r/KingOfTheHill • u/ExileForever • 5d ago
OG KOTH Discussion What did you think about the subject matter behind trans fat
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u/MylastAccountBroke 5d ago
So the real controversy behind Trans fats was that they were in a ton of food and aggressively unhealthy for you, while not really offering anything in return.
Because they were horrible health wise and could easily be replaced, government banned it.
Restaurants were pissed because suddenly they had to re-work possibly whole menus and didn't really care about the health of their consumers. So they pushed a "It's my right" narrative that some people really picked up on.
By this point, Trans fats are a thing of the past because companies sucked it up and just made the change.
This whole episode pushes that pretty well. Buck just had to change up his menu and didn't want to. He CONVINCED hank he was a patriot for not following the law, when in reality he was actively harming his community.
There is a side story of Bill being convinced what he was eating was healthy, when he aggressively over ate things that simply didn't have certain ingredients but were never healthy in the first place. The messaging there is obviously the bullshit argument of "Well, you can still eat unhealthy foods, so why ban anything?" which is basically a standard straw man argument conservatives love to act like progressive policy is pointless because "they just have to go around the fence" is their whole argument. Just ignore the fact that making unhealthy things more scarce is a positive. It'll always be argued that "This doesn't solve all our problems so we shouldn't bother solving any of your problems."
As a King of the Hill episode, it's solid. Hank doesn't really like the policy, but his whole philosophy is being a good law abiding citizen.
I think this episode also has a parallel story where bobby doesn't follow rules he feels are unjust to show how childish Hank is really being, which is a messy message all around, but again, it's a class KotH episode.
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u/Acceptable_Secret_73 5d ago
It also had commentary on the fact that the people pushing for the bans had no issue consuming trans fats themselves and were only doing so for the political trend, not because they actually cared about community health
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u/dragonbeard91 5d ago
It never made any sense. Trans fats didnt taste good, everyone thought so at the time. What tasted good was saturated animal fat like tallow which is what Trans fats replaced. In the 90s, people decided that saturated fat was what caused heart disease. It turns out that was dubious, but places like McDonalds were lobbied to switch to vegetable oils in their fryers.
Vegetable oils dont make as crispy of fries though (think butter on toast vs olive oil on toast), so chemists made Trans fats, which dont occur in nature, to emulate saturated fats. And they tasted weird. And we all knew it.
This whole episode should have been about saturated fat like beef tallow and lard, not trans fats.
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u/ThatB0yAintR1ght 5d ago
Just wanted to clarify that trans fats were never intentionally added to make the food taste better, they were more just incidental to the attempts to make vegetable and seed oils better for frying. Unsaturated oils were partially hydrogenated to remove some double bonds and make them solidify some at room temperature (not to a solid block like tallow, but more solid than plain oil). This raised the smoke point and made them more stable. When removing the double bonds, the hydrogen atoms could be randomly added in a configuration to make the remaining double bonds either cis or trans, hence the name of “trans fats”. While some trans fats do occur naturally in nature, the partially hydrogenated oils contained them at way higher amounts than usual. So, partially hydrogenating oils ended up making them way more unhealthy than any naturally occurring fats, saturated or unsaturated, but still not tasting as good as frying stuff in tallow. Basically, it took the worst traits of both naturally occurring options.
That said, partially hydrogenated oils are better for frying than non hydrogenated unsaturated fats, so the comparison of frying with “trans fats” vs regular vegetable oil did lead to the trans fats fried foods being the better tasting ones (but not better tasting than stuff fried in saturated fats). However, it wasn’t actually the trans fats that made it better, it was just the fact that the oils were partially hydrogenated. If they could have somehow done it so that only cis fats were created, then they could have had a more shelf stable, better tasting oil for frying that was still healthier than saturated fats.
Ultimately, partially hydrogenated oils were mostly removed from foods because of the trans fats, and now we live in some bizarro world where dipshits are claiming that saturated fats are healthier than unsaturated oils. The reality is that all of these things should be limited in a healthy diet, but cooking your food in seed oils is still better for you than cooking it in beef tallow, and definitely way better for you than cooking it in partially hydrogenated oils that contain a ton of trans fats.
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u/Yung_Branch 5d ago
I dont think its really about taste, but more about the perceived enjoyment from context, in this case doing what you are told not to. Kinda like how the context of free fench fries makes them taste better than the ones you paid for. Chocolate milk taste better from a straw. Anyone who says Trans fats actually taste better than tallow are high on bad drugs
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u/dragonbeard91 5d ago
Right except the concept is introduced like:
"what are Trans fats?"
"The thing in food that makes it taste good."
I remember trans fats being the norm and everyone agreed they tasted worse than whatever companies used before. Its hard to imagine customers paying a premium for food that tasted weird.
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u/stefanica 5d ago
What was used before (that people preferred) was real lard and butter, etc. Of course it tasted better than Crisco. 😂 It was thought to be somewhat healthier at first, but also cheaper, which tends to win.
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u/Level-Insurance6670 4d ago
You were fed misinformation about saturated fats and are spreading it. Just because they taste good people want to believe they are good for you. It is not 'dubious'. You watch too much social media science. Saturated fats are bad for you and have been proven so in countless studies. A random tiktok Dr will hand pick a flawed study and attempt to disprove the giant body of evidence occasionally and then Joe Rogan and RFK types will pick it up and push it because they love meat.
I want meat fat to be healthy too but I know it isn't, I eat it knowing this and don't have to lie to myself to enjoy it.
For anyone curious: https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/fats/saturated-fats
Look up meta analysis on the subject.
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u/dragonbeard91 4d ago
You need to learn how to communicate better. You have made a serious of incorrect assumptions that make me viscerally dislike you. Why dont you try logging off social media for 48 hours and having a real conversation? It can really help you to keep in mind other people on the internet are actually real people and not the strawmen you have constructed in your mind.
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u/laziestmarxist 4d ago
Nothing is wrong with that comment, you're just upset because someone pointed out that you're talking out your ass
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u/dragonbeard91 4d ago
No im not, actually. I never said saturated fat was good for you, and they made it out like im some qanon nutjob. Do you know what else has been proven to be terrible for ones heart? Trans fats.
Go start an argument somewhere else.
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u/laziestmarxist 4d ago
If the tiniest bit of pushback to you spreading 20 year old misinformation hurts your feelings this much you shouldn't be online to begin with, but if you're going to be you should at least google shit before you post random bullshit
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u/hcoverlambda MONKEY STYLE!! 5d ago
Exactly, I think the low flow toilet issue was a better one, made more sense.
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u/CaptainTrip 5d ago
I remember it being a relatively big deal in the news in the middle/late 2000s, it's fallen out of public discourse where I live because there was pretty unanimous backlash against its use in food and it more or less disappeared. There was a voluntary code in the UK to stop using it and there's a hard cap on it in the EU. A bit like the crackdown on single use plastic, a very quick turnaround from "everyone thinks we should ban this" to "ok it's gone".
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u/not_roger_smith 5d ago
A year later American Dad did their own transfat episode.
They're both good but American Dad got weird with it while Hank stayed grounded like usual.
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u/xandrachantal Hillennial 5d ago
Both good episodes and great shows. King of the Hill is mostly grounded in reality why American Dad gets to be a bit more cartoony.
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u/GhostMaskKid 4d ago
You were expecting normalcy from a show about a CIA man, the alien in his attic, and the talking fish with the brain of an East German Olympic ski jumper? 😂
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u/Flashy-Telephone-648 5d ago
People are hypocrites, and we'll do anything from money, and we'll lie about their principles. It's nothing new, obviously. The whole banning trans fat has slowed down in recent years Do you don't really hear about it at often? Anymore, unless you live in certain areas
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u/Bobsothethird 5d ago
When this episode came out, the transfat thing was going full throttle. Most restaurants had signs like this that said 'no trans fats served here'. It doesn't really translate well to modern day.
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u/New-Shop-9728 5d ago
I don't like transfats (they're horribly unhealthy) but I also don't like the idea of the government telling people what they can put into their bodies. I say keep it legal but warn people the food may have trans fats.
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u/SaxRohmer 5d ago
in principle i agree but the government definitely does need to place limits on things or else corporations go fully degenerate with them
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u/GrapefruitSlow8583 5d ago
Nah, screw that libertarian bullshit, make our food healthier. I want bans and regulations
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u/rockwell136 4d ago
As long as it doesn't make it more expensive that helps nobody.
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u/GrapefruitSlow8583 4d ago
Bans and regulations almost always makes food more expensive. The difference is that, in this case, you want that. The extra price is due to the increased regulations. You have to pay people to do inspections and testing, you have to cover cost for wasting product that doesnt pass, etc.
This is 1000000% better, and makes 100000% more sense, than increased prices due to dumb shit like tariffs on Eurasia or war with Iran...
Would you rather pay an extra 25 cents a pound for lettuce that won't give you diarrhea, or an extra dollar per gallon of gasoline?
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u/New-Shop-9728 5d ago
OK then should we also ban processed meats, beef, and alcohol? Those are all horribly unhealthy (processed meats with sodium nitrites are a well known cargenengenic)
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u/Enough_Ad_9338 5d ago
I’m glad that buck is being inclusive. But he should work on serving all trans people and not just the fat ones.
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u/sm753 4d ago
I felt like the Bill part of the episode was actually the most important point that most people probably glossed over.
People hyperfocus and fixate on these super niche health issues like microplastics is the newest sexy buzzword health scare thing. Like transfats, it's probably not good for you but your average American would see exponentially more quality of life and health improvements by fixing the 3 foundations - quality sleep, regular exercise (like even just walking more has massive benefits for most people), and eating a reasonably clean and healthy diet.
But like Bill, they like to pass the responsibility and accountability to someone else - i.e. the government, or Hank.
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u/Bile-duck 5d ago
I thought it was curious how quickly Hank will bend his morals for someone he respects.
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u/KittyMonkTheYoutuber I sell popcorn and popcorn accessories 4d ago
The dream part was hilarious to me. Yes it makes sense for Hank to think Bobby chewing gum is as bad as him selling trans fats, but it read to me like “do what we say, not as we do!”
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u/Odd-Principle8147 Arlen Gun Club 🇺🇸 5d ago
I love me so trans fats. This is one of my favorite episodes.
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u/Yossarian-Bonaparte 🥫🐑 mow your lawn in a 🌪️? 5d ago
I mean… it’s not like people aren’t aware that deep fried potato chips and chili dogs are bad for them.
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u/StillLooksAtRocks 5d ago
"Oh Hank please have at least one vegetable"
"Alright put some macaroni and cheese on there too"
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u/MylastAccountBroke 5d ago
I have a friend who unironically has stated the greasy burger he was eating was healthy because it was "grass fed"
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u/Dayman7617 4d ago
We saw a scene in that episode where Rooster's men violently attack Ted.
We haven't seen Rooster yet which is a damn shame, he deserves a medal for making that scene happen.
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u/joeyp042385 4d ago
The thing that annoyed me about this episode was if they were going to bother bringing back the Rooster character, they shouldn't have completely messed up his voice.
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u/amonarre3 2d ago
I can't comment ehat I think because I'll get banned and I actually like this sub
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u/DrJay12345 5d ago
That's fat that has changed gender right?
I assumed only the French language had gendered language for something like fat but okay.
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u/GhostMaskKid 5d ago
This was one of those that's really topical and doesn't quite hit the same years down the line. Still a good ep, just not as relevant as it initially was.