If you’re the type of person who regularly reads the labels of the types of food you eat, you may have come across this word that is challenging to pronounce and sounds more like hard fuel for a military tanker. In one of my articles, I mentioned about processed foods and how they add a heavy burden to your digestive disorders. However, a topic on processed foods without mentioning hydrogenated oils would not be complete.
Various food manufacturers have taken the fat we use through a process called hydrogenation. It simply means adding bubbles of hydrogen to an oil to make it solidify. Some examples of hydrogenated oils are margarine and vegetable shortening. If you can’t read it on most of your food labels, then it might have its other, more familiar name: fully saturated fats, which are obviously the cause of high blood cholesterol (and in turn give rise to other diseases and conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer).
Aside from the fact that they contain no nutrients and hardly any beneficial ingredients, hydrogenated oils make GERD or acid reflux worse as they contribute more to the acidic environment inside your stomach.
Hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils can be found in a wide variety of products, but it seems their favorite has always been: processed foods. If you could take a closer look at the ingredient label on anything in your kitchen that is contained in a box, jar, can, or bag, these types of foods are more likely to contain those oils.
However, it’s important to tell the difference between good fats and bad fats, especially if you want to naturally cure your GERD, acid reflux, or any digestive disorders you have. Your body needs fast to thrive, but it needs the right kind. Bad fats are hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated or animal fats (pork, bacon or salt). Good fats, on the other hand, include real butter (with an emphasis on “real”) and not the “light” alternative. Other examples include canola oil, olive oil, safflower oil, and sesame oil.