Hydrogenated Oils

Hydrogenated Oils are made by forcing hydrogen gas into oil at high pressure.

This process can be used on both animal and vegetable oils. So the more solid the oil the more hydrogenated it is. The 2 best example of this process are Crisco and Margarine (yes margarine).  Why do we do this to oil? It gives it a longer shelf life than normal oil. So in other words we have to give up health for the bottom line of a company. The longer it can stay on a shelf the more money they tend to make. I don’t blame it all on the companies, we eat it!

The above is how I read that hydrogenated oils are made. The best and most in depth look at this process I found was on Natural News by Richard Stossel. By the way, I haven’t eaten margarine in 3 years, please pass the butter.

To highlight this, let’s take hydrogenated oils and see what this substance really is and why it’s so incredibly bad for you. Hydrogenated oils are oils that are often healthy in their natural state, but are quickly turned into poisons through the manufacturing and processing they undergo. They take these naturally healthy oils such as palm, kernel, soybean, corn oil or coconut oil and they heat it anywhere from five hundred to one thousand degrees under several atmospheres of pressure.

They then inject a catalyst into the oil for several hours. The catalyst is typically a metal such a nickel, platinum or even aluminum. As this bubbles up into the oil the molecular structure changes and increases in density and rearranges it’s molecules so that instead of a liquid at room temperature we now have either semi-solid or solid oil. This creates either partially hydrogenated or fully hydrogenated oils.

The molecules in this new product are now closer to cellulose or plastic than to oil. In fact hydrogenated oil is only one molecule away from being plastic. When you eat anything containing this material, just as the oil is now thicker and more viscous (dense), so too does your blood become thicker and more viscous right along with it. The heart now has to work so much harder to pump blood throughout the system. This is one of the major ways that consuming hydrogenated oils contributes to high blood pressure.

As you can imagine, this thicker blood with this gummy substance flowing with it can easily lodge in the arteries and build up the arterial plaque. It doesn’t take anywhere near as much time as you may think for this to occur. Some studies have shown that negative health effects of eating processed foods occurs within only minutes of consuming such foods. (Natural News by Richard Stossel)

Hydrogenated oils can cause cell damage and keep nutrients from entering cells.

Cell walls are normally made up of healthy oils such as Omega-3 and Omega-6 fats, also known as essential fatty acids (EFA’s). The walls of your cells are the cells defense mechanism so it’s crucial that they have sufficient EFA’s in the cell wall. This is what allows nutrients and waste matter to pass in and out the call yet keeps foreign invaders and pathogens out.

Once hydrogenated oils reach the cell, they try to assimilate them into the make up of the cell wall. Without sufficient EFA’s, the cells are now forced to use this destructive hydrogenated oil into its cellular matrix to make up the difference. What’s worse is that this new cell wall now made up of hydrogenated oils is virtually useless and this compromises the very function of the cell wall.

The presence of hydrogenated oils in the cell walls actually prevents nutrients from entering the cell but at the same time allowing pathogens, microbes and viruses to pass through. It also prevents waste material getting out of the cell. Between the nutrients that are kept out of the cell and the waste matter that is now trapped in the cell, the cell often mutates or dies which can lead to cancer, tumors or other serious health issues. (Natural News by Richard Stossel)

I hope I gave you some insight into hydrogenated oils and the damage it can do to you and your inner body.  Only you can control your health and well being.  So till next time, put down the margarine, pass the butter and lower your intake of hydrogenated oils.

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