Fact, Fiction and the Better Banana

Consider the cholesterol-free banana.

Since the beginning of time, this fruit has never contained cholesterol. And unless evolution takes an unexpected turn, it never will.

Recently, however, some banana importers pasted “cholesterol-free” labels on their produce. The stickers seem to imply that this is a new banana. A better banana. A healthier banana.

But in truth, it’s just a banana.

Why point out the biological truth that bananas--like every other fruit and vegetable under the sun--do not have cholesterol? Perhaps for the same reason that makers of vegetable oil margarine buy TV ads that say, “No cholesterol at all.”

To sell their products, food companies play to Americans’ concern--or obsession--about what they eat. But many health experts worry that the “no-cholesterol” drumbeat can go beyond clever marketing and flirt with outright deception.

If too much cholesterol is bad for the heart, a food without cholesterol must be OK, right?

Wrong.

“People can say something doesn’t contain any cholesterol. But it can still be a product that raises your cholesterol substantially. That’s the problem,” said Dr. Carl Orringer of the University of Michigan.

High levels of cholesterol in the bloodstream can clog the arteries and lead to heart attacks. Orringer and others believe the no-cholesterol pitch takes advantage of public confusion over the difference between cholesterol in food and cholesterol in the blood.

Contrary to popular belief, cholesterol in food has a relatively minor impact on cholesterol in the blood. The part of food that really raises blood cholesterol is saturated fat. Being cholesterol-free, however, is no guarantee that something is also low in saturated fat.

The saturated fat level in no-cholesterol foods depends largely on the type and amount of vegetable oil that goes into them. These oils contain widely varying combinations of saturated, monosaturated and polyunsaturated fats. They range from canola oil, which is 6% saturated fat, to palm oil, which is 51% saturated fat, and coconut oil, 92% saturated fat.

Lots of foods are cholesterol-free. In fact, only animal foods, such as meat and eggs, contain cholesterol. Anything made entirely from plants does not--indeed, cannot--have cholesterol.

Many people are obviously confused about all of this. A recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration survey found 42% of the American public believes that if a food is labeled cholesterol-free, it is also low in saturated fat.

Despite its relative unimportance, the “no cholesterol” claim sings out from every aisle of the supermarket. Popcorn, bread, crackers, salad dressing and salted peanuts often carry it.

“Labels like that are misleading and frequently dishonest,” contends Dr. John LaRosa of George Washington University. “They beg the real issue, which is: This is a food that can raise your blood cholesterol.”

Dietary experts say the key to “prudent” eating is holding down consumption of fat--all fat. It is implicated in some kinds of cancer. It is far more fattening than sugar and starch. And some component of it is always saturated.

In fact, some of the most diligent no-cholesterol labeling is on high-fat baked goods.

For instance, Duncan Hines cake mixes boast: “No preservatives. No palm oil. No cholesterol.” The fine print on the back, however, discloses that once a devil’s-food cake is baked, 47% of its calories come from fat.

At Procter & Gamble Co., which makes the cake mixes, spokesman Don Tassone said thousands of consumers have called asking about those three things. The label “is a point of differentiation for our product line and a healthful service for people who are interested,” he said.

Procter & Gamble’s Crisco shortening also is labeled no cholesterol, even though it contains palm oil and is 26% saturated fat. Tassone said Crisco is clearly a healthy alternative to its primary competitors--lard, butter and beef tallow--which all contain cholesterol and much higher proportions of saturated fat.

Because of recent bad publicity over palm oil, Crisco will soon switch to hydrogenated cotton seed oil, but it will still be 26% saturated fat.

Bakeries are getting in on the no-cholesterol hoopla. For instance, the Mrs. Fields cookie chain recently began selling cholesterol-free chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies.

Martha Shepherd, Mrs. Field’s vice president of research and development, said the new cookies are made with margarine and egg whites, instead of butter and whole eggs. But she declined to reveal their fat content or any other nutritional information.

“They could potentially have some benefit from a heart disease standpoint, but we are not making a direct health claim,” Shepherd said.

Some disagree with her assertion, however. Posters advertising the chain’s no-cholesterol cookies proclaim, “Eat to your heart’s content.”

“That’s a health claim, and it’s misleading,” said Dr. William E. Connor of Oregon Health Sciences University. “Even cookie fanciers--and I’m one of them--know that all cookies are high-fat. You aren’t going to help your heart by eating a Mrs. Fields cookie.”

Bakeries are not required to put nutritional information on their bags. Labeling for packaged foods is also voluntary unless manufacturers fortify their products with vitamins, minerals or protein or they say something about the food’s value.

Cholesterol content must be included only if some claim is made about it. However, packages that boast of no cholesterol needn’t mention saturated fat.

The American Heart Assn. and other health organizations generally recommend that people limit their fat consumption to 30% of their total daily calories. No more than 10% of the day’s calories should come from saturated fat.

Since it is next to impossible for ordinary people to figure out the percentage of fat and other nutrients in their own diets, many health experts recommend putting this information on food labels.

Connor urges use of the cholesterol-saturated fat index, or CSI, to make comparisons between foods even easier. This index uses a mathematical equation to arrive at a single number for each food. The higher the number, the greater the food’s potential to cause heart disease.

For instance, the CSI for half a cup of baked beans is zero. So is a cup of apple cider, an unbuttered English muffin, an ounce of jelly beans, a cup of rice and 1 1/2 cups of spaghetti with marinara sauce.

A cup of sherbet is 3; half a can of sardines is 4; half a cup of mixed nuts is 6; three ounces of dark-meat chicken with skin is 7; three ounces of hamburger is 11; a slice of frosted carrot cake is 14; three ounces of calves’ liver is 16; three ounces of Cheddar cheese is 24; two scrambled eggs are 27; half a cup of butter is 71.

The banana, like most fruits and vegetables, earns a healthy zero on this index. So why dwell on the impossibility of its having cholesterol? Paul Yoder, a spokesman for the Dole fruit company, said the no-cholesterol stickers were part of a banana-industry campaign to improve the fruit’s image.

Because bananas are smooth and buttery, he said, some people actually think they contain butter and are fattening (which, at 90 calories apiece, they are not very). Although the stickers might seem to imply that less-desirable fruits are full of cholesterol or that these particular bananas are somehow better than competing brands, Yoder said the stickers were meant to clear up public confusion.

“When cholesterol is considered not good for you, and you don’t have it, then I see no problem in saying you can eat this and not worry about getting too much cholesterol,” he said.

However, LaRosa has another view of all the no-cholesterol labeling.

“It’s just silliness,” he said. “I hope the public catches on to it.”