Wow, I guess the moral here is do not believe what you read on the internet. Mineral oil is a pure hydrocarbon chain, whereas dietary fats are fatty acids, hydrocarbons with a COOH group, attached in triplets to the 3 carbon chain alcohol called glycerol (hence, triglycerides). When we digest fat, we first liberate free fatty acids, and enzymes start working on the COOH end of the FFA, liberating smaller bits that get burned in mitochondria. Without these COOH groups we can't start working on mineral oils. That's why oil slicks won't break down easily, and it's why mineral oil is used as a laxative---you can't break it down, so it just slides through you. There are zero available calories to mineral oil, although if you burned them in a calorimeter you'd find the same calorie content as in regular fat.
Let's limit ourselves to stuff we know and not guesswork!
Let's limit ourselves to stuff we know and not guesswork!
