Hydrogenation

Hydrogenation

Since the discovery of hydrogenation in the early 1900s and the popularization of this technique by Crisco in 1911 (Baker), more and more products have been created using this process. However, recently this process has been discovered to have negative health effects and there is research going on to discover new techniques to eliminate the problems associated with the procedure. Oil companies require hydrogen to get rid of sulfur and other things in crude oil. The heavier the crude oil, the more hydrogen is required to get rid of impurities (212 Hoffmann). Hydrogenation is the process of creating saturated fatty acids when double bonds break as they take in hydrogen. Fatty acids with two or more double bonds are polyunsaturated, fatty acids with one double bond are monounsaturated, and fatty acids with no double bonds are saturated and trans (141 Bender). First, during hydrogenation oil is heated to an extremely high temperature and then hydrogen is added (Francis). At Cargill, they produce their own hydrogen gas and they also use this gas to hydrogenate their soybeans, creating fat from soybean oil. By using hydrogenation, we can lengthen the shelf-life of edible organic oils, such as soybean, fish, cotton seed, peanut, corn, and coconut oil. This is because hydrogenation decreases the possibility of the oil oxidizing. When hydrogen is added to oil, it becomes a fat, like margarine, shortening, soap, and animal feed (212-213 Hoffmann).
According to John Cook, new technologies are now being developed so that margarine and other fats are being created without the process of hydrogenation. Without using this process, scientists would be able to eliminate saturated fat in products such as margarine and shortening, and allow these products to be healthier for the consumer (Cook, Emptage, Miller, Rauch, and Funes). Saturated fats cause the low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol to go up and cause the high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol to go down. LDL cholesterol is recognized as bad for you and HDL cholesterol as good for you, therefore, health conscious individuals should be aware of the amount of hydrogenated products they are consuming (Formanek).


Works Cited

Hoffmann, Peter. Tomorrow’s Energy: Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and the Prospects for a Cleaner Planet. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2001. Print.
"The Bad Fat." The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR) 15 Jan. 2007: B1. Questia. Web. 4 Mar. 2010.
Bender, Arnold E., and David A. Bender. A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. Questia. Web. 4 Mar. 2010.
Cook, John D., et al. "Food Biotechnology: Can You Afford to Be Left Out?." The McKinsey Quarterly (1997): 78+. Questia. Web. 4 Mar. 2010.
"THE FATS YOU DIDN'T KNOWCOULD KILL YOU; They're Called 'Trans Fats' - and Doctors Now Say They Are the Major Health Threat in Our Food. Here, We Explain Just What They Are . . . and Reveal the Products They Lurk in GoodHealth." The Daily Mail (London, England) 20 June 2006: 42. Questia. Web. 4 Mar. 2010.
Formanek, Ray. "Observations." FDA Consumer Sept.-Oct. 2003: 2. Questia. Web. 4 Mar. 2010.