What is partially hydrogenated oil?!
What is partially hydrogenated oil?
Why is in everything? And why did New York make it against the law for restaurants to cook with it? Is it a bi-product of something else?
Answers:
Now that you know what it is, I just would like to know why nothing was done until recently. This oil has been used for years and nobody said anything about it. The nutrition labels on packages are getting quite long due to all of these oils and other new items now considered taboo to eat. I think consumers need to be responsible for what they eat instead of making it mandatory for restaurants to stop using this oil. We all know what's good and bad for us. I don't need the government to tell me.
Hydrogenated oil is similar to man made food trans fat. It's not healthy.
Hydrogenation is a class of chemical reactions which result in an addition of hydrogen (H2) usually to unsaturated organic compounds. Typical substrates include alkenes, alkynes, ketones, nitriles, and imines. Most hydrogenations involve the direct addition of diatomic hydrogen (H2) but some involve the alternative sources of hydrogen, not H2: these processes are called transfer hydrogenations. The reverse reaction, removal of hydrogen, is called dehydrogenation.
The classical example of a hydrogenation is the addition of hydrogen on unsaturated bonds between carbon atoms, converting alkenes to alkanes. Numerous important applications are found in the petrochemical, pharmaceutical and food industries. Health concerns associated with the hydrogenation of unsaturated fats to produce saturated fats and trans fats is an important aspect of current consumer awareness. Hydrogenation differs from protonation or hydride addition (e.g. use of sodium borohydride): in hydrogenation, the products have the same charge as the reactants.
Hydrogenation in the food industry
Hydrogenation is widely applied to the processing of vegetable oils and fats. Complete hydrogenation converts unsaturated fatty acids to saturated ones. In practice the process is not usually carried to completion. Since the original oils usually contain more than one double bond per molecule (that is, they are poly-unsaturated), the result is usually described as partially hydrogenated vegetable oil; that is some, but usually not all, of the double bonds in each molecule have been reduced . This is done by adding hydrogen atoms which bond to the carbon, thus occupying a place in the outer orbital of the carbon which would have otherwise been used to bond with the next carbon in the fatty acid chain.
Hydrogenation results in the conversion of liquid vegetable oils to solid or semi-solid fats, such as those present in margarine. Changing the degree of saturation of the fat changes some important physical properties such as the melting point, which is why liquid oils become semi-solid. Semi-solid fats are preferred for baking because the way the fat mixes with flour produces a more desirable texture in the baked product. Since partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are cheaper than animal source fats, they are available in a wide range of consistencies, and have other desirable characteristics (e.g., increased oxidative stability (longer shelf life)), they are the predominant fats used in most commercial baked goods. Fat blends formulated for this purpose are called shortenings.
Hope this helps! =)
The person above me took the wikipedia article and copied it. I always find that wikipedia sucks for technical things though, so I tried to help you by making my answer less scientific and a little more laymans' terms.
First off, there's a difference between unsaturated fats and saturated fats. I'm sure you've seen the terms. Unsaturated actually means that it has less hydrogen in it. A quick rule of thumb is that generall unsaturated fats are oils at room temperature, whereas saturated fats are solid.
You can google "unsaturated fats" online and probably find diagrams, I won't get that technical here. The main thing is that saturated is bad for you and unsaturated is actually good for you in small ammounts.
Generally animal products have satruated fats, and plant or fish products have unsaturated fats, though this is a generalization. Saturated fat is the junk that clogs up arteries and gives people cardiovascular disease.
If oil has been "hydrogenated" it means that hydrogen has literally been chemically added to an unsaturated fat, making it saturated and worse for you. If I remember correctly, they do this because people generally find that saturated fats taste better, and I think they're better for cooking and things.
Hope this clarified without being too technical. :)
it's not healthy. try to avoid it.
*Hydrogen is pumped into veg. oil, so that the shelf like of the product is increased !
But it is harmful for health as it hardens the arteries or forms deposits in the arteries thus blocking them !!!!!!
Hence its harmful for health !!
Best avoided !!!!!!!!!
Short answer is vegetable oil that has been chemically modified to imitate shortening; it remains solid at a higher temperature. Hydrogenation allows less expensive oils to be used in baking to produce the same effect that a more expensive shortening produces.
It is not natural, and has been found to be not healthy, in fact it is blamed for many hazardous health conditions.
Better living through chemistry! Food by Dupont (R)