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*Dangers of Hydrogenated Oil* *Danger of Hydrogenated Oil in your Kitchen shelves:* Today I was shocked to read the label of my vegetable cooking oil which has been used over all these years in my house. All I knew I was paying Rs. 120 for buying the best branded cooking oil in the market. Among my favorites were the Postman, Safflower oil, and Canola oil. And today, my heart beated fast when my eyes caught the word “Hydrogenated” oil in the bottle. And my mind was struck at the horror of those word…… let me start from the beginning of my journey to learn more about what I and all those conscious women/mothers ought to know what we are feeding our loved ones and paying for their ill health. *Poisons in Our Diet* *Consuming hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats and oils?* Then you are consuming Poison; because by the definition of poison, partially hydrogenated fats and oils are poisons. Dorland's Medical Dictionary defines poison as any substance which, when relatively small amounts are ingested ... has chemical action that may cause damage to structure or disturbance of function, producing symptomatology, illness, or death. *Partially hydrogenated oils do not exist in nature.* Partially hydrogenated fats and oils are processed versions of naturally occurring fats and oils. In nature, most dietary fats and oils exist in a structural form which is called the cis form. When these natural cis form fats are processed by bubbling hydrogen gas through them at high temperatures, they become partially hydrogenated which changes their structure to the trans form. *The natural cis fat has a bend molecule and the processed trans fat is a straight molecule. This difference in cis and trans shapes is of major significance.* When eaten, fats and oils are incorporated into cell membranes altering the composition of these delicate structures. Trans fats interfere with important, normal functions by inhibiting enzymes which are necessary for the body's normal _meta_bolism of fats and they keep doing it for a long time. Hence, these substances meet the definition of a “poison. *When you eat normal cis fats, the body _meta_bolizes half of them in 18 days. When you eat trans fats the body requires 51 days to _meta_bolize half of them. This means that half of the trans fats you eat today will still be inhibiting essential enzyme systems in your body 51 days from now.* Let’s have a through understanding of modern *Oil Processing and Purification:* Oil purification is a process where crude oils; i.e natural oils from vegetables are refined to remove any substances that may contribute to off flavor, off odor, undesirable color, or for keeping quality. This is the process involved in hydrogenation of oil. *Step One:* “Washing of oil using water, salts and acids in order to remove waxes, phosphates and other impurities. *Step Two: *Oil undergoes a neutralization process. Alkali which is soap mixed with oil and heated to 180F. A separator then removes the soap from the oil. *Step Three:* The oil is subjected to physical refinement to remove odor compounds by vacuum steam distillation process. *Step Four:* Next the oil is subjected to cooling. By doing this, some fats will crystallize and are removed using filtration. *Step Five:* The oil is then bleached. This process stabilized the oil. Bleaching involves using clay to remove color and impurities from the oil. Oil is bleached by heating it to 130F, and mixing with clay. The mixture is held for several minutes and then the hot oil is filtered from the clay and cooled. *Step Six:* Hydrogenation process is completed by pumping pressurized hydrogen into an agitated tank filled with oil. This must be done in the presence of a catalyst _meta_l, such as nickel. Hydrogenation is done at 204C and pressure of 60psig. *(What a rigorous procedure! Do we want to be eating the end result of this? It has already been the cause of much illness, continuing to eat this is to ask for irreversible damage to health. )* Oil bearing materials are ground, steam cooked, and then mixed with the solvent (of a petroleum _base_) which dissolves out of the oils, leaving a dry residue. The solvent is separated from the oils. This method is universally used by the big commercial oil processors because it gets more oils out quicker and cheaper. What about these solvents? *Most commonly used solvents are light petroleum fractions—four types of Naptha used are Pentane, Heptane, Hexane, and Octane* types; another solvent used is synthetic Trichloroethylene. Some of these are commonly found in gasoline. Most used solvent is Hexane. *Oils dissolved by this method are solvent extracted DISSOLVED oils are not pressed oils.* The big commercial edible oil processors and distributors tell us that if any of the solvent remains in the oils it is VERY LITTLE. But you know just how harmful these solvents may be. Pertinent here is an observation coming out of a symposium of cancer specialists organized by the International Union against Cancer meeting in Rome in August 1956; “ quotes: the presence of such chemicals in food appears to be _object_ionable, *particularly when such materials are heated to high temperatures.”* The VERY LITTLE argument for solvent residues is just as weak for solvents as it is for pesticide residues. The amount of petroleum solvent that should enter the human system is ZERO! *So you have two classifications of oils which are unacceptable in our Organic Nature Natural store; (1) expeller pressed-refined (2) solvent extracted oil.* Refining is usually accomplished with the addition of sodium hydroxide and temperatures around 450 degrees. The refined oil is not considered edible without further processing, such as filtration, deodorization, bleaching. The process of refining oils is exactly analogous to the refining of whole wheat and whole sugar into white ones. In all cases, one takes a product full of natural vitamins, minerals, enzymes and other food factors and reduces the original natural food into a relative nonfood —devitalized, stripped. Crude oils i.e. cold pressed Oil, being unrefined, retain their natural anti-oxidants; which contains ALL its natural vitamin A, ALL its natural vitamin E, ALL its natural lecithin, and ALL of the other natural food factors. We are confident that, appreciating the facts, the consumer will easily accept superior food. It is not at all a matter of getting accustomed to something which tastes bad, but rather different—fuller and richer due to being so much more wholesome. *A Major Source of Chronic Disease* *Trans fats block PG I and PG 3 production, and by default, PG 2 substances are produced unopposed. The PG 2 imbalances that is created by the consumption of partially hydrogenated fats contributes to the production of chronic disease which is the enigma of our modern society.* With this knowledge; let's try to substitute this industrial oil for indigenously prepared Cold Pressed Vegetable Oil, whenever we can, for a better health of oneself and our family. If the label contains the words hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated, do not let your family eat it. If the label contains the words hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated, do not let your friends eat it. If the label contains the words hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated, get it out of your family's kitchen. Read labels and avoid these substances like they are poisons ... which they are. Lets us join our hands to only procure our indigenous source of Oil from Our cold pressed process; the oil filled with all its natural essential elements in its purest form. *Testing survey work carried out: *Approximately over 100 million tonnes of edible oils are being consumed annually in India. Out of this between 10-15% is the share of hydrogenated vegetable oils and the remaining is being unequally distributed between different categories of oils. Thus, vegetable oils constitute an important mass consumer product with which the public at large is seriously associated. The presence of toxins even in small quantities may have profound effect on the health and well being of the common masses. Therefore, this project was undertaken to spell out the heavy _meta_l contamination in edible oils, especially the chemically processed ones like Hydrogenated vegetable oils & Refined oils. For example Nickel is used as a hydrogenating catalyst for hardening of vegetable oils. Nickel has adverse effect on Respiratory system, Liver, skin, Haem _meta_bolism, interaction with DNA/RNA, crosses Placental barrier also carcinogenic action. Popular brands of HVO viz. Rath, Ruchi,Gagan, Dalda, Panghat, Suhagin, No.1, Postman, Vital, Crystal, Saffola, Dalda refined, Dhara etc. were collected randomly from the local market belonging to different batch numbers and subjected to testing/screening for the presence of heavy _meta_ls. Following the discovery of high nickel residual contents in the edible vegetable oils including hydrogenated vegetable oils, the Indian Prevention of Food Adulteration Act has been ammended to incorporate the fixing of maximum upper limit of Nickel (1.5 ppm) in the vegetable oils. This has come into effect from 1995.
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