There has been an uptick in the attention that the “safe” vegetable oils are getting lately, so I thought I’d better address it and give you, “the rest of the story.”
For the more studious among my listeners, I’d highly recommend a book titled, Dark Calories, written by Catherine Shanahan, MD. She goes into great detail and provides data on studies and provides statistics to back up what she’s saying, which in a nutshell is, “How vegetable oils destroy our health and how we can get it back.”
I think all of us have become more cognizant of our food supply, since the news is filled with horror stories every day about this or that item being dangerous. Many of you are now label readers, which makes me very happy! We are all personally responsible for our own health and if you are verifying what is in the products you buy, you are one step closer to a healthy lifestyle.
One of the most insidious, yet common substances contained in practically EVERYTHING we eat is an innocuous sounding ingredient called “vegetable oil”. Over 80 percent of foods with an ingredient label contain at least one type of vegetable oil. They account for up to 80 percent of the average US person’s fat calories, and one-third of our total calories! And these things are POISON to your body.
Vegetable oil consumption has increased in the past 110 years, while saturated fat and animal fat have not. There is no proven correlation between either saturated fat or animal fat and heart attacks. In spite of this, Doctors learn and tell their patients that there is.
But Karen, IT’S VEGETABLE OIL! I know, I hear you, and I was drawn in to this deception with the rest of you. The truth is vegetable oil does not come from vegetables like cauliflower or carrots. It comes from seeds. You will see both terms used, vegetable oil and seed oil interchangeably. The hateful eight, as Dr. Shanahan calls them, are corn oil, cottonseed oil, canola oil, soy oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, grapeseed oil, ricebran oil.
Did you know that eating a typical five ounce serving of most restaurant fries (which are almost always cooked in vegetable oils) equates to the toxicity of smoking twenty to twenty-five cigarettes? It’s true!
First, a little history. Vegetable oil is actually fairly new, as it didn’t appear on the scene until about 150 years ago. Until then, we were using beef tallow, real butter from milk and oils extracted from fruits like olives and coconuts for centuries. Enter the chemists.
In the 1890’s, because there was a tallow shortage to make soap, Procter & Gamble tuned to a byproduct of the textile industry – cottonseeds. After extracting the oil, refining it, bleaching it, and deodorizing it, it was mainly used as fuel for lamps. When the petroleum industry emerged and petroleum replaced cottonseed oil, meatpackers started illegally adding cottonseed oil to animal fats like tallow to increase their volume. It was also added to American olive oil.
Long story short, P&G, through some chemical magic known as hydrogenation, managed to change the consistency and make the product more spreadable and softer. You may know this product as Crisco. It was promoted to American housewives as a healthier alternative to cooking with animal fats.
It all comes down to what is cheaper for the manufacturers. They have a bottom line, and your personal health is NOT on their agenda. AT ALL. When the trans fat ban came about, the chemists went to work again to provide a liquid alternative. Enter seed oils.
So what’s the big deal? Vegetable oil’s tendency to oxidize has implications for everyday aspects of life that the medical community has largely ignored. So what, Karen, how does this apply to ME? I’m so glad you asked! We know that all chronic diseases share the same root cause – oxidative stress. And oxidative stress is caused by toxicity and nutrient deficiencies.
Did you know that eating a typical five ounce serving of most restaurant fries (which are almost always cooked in vegetable oils) equates to the toxicity of smoking twenty to twenty-five cigarettes? It’s true!
So what do we do? You have a choice! I love a quote from the book, “we’ve eaten our way into this mess, we can eat our way out!” This is another reason I push diet so much. It is the basis for everything in our bodies, health wise.
So what’s the solution? We’re going to replace seed oils – ALL of them, with healthy fats. Dr. Shanahan calls them, the “Delightful Dozen”! I’ll just list them for you here, and you can begin replacing the toxic with the healthy at your own discretion. Here we go! Butter, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Unrefined Peanut Oil, Unrefined Coconut Oil, Unrefined Avocado Oil, Ghee (or clarified butter), Sesame Oil, Unrefined Palm Oil, Bacon Fat (and all the men cheered!) Tallow, Lard, and Chicken Fat.
This subject is so important to health and wellness that I’m going to do another session next week, expounding on the positive things to use and how to eat out without sabotaging your health! Clean out those cupboards, and LET’S GET BETTER!
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