FAQ

Eating partially hydrogenated vegetable oil is risky for your heart health and may be worse than consuming saturated fats or fully hydrogenated oils. You'll find these harmful oils in many processed foods, such as crackers and cookies. Eating a lot of partially hydrogenated oil will raise the bad cholesterol that clogs your arteries and increases your risk of heart attack and stroke. It's best to minimize your intake of partially hydrogenated oil to protect your heart and improve your overall health.

Meaning of Partially Hydrogenated

Food manufacturers create partially hydrogenated oils by adding hydrogen to vegetable oils in order to make them more solid and less liquid. If an oil is fully hydrogenated, it is a solid fat at room temperature. Partially hydrogenating helps the stability of the fats in processed foods and allows them to stay fresh longer. You get a small amount of partially hydrogenated fats naturally from beef, lamb and full-fat dairy, but these seem to be less risky for your health, according to MayoClinic.com. The harmful oils come from processed foods such as baked goods, snack foods and fried foods.

Cholesterol

Partially hydrogenated oils contain trans fats, which are particularly bad for your heart health. Trans fat increases the "bad" low density lipoprotein cholesterol, or LDL, and decreases the "good" high density lipoprotein cholesterol, or HDL. High HDL levels tend to have cardioprotective effects, whereas high LDL levels are an increased risk factor for heart disease. Trans fat seems to be as detrimental to heart health as saturated fat, which may be because trans fat is difficult to digest so your body processes it as saturated fat.

Inflammation

In addition to raising your LDL cholesterol, trans fat may produce inflammation in your body, making you more prone to develop diseases. A study published in "The Journal of Lipid Research" in October 2011 looked at overweight but healthy postmenopausal women taking partially hydrogenated oil. At the end of the 16-week trial, women consuming the partially hydrogenated oil had higher levels of inflammation in their bodies than women consuming regular vegetable oil. An inflammatory marker called tumor necrosis factor increased the most from consuming trans fat.

Intake Recommendations

You can identify foods containing these harmful fats by reading the Nutrition Facts panel and the ingredient list. "Trans fat" will appear on the Nutrition Facts panel under saturated fat if the product contains any, and the ingredient list will include "partially hydrogenated" oil. The American Heart Association recommends consuming no more than 2 grams of trans fat per day for a 2,000-calorie diet, or less than 1 percent of your daily calorie intake. Fats that have been fully hydrogenated do not contain trans fat and are less risky for your health.