Yet Another Reason Not to Support the Heart and Stroke Foundation

Sarah Polley has pulled her name from a short movie she shot for The Heart and Stroke Foundation.  Polley agreed to make the movie, believing that she was supporting the foundation and its work.  When she later learned that the movie short, due to air during the Academy Awards, would be used to promote one of the Heart and Stroke Foundation's major sponsors, Becel margarine, Polley removed her name from the project.

Right, you read that correctly.  The Heart and Stroke Foundation is working with Unilever, Becel's parent company, to tell us what to eat to keep our hearts in tip-top shape.  Margarine.  Unilever has emphasized the 'heart healthy' effects of Becel because, they say, it has no trans fats.  What they don't talk about is what is in there: a plastic tub full of modified palm oils, genetically modified organisms in the highly sprayed canola and sunflower oils which are rancid to begin with, monoglycerides to smoosh it all up together, and some artificial flavour (MSG).

Heart and Stroke Foundation: Eat more margarine it plumps our bottom line is good for you.

So, Unilever and The Heart and Stroke Foundation want us to believe that a vat of rancid, bleached, GMO, pesticide laden, artificially coloured oils that have been "modified" are what our bodies were designed for. This is the stuff that our bodies, in all of their magnificent complexity, use to build our bones, run our immune systems, use as fuel to think, move, and grow? It's just common sense that this can not be so. Well, common sense and a load of science.

Way to go, Sarah!

Further reading:

• If you're purchasing store bought ice-cream, you may want to do some investigating into what's really in there.  If it's made by Unilever, expect GMO fish proteins. You may be surprised by how many brands of ice-cream Unilever actually claims.
• Corporate Watch takes a peek at what Unilever is up to.
• They may technically label it "trans fat free", but it's just a label.  They're still altering these fats to get them to do what they want - last a long time and fool your taste buds.  Interesterification to the rescue! Seriously, there is nothing that man can do to improve a food when it hits the manufacturing plant.  Those of us in the natural health world knew about trans-fats decades before it became a buzz word and the health agencies decided to start letting the cat out of the bag.  Stick to food the way it was grown or raised, with no processing (minimal, traditional processing is fine, I'm talking about the refined products we see filling our grocery store shelves), and you really can't go wrong.
• It's a Butter Vs. Margarine Showdown over at the Whole Health Source corral.
• Butter is Better.