Generality
Vegetable cream is a food belonging to the 5th group, which includes all the fats for seasoning.
With the term vegetable cream you can indicate: vegetable cream and vegetable whipping cream (sweetened or "natural" - so to speak!); both are processed with the UHT (Ultra High Temperature) storage system, so they do not appear on the refrigerated counter, but on shelves at room temperature. Vegetable cream is often the subject of numerous controversies; to "put beak", offering different points of view, are mainly: kitchen technicians - pastry chefs, non-specialized doctors, dieticians - nutritionists - dieticians.
Vegetable cream: what is it made of?
Vegetable cream, as the name suggests, is a product that contains ingredients of vegetable origin. Unfortunately, contrary to what many neo-vegans are led to believe, this predominance does NOT exclude the possibility that even small quantities of animal-type ingredients are present; specifically sodium caseinate (E469) . Only recently, once the catch was discovered, some companies began producing types of vegetable cream without ingredients of animal origin (which generally also meet the criteria of the Biological disciplinary). Readers will think that, after all, this is not a particularly "scandalous" misunderstanding; unfortunately, however, it is also worth mentioning that (separately from philosophies) due to health issues, many consumers MUST avoid taking certain molecules. This is the case of allergic to cow's milk proteins and lactose intolerant; these individuals, consuming vegetable cream with sodium caseinate, risk the appearance (severe in the first case and bland in the second) of symptoms related to the immune mediated reaction or of gastro-intestinal nature.
Vegetable cream contains a mix of fats obtained from various food sources. The products available on the market are not all the same and offer chemical-physical (therefore nutritional) characteristics that are also quite different from each other; first of all, the raw material of use. Fortunately, from 12/13/2014 it is mandatory to specify on the label the origin of the oils and / or vegetable fats used (eg olive oil, soy oil, etc.); it is therefore not sufficient to report the generic word "vegetable oils" or "vegetable fats", behind which in the past often the use of poor raw materials was hidden.
As some (few) readers will know, oils and fats, depending on their composition, have a different metabolic impact. In parallel, the characteristics of stability and solidity also vary, which, hainoi, are inversely proportional to the healthiness of the food. The saturated fats (prevalent in milk cream) are in fact more solid and stable, while the unsaturated fats (prevalent in most vegetable oils) appear to be liquid and unsuitable for the whipping process. At the same time, saturated fats (in excess) present a hypercholesterolemic metabolic function (they raise cholesterol), while some unsaturated fats (tendentially ω3, ω ‰ 6 and ω ‰ 9) favor the reduction of blood lipemia.
So, how is it possible that vegetable cream is more solid than an oil while still containing the same raw material?
Simple! The food industry, from more or less remote times, has harnessed the techniques of fractionation and hydrogenation of fatty acids. I remind readers that every oil (or fat) has a composition in variable fatty acids and that the relative quality (and predisposition to use) varies considerably based on the prevalence of these molecules. Nevertheless, thanks to the fractionation, it is possible to refine a product excluding the less desirable portion. This is what happens in the vegetable cream: starting from a certain raw material (almost always poor) the fat portions that are considered suitable (basically composed of saturated acids) are extracted, because they are dense and stable even at room temperature.
The other technique, parallel and / or complementary in the production of vegetable cream, is hydrogenation. In this case, starting from a certain raw material (liquid but poor and / or resulting from fractionation), through a chemical-physical process based on the addition of hydrogen (H 2 ), the transformation of unsaturated fats (liquids) into saturated fats (solids).
At this point other questions could grip the kind readers: " What is the point in using a liquid vegetable raw material, therefore basically composed of unsaturated fats (which do NOT have the characteristic of increasing cholesterolemia), if it is then necessary to transform the unsaturated components into hydrogenates -sature? Is it not convenient to use milk cream directly, which is already naturally rich in saturated fats? "
Once again the answer is simple, although more articulated than the previous one:
- This process allows to obtain a product with the same (or better) physical characteristics of the milk cream, but this STILL does not justify the choice of one with respect to the other
- Pure vegetable cream, like margarine and all vegetable oils, does NOT contain cholesterol. This characteristic, which would seem an advantage to a superficial analysis (thus becoming a strength in marketing), is however a secondary aspect with respect to the overall chemical composition. Let me be clear, this is certainly not a negative peculiarity, but in the presence of the content in saturated and trans fatty acids (HYPERCHOLesterolemics), in my opinion, it is certainly of secondary importance.
- The vegetable oils used cost less than milk, which is why it was crucial to invest money on advertising (see point 2) using scientific research regarding the side effects of a cholesterol-rich diet; in practice, by selling a low quality vegetable cream, one spends less and earns more than the trade in a derivative of cow's milk.
At this point, it would seem that low quality vegetable cream is nothing but a (metabolically) food similar to milk cream. Mistaken! During the hydrogenation process (despite the recent technological advances in the food industry), a part of the hydrogens (H 2 ) "goes about its business" and determines the birth of fatty acids which tend to be "foreign" to 'body. These molecules, identified with the name of fatty acids in a trans form, are also present in nature, but their distribution in raw materials, unlike those processed by hydrogenation, is far from relevant.
These molecules are NOT very welcome to the metabolism (because they are struggling to use them correctly); consequently, their excess is related, even more than saturated fats, to: hypercholesterolemia, atherosclerosis, cardio-vascular compromises, etc.
The negative aspects of vegetable cream are not finished; less striking than the previous one, but still undesirable, there is the presence of heavy metals in the finished product. The numerous processing steps determine the inevitable contamination (albeit hypothetically "harmless") of the food.
Vegetable cream: a look to the future
Fortunately, following the awareness of consumers, companies have taken action to offer a less problematic food. This is the case of the alternative vegetable cream / cream based on: soy or oat or coconut or corn etc. They are all different from each other but tend to be born with the intention of leaving out the use of hydrogenation. Obviously, starting from the use of oils, it is inevitable that it is necessary to resort to fractionation, transesterification or the use of emulsifying and stabilizing food additives. Well, better than nothing!
Vegetable cream can also be made at home by exploiting the emulsifying effect of soy lecithin.
Video Recipe - Learn how to make vegetable cream at home
Homemade Vegetable Cream
X Problems with video playback? Reload from YouTube Go to Video Page Go to Video Recipes Section Watch the video on youtubeNutritional characteristics
As anticipated, COMMERCIAL vegetable cream can be divided into "kitchen", "to be assembled" and "to be whipped sweetened". The nutritional intake of the three products is slightly different, but they all share the same high lipid and calorie content and the breakdown of fatty acids in favor of hydrogenated-saturated ones. Furthermore, the sweetened ones contain moderate amounts of sucrose.
Vegetable cream is NOT a food suitable for feeding against overweight and does not lend itself to the diet against hypercholesterolemia; moreover, as anticipated, most of the traditional vegetable creams are NOT foods that can be used to feed the lactose intolerant and even less that of those allergic to casein proteins.
I conclude by strongly discouraging the use of commercial vegetable cream, especially in the feeding of children and, in general, of all growing subjects. These individuals, who tend to be rather greedy for snacks and snacks, are already loaded with saturated, hydrogenated and even "trans" fatty acids. It is better to prefer recipes without vegetable cream and, alternatively, which include the use of unsaturated fatty acids (extra virgin olive oil, corn oil, soy oil, peanut oil etc.).
