# Are Cooking Oils Killing Us? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 12, 2007, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cooking-oils-killing-us/429741 "2007-12-12T15:06:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Starbaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/da6949/32.png) [@Starbaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starbaby)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cooking-oils-killing-us/429741/1 "2007-12-12T15:06:14Z")
☹ When some fast food places changed over to no trans fat cooking oil, I began to get really sick. Some of my symptoms are: heart palpitations, feelings like I am going to faint, and inflamed sinuses with prolonged nagging cough, and alot of sneezing. This lasts six months, but can return whenever it starts to warm up in the 70’s +. I asked a manager of a well known fried chicken joint if he could tell me what type of oil is the chicken fried in and he said, “soybean oil and one more ingredient called TCHQ” I looked up TCHQ and it lead me to some scientific research over some other cooking oils even olive oils and it seems that something bad happens when oils are processed. The words PCP/TCHQ does something like fragmenting the DNA of humans when their T Cells are messed up. Now I don’t want to eat. This sucks!! Is there anyone who knows about this can explain it to me if I read this research incorrectly? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cooking-oils-killing-us/429741/2 "2007-12-12T15:08:58Z")
Reported. We do not offer medical advice. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cooking-oils-killing-us/429741/3 "2007-12-12T15:15:44Z")
[QUOTE=Starbaby] I looked up TCHQ and it lead me to some scientific research over some other cooking oils even olive oils and it seems that something bad happens when oils are processed. [/QUOTE] Can you post links to some of those research results? I can’t find any. I know we can’t provide medical advice but I think we can at least discuss the scientific merits of such reports. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cooking-oils-killing-us/429741/4 "2007-12-12T15:24:25Z")
[QUOTE=scr4] Can you post links to some of those research results? I can’t find any. [/QUOTE] Yes, if tetrachlorohydroquinone is a food additive, you’d think there’d be a few more hits on it. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cooking-oils-killing-us/429741/5 "2007-12-12T15:30:04Z")
I agree with **Squink**. I can’t find any evidence that it is a food additive. I would be suprised if it were. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cooking-oils-killing-us/429741/6 "2007-12-12T17:36:17Z")
Tyson Chicken HeadQuarters? ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cooking-oils-killing-us/429741/7 "2007-12-12T18:22:16Z")
Eating that much fast food is probably worse for a person’s health than whatever oil is used to fry it. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2007, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cooking-oils-killing-us/429741/8 "2007-12-12T23:36:04Z")
I monitor classes at a community college, and one of my classes is Nutrition. The instructor talked about transfats a couple of weeks ago. I wasn’t paying close attention, but I remember that he did say something about the switch in oils, and that the products restaurants are using in place of the stuff with transfats has its own problems. But ya know, there’s lots of food you can eat that doesn’t have to be fried. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2007, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cooking-oils-killing-us/429741/9 "2007-12-13T03:07:57Z")
What _are_ they replacing trans fats with? There are only so many fats, and the healthfuller ones aren’t all that suitable for frying. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2007, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cooking-oils-killing-us/429741/10 "2007-12-13T18:55:37Z")
[QUOTE=Balthisar] What _are_ they replacing trans fats with? [/QUOTE] [Low linolenic soybean oil](http://www.zerotranssoy.com/sol_lowlin_main.htm) seems to be a common alternative. It’s made from genetically modified soybeans. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2007, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-cooking-oils-killing-us/429741/11 "2007-12-13T20:20:17Z")
[QUOTE=scr4] [Low linolenic soybean oil](http://www.zerotranssoy.com/sol_lowlin_main.htm) seems to be a common alternative. It’s made from genetically modified soybeans. [/QUOTE] Interesting, but the linolenic acid thing has me confused. I thought the reason for the trans configuration was prevent hydrogen bonding with anything – not just fatty acids. I’d always equated to oxidation for some reason. In any case, they don’t describe the oil as saturated, mono-unsaturated, unsaturated, anything. What’s the fat configuration? Still mono-unsaturated, and the only thing that really causes rancidity (which is a health risk in its own right) is the fatty acids? Does that mean that any unsaturated fat becomes stable by eliminating this particular fatty acid?