I can remember back in the 1950’s (when I was growing up) we were told that butter and lard were not as healthy as using a natural vegetable oil for cooking, and oils like Wesson oil became very popular. People used margarine instead of butter, and hydrogenated shortening like Crisco instead of the natural animal fats that most people used for cooking.
However, we have now learned that these processed oils are not healthy for us at all, and many of them were simply developed because they were cheap to grow and produce oil from.
Crisco shortening actually developed from the waste products of the cotton industry. When cotton is harvested, each little boll has lots of seeds which had to be removed before the cotton filaments could be processed into fibers for clothes-making.
The cotton seeds were thrown in the trash until someone decided that they could process them and sell the oil. In order to make it look solid , like cooking lard or butter, the cotton seeds oil was processed with hydrogen, which gave it the solid form that we now see in shortening products.
Choosing natural oils for cooking and salad oil is important, and the best ones are cold-pressed, and not bleached and heat processed like most of the commercial oils are.
If you would like to read the story about how cotton seed came from being a waste product into shortening, here is a link that explains it really well:
https://idmprogram.com/the-shocking...ent=IDM’s+Fast+Forecast&utm_campaign=07092018
However, we have now learned that these processed oils are not healthy for us at all, and many of them were simply developed because they were cheap to grow and produce oil from.
Crisco shortening actually developed from the waste products of the cotton industry. When cotton is harvested, each little boll has lots of seeds which had to be removed before the cotton filaments could be processed into fibers for clothes-making.
The cotton seeds were thrown in the trash until someone decided that they could process them and sell the oil. In order to make it look solid , like cooking lard or butter, the cotton seeds oil was processed with hydrogen, which gave it the solid form that we now see in shortening products.
Choosing natural oils for cooking and salad oil is important, and the best ones are cold-pressed, and not bleached and heat processed like most of the commercial oils are.
If you would like to read the story about how cotton seed came from being a waste product into shortening, here is a link that explains it really well:
https://idmprogram.com/the-shocking...ent=IDM’s+Fast+Forecast&utm_campaign=07092018