Kitala
04-22-2002, 02:14 PM
Hi all,
This email was forwarded to me and I thought the information was extremely interesting:
Hydrogenated fat and health
We have been advising people to avoid hydrogenated fat for nearly a decade. One day, it will be conclusively linked to heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, clogged arteries and chronic pain, at the least. Hydrogenated oils went mainstream in America in the 1920s, when the vegetable oil cartel finally became more powerful than butter farmers, and cardiac arrest has been going up ever since. According to the Harvard Medical School, the chemicals found in hydrogenated fats may be responsible for as many as 100,000 premature deaths per year, in the U.S. alone.
We feel there is no question that hydrogenated fats are closely related to the epidemic of heart and arterial disease in America and the rest of the "developed" world. We urge you to eliminate at least 95 percent of the hydrogenated fats from your diet.
What is hydrogenated fat?
What is wrong with hydrogenated fat?
Where are hydrogenated fats found?
What are some hints that a product might contain hydrogenated fats?
They wouldn't put hydrogenated fats in kid's foods, right?
What about Fast Food? Does it have hydrogenated fats?
What about partially hydrogenated fat? Isn't that better?
Why do food manufacturers use hydrogenated oil?
How do I find food products without hydrogenated fats?
HEY! I'd swear I bought this product a year ago and it had no hydrogenated fats. I bought it again and it did. What gives?
Where is your medical proof against hydrogenated fats?
So, can I lose weight by eliminating hydrogenated fats from my diet?
So, what can I do?
The big picture.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is hydrogenated fat?
Food factories create hydrogenated fat by cooking liquid vegetable oils at very high temperatures and pressures. Machines pump hydrogen into this brew, along with a metal catalyst, often nickel. The hydrogen gas fills in the missing hydrogen bonds on the oil molecule, turning the liquid oil into a solid or semi-solid form. Animal fats like butter or lard are hard at room temperature because there are few or no missing hydrogen atoms. These fats are called "saturated." Hydrogenated fats are "artificially saturated."
For more on this process, click here.
What is wrong with hydrogenated fat?
Our bodies do not readily recognize these artificially saturated fat molecules. Thus, they are difficult to digest, and stay in the body a long time. This can cause weight gain and digestive troubles.
Hydrogenated fats are high in trans-fatty acids. The trans-fatty acids found in products containing hydrogenated oil are linked to increases in bad cholesterol and decreases in good cholesterol; i.e., more heart attacks. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Wageningen Centre for Food Sciences in the Netherlands took a look at 25 studies on the subject and concluded, in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, that the more trans fatty acids you eat, the higher your risk of a coronary disease.
When fats break down in the body, one of the products are chemicals called prosteglandins, which regulate certain body processes. Prostaglandins help control inflammation, and are used by the body in many ways, for instance during sex, or after you twist your ankle. Some prostaglandins cause inflammation, others work against it. Hydrogenated fats break down into prosteglandins which cause inflammation, throwing off that delicate balance and leading to chronic inflammatory diseases and pain.
Where are hydrogenated fats found?
Just about everywhere in the modern American supermarket. Unfortunately, they are even more prevalent in children's foods, and children are the last people who should be eating hydrogenated fats.
Two very common products are purely hydrogenated fat:
stick margarine
vegetable shortening
Since many well-intentioned home bakers use shortening, home-made cannot be deem
This email was forwarded to me and I thought the information was extremely interesting:
Hydrogenated fat and health
We have been advising people to avoid hydrogenated fat for nearly a decade. One day, it will be conclusively linked to heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, clogged arteries and chronic pain, at the least. Hydrogenated oils went mainstream in America in the 1920s, when the vegetable oil cartel finally became more powerful than butter farmers, and cardiac arrest has been going up ever since. According to the Harvard Medical School, the chemicals found in hydrogenated fats may be responsible for as many as 100,000 premature deaths per year, in the U.S. alone.
We feel there is no question that hydrogenated fats are closely related to the epidemic of heart and arterial disease in America and the rest of the "developed" world. We urge you to eliminate at least 95 percent of the hydrogenated fats from your diet.
What is hydrogenated fat?
What is wrong with hydrogenated fat?
Where are hydrogenated fats found?
What are some hints that a product might contain hydrogenated fats?
They wouldn't put hydrogenated fats in kid's foods, right?
What about Fast Food? Does it have hydrogenated fats?
What about partially hydrogenated fat? Isn't that better?
Why do food manufacturers use hydrogenated oil?
How do I find food products without hydrogenated fats?
HEY! I'd swear I bought this product a year ago and it had no hydrogenated fats. I bought it again and it did. What gives?
Where is your medical proof against hydrogenated fats?
So, can I lose weight by eliminating hydrogenated fats from my diet?
So, what can I do?
The big picture.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is hydrogenated fat?
Food factories create hydrogenated fat by cooking liquid vegetable oils at very high temperatures and pressures. Machines pump hydrogen into this brew, along with a metal catalyst, often nickel. The hydrogen gas fills in the missing hydrogen bonds on the oil molecule, turning the liquid oil into a solid or semi-solid form. Animal fats like butter or lard are hard at room temperature because there are few or no missing hydrogen atoms. These fats are called "saturated." Hydrogenated fats are "artificially saturated."
For more on this process, click here.
What is wrong with hydrogenated fat?
Our bodies do not readily recognize these artificially saturated fat molecules. Thus, they are difficult to digest, and stay in the body a long time. This can cause weight gain and digestive troubles.
Hydrogenated fats are high in trans-fatty acids. The trans-fatty acids found in products containing hydrogenated oil are linked to increases in bad cholesterol and decreases in good cholesterol; i.e., more heart attacks. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Wageningen Centre for Food Sciences in the Netherlands took a look at 25 studies on the subject and concluded, in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, that the more trans fatty acids you eat, the higher your risk of a coronary disease.
When fats break down in the body, one of the products are chemicals called prosteglandins, which regulate certain body processes. Prostaglandins help control inflammation, and are used by the body in many ways, for instance during sex, or after you twist your ankle. Some prostaglandins cause inflammation, others work against it. Hydrogenated fats break down into prosteglandins which cause inflammation, throwing off that delicate balance and leading to chronic inflammatory diseases and pain.
Where are hydrogenated fats found?
Just about everywhere in the modern American supermarket. Unfortunately, they are even more prevalent in children's foods, and children are the last people who should be eating hydrogenated fats.
Two very common products are purely hydrogenated fat:
stick margarine
vegetable shortening
Since many well-intentioned home bakers use shortening, home-made cannot be deem