What do you know about hydrogenated oil or partially hydrogenated oil and
How many people avoid eating foods that contain it?
What kind of oil do you use to cook with?
What other ingredients do you avoid in food?
too lazy to look this up, but pretty sure hydrogenated fats are similar to saturated fats, partially hydrogenated fats are unsaturated. The names come from the fact that saturated fats have all the possible hydrogens they can, thus have no double bonds, and are solid at room temp, the reverse is true for partially hydrogenated/ unsaturated fats. I think the hydrogenated/partially hydrogenated fat nomenclature comes from artifically adding or subtracting hydrogens from fats in processed foods. Ingredients to avoid in food include: glass, sand, guns, most poisons, and of course, live tigers.
While I haven’t read too extensively on the subject, I do know that hydrogenated and partially-hydrogenated oils are also known as “trans-fats”, which are REALLY bad for you (so I’ve heard). I go out of my way to avoid products that contain them. I also try to avoid products high in saturated fat, although I also shy away from anything labeled “low-fat”, since “low-fat” usually means “high-sugar”, and that ain’t good, either. Fat (the right kind, anyway) is a good thing.
I cook with extra virgin olive oil and eat plenty of seeds and nuts to get the good kind of fat.
Hydrogenation make fats solid at room temperature. Rule of thumb I have heard is that the less solid the fat at room temperature, the better it is (or less bad it is) for you. For example, squeeze margarine is better than soft margarine which is better than stick margarine.
Olive oil is mono-unsaturated fat, which is the best kind. To cook, use virgin olive oil. It does not smoke as easily as extra virgin. Save the extra virgin for salad dressing or drizzling on bread.
My favorite meal–Venison (tenderloin medallions) dredged in flour and sauteed in olive oil. At the end, add some white wine, lemon juice, and capers to make a sauce. Serve the sauce over the venison. Delicious, nutritious, and healthy natural protein, baby! Add a salad with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing, and some Italian or French bread brushed with olive oil and garlic and broiled. Maybe some squash also brushed with olive oil and cooked on the grill.
Oh, save some of the wine to drink with it.
I’ll take a stab at this.
Hydrogenated oil has been modified to remove a hydrogen atom. Therefore, your body does not recognize it as food and cannot use it as energy. “Food” producers hydrogenate the oil so that it has a longer shelf life without going rancid.
Best overall oil is cold (aka expeller) pressed, virgin (aka first pressing), organic (if you’re into that sort of thing) olive oil.
Peanut oil stands up well to high-heat cooking (ie Chinese wok cooking).
The other main evils in the Standard American Diet (SAD) are high fructose corn syrup and white bread - both highly refined.
My rule of thumb - if it looks like it just got picked off a tree, or pulled out of the ground, or smells like a real food, then it’s probably good for you.
Not a nutritionist, but here’s what I understand.
As was stated before, hydrogenation and partial hydrogenation are done to make the fats more solid at room temperature, to improve the ‘mouth feel’ of food, and other such things. It actually involves the addition of hydrogen atoms to ‘saturate’ to the bonds on in the molecule. So, it becomes more like the saturated fats in red meats that are solid at room temperature.
Hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are used in margarines (especially the solid variety), a lot of fried products (like potato chips, etc), are called trans-fats and are one of the current evils of the nutrition field. According to what I have read and heard, they are at least as damaging from a heart health perspective as saturated fats from red meats, if not more damaging (apparently).
I’ve taken steps to eliminate trans-fats from my diet as much as I am able. Other things I try to avoid as much as possible include highly refined sugars, fruit juices (all the sugar without the beneficial fiber of the fruit). Olive oil is very good for cooking. As Bru said, the closer it is to a natural product (less processing), the better it tends to be for you.
As was also noted, low-fat tends to mean high sugar to get a similar taste and feel, but the right fats are healthy. More sugar changes the glycemic index and insulin response to the food, and hence how full you feel for how long, and the sugar will generally wind up in fat anyways.
Just a matter of doing some good research about good nutrition, and staying on top of current knowledge about diet, just like we hopefully do about our training.
Andrew
Don’t go near anything that says Hydrogenated or Partially Hydrogenated. If you have a history of heart disease in your family, this stuff will eventually kill you. Watch all those store bought cookies, muffins, chocolate bars and energy bars. They are filled with these trans fats.
Eat well, train well, rest well 
Also take a cue from Joe Bonness and only buy “natural” peanut butter – the processed crap has the partially hydrogenated oils. So do a lot of the breakfast cereals – check the labels.
Absolutely. Learn your ingredients, and learn to read labels. You discover lots of neat things, like the fact that the low-fat label is generally crap. Same calories per serving, just less fat and more sugar (usually refined sugars). So, when your coworker is shoveling down the low-fat ice cream, they aren’t getting ahead, even if it is low-fat, because the calorie content is the same.
Of course, it depends on how detailed the labels are on your foods, but you can learn to make some smarter choices by reading the labels.
Andrew
Absolutely. Learn your ingredients, and learn to read labels.
Here’s an idea - try to eat things that don’t come with a label.
True, but not always possible.
Andrew
Also take a cue from Joe Bonness and only buy “natural” peanut butter – the processed crap has the partially hydrogenated oils. So do a lot of the breakfast cereals – check the labels.
I eat 2-3 bowls of cereal a day. It’s my favorite snack. I looked and they do contain small amounts of hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils. Also, I’m a sucker for sweet snacks. If I go into a convenience store, I’m coming out with a candy bar, cinnamon roll, or donut. I’m guessing they have them too. What is so bad about them? If it’s a body comp. thing, I’m not worried about it.
Why all the guesswork?
The research I have read is indicating that, for those genetically prone to heart disease, trans fatty acids may do much more harm than saturated fat.
Read: http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4776
In Part it says:
How are trans fatty acids harmful?
In clinical studies, trans fatty acids or hydrogenated fats tend to raise total blood cholesterol levels and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and lower HDL (“good”) cholesterol when used instead of cis fatty acids or natural oils. These changes may increase the risk of heart disease. It’s not clear if trans fats that occur naturally have the same effect on cholesterol and heart disease as those produced by hydrogenating vegetable oils.
see also: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/reviews/transfats.html