ORIGINAL: edrice2
nope, partially hydrogenated are trans fats...the unhealthiest fats u can have
trans is simply the two chains being opposite diagonally, rather than cis-isomer.
Hydrogenated means hydrogens on the carbon chain, A partially hydrogenated fat or oil is a chain in which not every carbon has its full potential of hydrogens, aka, polyunsaturates.
A saturated carbon chains is a carbon chain with its full amount of hydrogens, an unsaturated (ergo only partially hydrogenated) is a chain with double bonds and not its full potential of hydrogens
http://www.s-cool.co.uk/topic_quicklearn.asp?loc=ql&topic_id=17&quicklearn_id=2&subject_id=7&ebt=166&ebn=&ebs=&ebl=&elc=13 Trans and cis are merely geometric isomers, it has nothing to do with how hydrogenated it is....
A cis fat could have the same amount of hydrogens as a trans fat....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_fat This is slightly helpful...though they have facts wrong.
This results in a straight, rather than kinked, shape for the carbon chain, more like the straight chain of a fully saturated fat.
You can see clearly in a endorsed website for education that trans isomers are the kinked ones...whereas they say it makes it straighter.
Partially hydrogenated in these terms means further hydrogenation of an unsaturated fat....So basically theyre turning a unsaturated fat into a saturated fat.
So its the same as saturated fats and that theyre bad.
Chemically, fats are large molecules consisting of three fatty acid groups connected to a single glycerol derivative. The term trans fat generally refers to a fat that contains one or more trans fatty acid groups. Fatty acid molecules are essentially long-chain hydrocarbons with a terminal carboxyl group. Fatty acids are characterized as saturated or unsaturated based on the number of hydrogen atoms in the acid. If the molecule contains the maximum possible number of hydrogen atoms, it is said to be saturated; otherwise, it is unsaturated to some degree.
At least they got this bit right....
EDIT:Im not arguing im just confused because it appears the terms the media and health critics use arent actually directly translatable from pure chemistry...Because anyone taking pure chem being asked what a "partially hydrogenated fat" is would answer a fat that isnt fully hydrogenated, aka, unsaturated...That doesnt appear to be the case however, as it seems partially hydrogenated fats in these terms means man made saturated fats....however a saturated fat is FULLY hydrogenated...thats why im confused about this all...
<message edited by twistedlink on Sunday, June 29, 2008 3:40 PM>