yen went into the trash can, but I figure it was cheaper than the medical bills we could've incured from eating it. Lesson learned: if it's dairy product in Japan and the ingredient list isn't short, it likely contains man-made trans fats!
   

                  The label says 'Please enjoy this Melting Shred with pizza, toast, and gratin, etc'. Or you could just eat a bucket of rat poison and save yourself the trouble.