What are hydrogenated fats and how to look for them

When we think about how our bodies digest food, we will usually think of it as a biological process.  But there is a lot of knowledge to be gained from understanding the chemical processes involved too, particularly when it comes to understanding how our bodies deal with different types of nutrients, and why they are grouped together.  From this perspective, the three main food groups, which are differentiated based on their chemistry, are proteins, carbohydrates (literally this comes from hydrogenated (hydrogen) carbons, two chemical elements), and finally fats.  Fats can then be further broken down into saturated and unsaturated fats. 

Unsaturated fat is generally thought to be the healthier fat, but from a chemical perspective, this is identified by the fact that not all of the carbon elements in the chain are fully “saturated” by hydrogen elements.  In general, when these unsaturated fats occur in natural, the unsaturated elements will turn in a certain direction, giving them an appearance of being bent.  This is known as a cis fatty acid.  It is something that is happening at a molecular level, so not visible with the naked eye, but it will also mean that these types of fats are liquid at room temperature. 

In certain circumstances, our diets also provide us with unsaturated fats that appear to be in a kind of a straight line.  These either come from the fat in dairy and meat products, or from commercially produced partially hydrogenated fats.  When cis fats are artificially altered by the forced inclusion of hydrogen, the resulting fat is then hard at room temperature where previously it would have been liquid, and it allows for a cheaper and less perishable substitute for butter.  These fats are known as trans fats, and are extremely detrimental to our health. 

In particular, the hydrogenated fats that are found in foods like certain brands of crisps, some peanut butters, commercially prepared cakes and even fast foods such as burgers can cause serious health issues.  Our bodies cannot metabolise these fats in the normal manner, nor can they be excreted in the normal manner.  This means that they tend to remain in blood circulation.  Regular exposure of our endothelial cells to these types of trans fats has been shown to lead to inflammation and heart disease. 

The food industry recognised how dangerous consumption of these types of fats were and they responded by enforcing strict labelling guidelines on foods containing these.  Unfortunately, they only required products with a trans-fat content of 0.5% or more to specify that this fat was included in the food product.  This means that some foods may contain trans fats without having to state this on their nutritional guidelines, leading to mislead the consumer. 

Below I’ve included the ingredients from a very well-known brand of peanut butter sweet.  You can see clearly that allergens, as is required, are highlighted in bold.  Further down the list is the inclusion of the following: “Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil”.  This is hydrogenated fat, and this is exactly the type of fat you want to avoid at all costs!

Milk Chocolate Flavoured Coating (65%) [Sugar*; Cocoa Butter; Cocoa Mass; Non Fat Milk Powder; Milk Fat; Lactose (Milk); Emulsifiers:Soya Lecithin*, E476], Peanut Butter Creme Centre (35%) [Peanuts; Sugar*; Dextrose*; Cocoa Butter; Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Palm Kernel and Palm Oil); Salt; Emulsifier: E476; Antioxidant: E319], *Produced from genetically modified Sugar Beet, Corn and Soya Beans

If you do purchase processed goods in the supermarket, it is worth spending an extra few minutes looking at the label to see what exactly is included.  It is possible to find alternative brands that don’t include this type of fat, and it is most definitely worth the extra few minutes’ effort it will take to find them.