Tuesday, May 17, 2005

When used to fry foods, polyunsaturated vegetable oils from such plants assoybeans and sunflowers produce a toxic compound that has been associatedwith a variety of illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, Parkinson'sand Alzheimer's diseases, and liver problems, researchers say.

The findings, presented last week at a meeting of the American OilChemists' Society, highlight the risk of reheating the oils or reusingthem, since the amount of the compound, known as HNE, increases with eachheating, the researchers said. The compound forms when the component ofunsaturated oils that is considered so healthful, linoleic acid, oxidizes.