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From: sanders@menlo70.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: Partially Hydrogenated Oils
Message-ID: <197@menlo70.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Jan-84 22:59:33 EST
Article-I.D.: menlo70.197
Posted: Tue Jan 24 22:59:33 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 27-Jan-84 09:48:30 EST
References: <239@pyuxss.UUCP>
Organization: USGS, Menlo Park CA
Lines: 23

Partially hydrogenated oils should have nearly the same nutritional and
disease-causing properties as partially saturated fats, i.e.  not so
good for you.

Oils are hydrogenated for a variety of reasons.  One effect of
hydrogenating an oil is to raise it's melting point.  For examples,
look at safflower oil (very unsaturated, liquid even in the
refrigerator), "cocoa butter" (a relatively rare saturated oil of plant
origin), margarine (usually made from "partially hydrogenated corn
oil"), and dairy butter (oils are completely saturated).

All oils of animal origin are completely saturated.  Most plant oils
are less than completely saturated.  Saturated oils (fats) have been
linked to high blood cholesterol levels (and therefor heart disease)
and cancer of the colon.

Saturation is a measure of how many of the carbon-carbon bonds in the
long hydrocarbon chains of fats are single or double bonds.  A
completely saturated fat has no double bonds.  A mono-unsaturated fat
(e.g. olive oil), has one double bond.  "Polyunsaturated" fats have
more than one double bond.  Bubbling reactive hydrogen gas
("hydrogenating") reduces the number of double bonds in the oil, i.e.
it saturates the oil.