Clif Bars: Not Suitable

[beforewisdom]

Heads up! Clif Builder Bars and Luna Bars contain PALM KERNEL OIL. This oil contains saturated fat ( the kind that clogs arteries ). Additionally, the production of palm oil is causing the deforestation of palm forests causing the destruction of habitat/extinction of many animals.

http://www.clifbar.com/food/products/

If you would like contact them to ask them to stop:
http://www.clifbar.com/contact/

[thestoatyone]

Palmitic acid = Not as bad as animal SFAs

Palm Oils = may be harmful to rainforest, and then again, may be from sustainable plantations that aren't stripping the habitat out. Hard to say without knowing the source, same as Soy production.

[beforewisdom]

thestoatyone, on their website ( the URL is my original post ) you can easily read the ingredients of their products. They don't list palmatic acid. They do list "palm kernel oil"

[Talyn]

I have no problems eating palm oil or saturated fat.

Soya beans, wheat, quinoa (etc, etc) could all be the direct product of deforestation. Or they might not.

[beforewisdom]

Aren't you concerned about your cardiovascular health?

[Talyn]

Aren't you concerned about your cardiovascular health?

Of course.

What impact would small amounts of saturated fat have on my cardiovascular health? I am thinking little to none.

[beforewisdom]

Nobody knows what their genetic susceptibility to cardiovascular issues are. Look at what happened to JP a few months ago. He was a hugely athletic vegan who got told he would need statins. He cleaned up his diet, figuring out that the saturated fat in the takeout curries he enjoyed was pumping his levels up ( Americans -- takeout Chinese food often has similarly bad oil ).

A lot of vegans eat a lot of those bars, myself included.....so I think it is important to know this........so they can make the decision to make these things only occasional treats.

[baldy]

... He cleaned up his diet...

Pretty sure he still eats a fair share of builder bars.

[vCLaW]

Palm kernel oil is mostly lauric acid and myristic acid, which improve the HDL to LDL cholesterol ratio.

And Clif Bar claim the palm oil is responsibly sourced, and not from Indonesia. See this thread: viewtopic.php?p=213246

[JP]

hehe never use me as an example of cleaning a diet

i did remove all trans fats from my diet though. All means, almost all

but yeah, cleaned it up a bit.

nailing bulders bars every day still though. Its bullshit if they use unsustainable palm oil though, that industry sucks badly.

[Goob]

Clif bars only use sustainable and non-gmo ingredients. Or at least they said they did in an email when I had asked them about it.

Also, someone would have to eat more than 4 builder bars every day to go over the daily recommended amount of saturated fats. That's a lot of builder bars.

[vegansludge]

Also, someone would have to eat more than 4 builder bars every day to go over the daily recommended amount of saturated fats. That's a lot of builder bars.

Yep. Plus, if you add up the amount of saturated fats that are in other things some people eat daily, it's probably equal to, if not more, than that of one Builder bar.

[thestoatyone]

I think JPs issue was trans fats not saturated fats. Too much saturated fats is still not smart but we're talking deep-fried calzone for tea every night here not one or two builders bars a day. On the other hand, any trans fats -> really not smart.

[Big Good Wolf]

It's not very helpful just saying "This oil contains saturated fat ( the kind that clogs arteries )" without going in to a bit more detail about how much it contains and how much is likely to be harmful to someone regularly training.

I'm sure I eat way over the recommended intake of fat, sugar and salt, yet my lifestyle allows me to get away with it.

[Fallen_Horse]

beforewisdom has a good approach though. Minimizing Clif intake is probably a good step, assuming your diet is pretty clean already. If it's not, then oh well!