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then "degummed" or placed in hot water and swirled at a high speed to separate out various substances.
To further refine the oil, it is mixed with an alkali such as lye or caustic soda; then it is agitated, heated
again, bleached, hydrogenated to stabilize it and finally deodorized. To increase shelf-life further,
manufacturers add preservatives and other food additives. Although all of that improves the oil’s shelf
life, it does not prevent it from turning rancid before the expiration date. The chemical treatments it
undergoes disguises signs of rancidity, which makes these oil so dangerous to the unsuspecting consumer.
Saturated fats are solid and found in products such as lard and butter. They contain large quantities of
natural antioxidants, which make them much safer against oxidation by free radicals. They are also
digested quite easily. The polyunsaturated fats in refined oils (stripped of their monounsaturated fats), on
the other hand, are virtually indigestible and thereby become dangerous to the body. Margarine, for
example, is just one molecule away from plastic, and therefore extremely difficult to digest. Free radicals,
the natural cleansers of the body, try to get rid of the fatty culprit which attaches itself to the cells' walls.
But when the radicals digest these harmful fats, they also damage the cell walls. This is considered to be
one of the main causes of aging and degenerative disease. This also shows how something so useful as
oxygen radicals can become harmful when we expose the body to unnatural foods and chemicals.
Research has shown that out of 100 people who consumed large quantities of polyunsaturated fats, 78
showed marked clinical signs of premature aging. They also looked much older than others of the same
age did. By contrast, in a recent study on the relationship between dietary fats and the risk for Alzheimer’s
disease, researchers were surprised to learn that the natural, healthy fats can actually reduce the risk for
Alzheimer’s by up to 80 percent. The study showed that the group with the lowest rate of Alzheimer’s ate
approximately 38 grams of these healthy fats every day, while those with the highest incidence of this
disease consumed only about half of that amount.
Tissue cells that have been damaged by abnormal free radical activity are unable to reproduce
properly. This can impair major functions in the body, including those of the immune, digestive, nervous,
and endocrine systems. Ever since refined polyunsaturated fats have been introduced to the population on
a large scale during and after WWII, degenerative diseases have increased dramatically, skin cancer being
one of them. In fact, polyunsaturated fats have made sunlight “dangerous,” something that would never
have been the case if foods hadn’t been altered and manipulated, as they are today. When polyunsaturated
fats are removed from their natural foods, they need to be refined, deodorized, and even hydrogenated,
depending on the food product for which they are used. During this process some of the polyunsaturated
fats undergo chemical transformations, which turns them into trans fatty acids (trans fats), often referred
to as “hydrogenated vegetable oils.” Margarine can contain up to 54 percent of them, vegetable shortening
up to 58 percent.
You can detect hydrogenated vegetable oils in foods by reading the food labels. Most processed foods
contain them, including breads, crisps, chips, doughnuts, crackers, biscuits, pastries, all baked goods, cake
and frosting mixes, baking mixes, frozen dinners, sauces, frozen vegetables, and breakfast cereals. In
other words, nearly all foods that are shelved, processed, refined, preserved, and not fresh can contain
trans fats. Trans fats inhibit the cell’s ability to use oxygen, which is required to burn foodstuffs to carbon
dioxide and water. Cells, which are inhibited in completing their metabolic processes, may thus become
cancerous. The current movement to get trans fats out of foods has merely led to the replacement of one
harmful fat with another harmful, artificially produced, fat. For all practical purposes, the new man-made
fats, called “interestified” fats, are not better than the old trans fats. Research, published in Nutrition &
Metabolism (January 15, 2007), indicates that a new method of modifying fat in commercial products
raises blood glucose, depresses insulin, and reduces levels of beneficial HDL-cholesterol.
The trans fats also make the blood thicker by increasing the stickiness of the platelets. This multiplies
the chances of blood clots and the buildup of fatty deposits, which can lead to heart disease. Research at