thought I would put this question out as a thread, it was asked in another thread, but no response was given.

I am curious as to what hygronated oils are in a list of ingrediants for products. People say or write something has them in them, but then I never have known what I am looking for.

you are looking for something that says 'hydrogenated' or 'partially hydrogenated'

like 'partially hydrogenated soybean oil' or any other type of oil or fat.

What that means is that the fat is chemically produced.


Hydrogenation is a commercial chemical process of forcing hydrogen atoms into the holes of unsaturated fatty acids. This is done with hydrogen gas under pressure with a metal catalyst at a temperature of 248-410 degrees F (120-210 C).


Partially hydrogenated fats

Not too hard - not too soft... Of course, vegetable oil is too soft for margarine or shortening because it is liquid. Saturated fat is too hard. Margarine requires something in the middle. And here is where the problem lies. Margarine and shortening makers `partially hydrogenate' their product. They only add hydrogen atoms until the oil is at the desired consistency. For our health this does terrible things. These oils are also produced at high temperatures with metal catalysts and pressurized hydrogen, but the process is stopped when the oil has the proper consistency for its application. The high temperatures and catalysts used for this chemical reaction weaken the double bonds and, as a side effect, cause a large percentage of the natural Cis double bonds to change to Trans double bonds.

During the hydrogenation process, hydrogen atoms are inserted in no particular order. (Nature does it in a very controlled way.) When they stop the incomplete hydrogenation process, unsaturated fatty acids are in varying stages of hydrogenation. Some molecules are mostly hydrogenated, while others are not. And the double bonds have often shifted to unnatural positions. Each molecule can be in varying cis-/trans- configurations.

Mr. Erasmus has stated, "So many different compounds can be made during partial hydrogenation that they stagger the imagination. Scientists have barely scratched the surface of studying changes induced in fats and oils by partial hydrogenation."1 (References: 1. Fats that Heal and Fats that Kill pg. 103)

The end result is many of these altered substances are toxic to our systems. One study has shown up to 60% trans- fatty acid content was found in some margarine, with less than 5% essential fatty acids remaining. The average trans- fatty acid content of stick margarine made in this way is 31% with a range of 9.9 to 47.8%.

Fridaylove, thank you for re-asking my question. Thank you MyJourney for answering it.

The reason I asked it was that someone said that LC tortillia had these bad oils. According to the ingrediants list Mama Lupe's brand of LC tort. has no hydrogenated oils and 3 net carbs. I hope the guy who was talking about them reads this.

Yeah, hydoronated oils are transfats.. they are very dangerous, try to not eat any products that contain these!

what are the ingredients in the tortilla?

Chances are it has some type of vegetable oil and maybe they were saying it shouldnt be eaten because some people dont eat vegetable oils.

Or they were just confused.

MyJourney, thanks for posting that! It's a very informative read!

I might also add that not only are hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils bad because of the chemical process which they are put through, these are the oils that actually cause blockages in arteries. Cholesterol and saturated fats we find in animal products have been wrongly accused and found guilty of a crime they didn't commit.

Now having said that, I do occasionally end up buying a product with transfats in it, but only if it's something I'm not going to eat but maybe weekly or every other week, like LC tortilla shells for example. I don't think the brand I buy has transfats, but if they did it's not a huge problem because we eat them very infrequently, only as a treat. Most of the time I'd much rather eat a taco salad than a taco, but sometimes a taco or wrap just sounds awfully good.

I don't know the type he was using, but he said they had dehyd. oils in them. Mine on;y have soy oil and veggie oil.