HYDROGENATED FOODSA bit of ChemistryThe food industry started manufacturing Hydrogenated Foods nearly a century ago. At that time heart disease was almost unknown. Of course a few other things have also changed since then ... vitamin E, an anti-coagulant, has in the main been removed from bread (and fed to the pigs!), cigarette smoking became a craze, obesity, couch potatoes ...
What is a HYDROCARBON?Organic compounds, consist in the main of hydrogen and carbon atoms. Thus we call them Hydro-Carbons. Not so difficult. In its saturated state, each carbon atom is linked to FOUR other atoms by a single bond. All the fats we eat are hydrocarbons. They have of course a great many carbon atoms linked to even more hydrogen atoms. This for example, is Linolenic Acid. It's found in many seed oils and nuts, and is what we call an "essential" fatty acid. You have to have it in your diet, otherwise your brain and nerves will die. Literally. It consists of a string of carbon atoms (black) and hydrogen atoms (white), and a couple of oxygen atoms (red) thrown in.
"Organic chemistry is the chemistry of carbon compounds. Biochemistry is the study of carbon compounds that crawl."
- Mike Adams SATURATED -vs- UNSATURATEDThis next molecule is methane. We're not yet at the stage of a hydrogenated food. Methane has one carbon atom. It's linked to FOUR hydrogen atoms - it is fully hydrogenated, and we say it is saturated with hydrogen. FOUR is the magic number with carbon.
Hydro-carbons are a great source of energy, whether it's methane gas in an old-fashioned lamp, diesel in your fuel tank, or linolenic acid in your body. In the body they burn to form water (that is passed in the urine) and carbon dioxide that you breathe it out. Stick with me. This stuff is not so difficult, and if you wan't to know WHY hydrogenated foods in general and margarine in particular are so bad , then you need to grasp it. You can do it, promise! Bob's my uncle. Now Ethane has two carbon atoms, each linked to FOUR other atoms. One of these links is with the second carbon atom. It too is fully saturated, hydrogenated.
Now for Ethane's first cousins - there are two of them, one named Peter, one named Paul - joking! Their surnames are Ethene, and their first names are Cis and Trans. Cis Ethene:
Trans Ethene:
Saturated fatsSaturated fats, like cholesterol, are a hydrogenated food. They are the ones that can clog your arteries and cause arteriosclerosis. They come in the main from animal sources. Beef, mutton, eggs, dairy ... Whilst some cholesterol is essential in the body (for neurotransmitters) we really shouldn't eat too much of them.Not only what you eat, but exercise too has an important effect on your blood cholesterol levels. Read more about
EXERCISE AND CHOLESTEROL. Mutton StewConcerned that your Saturated Fat is dangerously low? Try our delic mutton stew. Seriously, it's so full of fibre that it'll probably lower the saturated fat in your blood stream! It has absolutely zero hydrogenated foods or fats. Scrumptious and healthy. Mutton Stew. Nothing new about all this, it's common knowledge, and I'm sure you know it. Now for the interesting bit ... UN-saturated fats.These are the fats that have double bonds, and less hydrogen. They are UNsaturated.They come in two forms, both of which are healthy.
Why is this so important? In nature, we find only the cis-isomer in these double bonded fats. Cousin Healthy Cis. Cousin Trans is the black sheep of the family - he has no place in nature, and neither should we provide him with a place in our bodies. He's a very bad boy! So why does the food industry take a very healthy oil like Sunflower Oil (which has only cousin Healthy Cis in), and make it into a Hydrogenated Food, turning half of it into Bad Boy Trans? Properties of cis and trans isomersIt has all to do with melting points. Saturated fats have a higher melting point than UNsaturated fats, so they are solids at room temperature - we like to spread solid saturated fat on our bread rather than liquid unsaturated oil.Bad Boy Trans has a higher melting point than his cousin Healthy Cis. By hydrogenating liquid sunflower oil, the Hydrogenated Foods industry can make it into solid margarine at room temperature. Why? Because the public likes it that way. We want it, so of course they provide it. However there is more to it than that. It may interest you, perhaps not. "Polarity" is what it makes for these differences. Cousin Healthy Cis is is more polar than Bad Boy Trans. This means the forces between the molecules are stronger, they pack more closely, and so they are more stable. All good reasons why the Good Lord only provided us with cousin Healthy Cis to construct our nerves. Good stable nerves. Making nerves with a myelin sheath made of a mixture of Stable Cis and Unstable Trans is just asking for trouble. Heard of Motor Neuron Disease? It has to do with hydrogenated foods we think, but also about a LOW FAT / high carboydrate diet.
Read more about TINGLING IN ARMS AND HANDS ... Unlike other dietary fats, trans fats are neither essential nor salubrious[1] and, in fact, the consumption of trans fats increases one's risk of coronary heart disease[2] by raising levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol and lowering levels of "good" HDL cholesterol.[3] Health authorities worldwide recommend that consumption of trans fat be reduced to trace amounts. Trans fats from partially hydrogenated oils are more deleterious than naturally occurring oils.[4] Chemically, trans fats are made of the same building blocks as non-trans fats, but have a different arrangement. This results in a straight, rather than kinked, shape for the carbon chain, more like the straight chain of a fully saturated fat."
END OF STORY: LESS HYDROGENATED FOODS.
In conclusion
Better still, do what the Greeks and the Italians do. Dip your bread in olive oil, an UNsaturated fat. Less of that bad hydrogen that lifts us off to the place in the sky before our time!
Only, NOBODY IS SMILING! Sandwiches at work, for my money, a small amount of butter. For your cheese and lettuce sandwich at home rather use olive oil than either butter or margarine. IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONSMonthly newsletterSubscription to our free monthly newsletter is rising in leaps and bounds. Join the party! They are light and informative. Sign up here.You will then have access to these newsletters, and more as they become available: Chiropractic Help, Issue #10 – Friday Fun: Stones in my Clog Chiropractic Help, Issue #09 – Friday Fun: Headache/ Cucumber Chiropractic Help, Issue #08- Spinal Stenosis/ Celery Chiropractic Help, Issue #07- Root-of-all-Healing/ Garbanzo beans /Chickpeas Chiropractic Help, Issue #06 - Safety-on-the-Stairs/ Ginger Chiropractic Help, Issue #05 - Safety-in-the-home/ Red foods Chiropractic Help, Issue #04 - Whiplash-and-the-Joints-of-Luschka/ Parsley Chiropractic Help, Issue #03 - How to stop falling/ Danger of a low fat diet Chiropractic Help, Issue #01 - Tingling the arms and hands/ Apples Sign up here:
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