Dear Gramps,
My mom says that foods prepared with hydrogenated oil are bad for me.  What is harmful about putting hydrogen in oil?  What makes it so unhealthy?  Hydrogen is a useful gas.
Robert

Dear Robert,
Yes, Robert, hydrogen is a useful gas, but it you tried to breath it instead of oxygen you would die. So it’s usefulness, like everything else is specific and limited. So what is so bad about hydrogenated oils, anyway? First, what is hydrogenation? It is a process by which polyunsaturated oils (normally liquid at room temperature) are converted into fats, which are normally solid at room temperature, and are used principally as margarine and shortening. Those polyunsaturated oils that are commercially converted to partially hydrogenated fats are generally the cheapest oils available–soy, corn cottonseed or canola, which are already rancid from the extraction process. The conversion process includes mixing the oils with some metal–usually nickel oxide, then subjecting them to hydrogen in a high temperature, high pressure process. Next soap-like emulsifiers and starch are added, also under high pressure. Next, the mixture is subjected to another high pressure process, which is a steam cleaning to remove the unpleasant odor of the product. The margarine which results from this process is a rather unappetizing grey color, which is removed by bleaching. Then dyes and strong flavoring are added to make it look and taste somewhat like butter, which is then sold as a health food. This hydrogenation process converts the oils into trans fatty acids. Most of these trans fats are toxic to the body, but the digestive system does not recognize them as being different from natural fats, so they are incorporated into the cell membranes as though they were natural fats. As such they wreck havoc with the cell metabolism. One could go on, but this is probably sufficient to let you know that your mother is right!
And while we’re on the subject, let’s look briefly at Canola oil, mentioned above, which is on the grocery shelves as a very popular cooking oil. It has been reported that the Canadian government paid the FDA $50 million to have this oil which is extracted from the rape seed (Canola, e.g., Canada oil) registered and accepted as safe for consumption. Rapeseed is an industrial lubricating oil, derived from the mustard family. When processed, it becomes rancid very quickly, and has been shown to be carcinogenic (Wall Street Journal, 6/7/95)!
Gramps