Food Freedom Friday Edition 325 - Avoid Vegetable Oils

The modern rhetoric is that animal oils are harmful to your health and traditional fats like butter and lard caused high cholesterol leading to heart disease and death. Nutrition experts and the medical community advised avoiding saturated fat (animal fat) and eating more plant-based oils. 

This shift to plant-based oils is a recent event. Man has relied on animal oils until for generations, until, in the 19th century, technological advancements made it possible for vegetable oils to be extracted from plants. The introduction of hydrogenation of liquid fats in 1901 allowed for solid vegetable fats like margarine.

Procter & Gamble took advantage of this development to convert cotton seeds, a toxic waste product, into cottonseed oil, which resulted in the birth of Crisco. This was subsequently aggressively marketed, convincing the American public to swap out animal oils like butter for this newly created modern, industrialized fat.

The packaging claimed that the oil was more versatile; it could be used for baking, frying, and cooking and that it was healthier than animal fats and much easier to digest. These marketing tactics worked, and vegetable oils became part of the standard American diet.

The consumption of seed oils over the past century has been dramatic. Soybean oil consumption has increased 1000-fold between 1909 and 1999. By 2010, the amount of vegetable oils in the American diet was 50 grams per day.

The most common vegetable oils consumed today include:

·       Rice bran oil

·       Corn oil

·       Peanut oil

·       Grapeseed oil

·       Almond oil

·       Vegetable oil

·       Sesame oil

·       Margarine

·       Canola oil

·       Soybean oil

·       Sunflower oil

·       Safflower oil

·       Cottonseed oil

Consumption of vegetable oils was further encouraged by advisory groups such as the American Heart Association, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Education Cholesterol Program. This significant shift from animal fats by the scientific community was inspired by the questionable research of the scientist Ancel Keys. He made unsubstantiated claims and manipulated data to show that saturated fat (animal fat) was the sole cause of heart disease. His research was widely accepted and formed the basis of the current nutrition advice regarding saturated fats.

More recent research has shown that animal fats aren’t associated with cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular disease mortality, or myocardial infarction and might even have a positive association with stroke and lower total mortality.

Avoid Vegetable Oils

Adding plant-based oils to any diet is not recommended. Adding these oils to a carnivore diet, which already restricts plant-based foods, is counter-intuitive. The carnivore diet benefits include reduced inflammation, improved digestion, better heart health, weight loss, and improved mental health.

By including vegetable oils in your diet, you reduce the diet’s effectiveness and put yourself at risk for chronic diseases. There are numerous reasons to avoid vegetable oils on any diet.

Fatty Acid Instability

All fats contain a blend of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAS), saturated fatty acids (SFA), and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFA). What delineates these three types of fatty acids is how many double bonds each has. Saturated fats have none, monounsaturated have one, and polyunsaturated have multiple double bonds. Vegetable oils contain polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats; this is why they are liquid at room temperature and also means they are highly unstable.

The double bonds readily react with oxygen, especially when heated, undergoing the oxidation process. When oxidized, vegetable oils produce free radicals, which are unpaired electrons looking to find a match. In the process, they attack and restructure cell membranes, red blood cells, and even damage RNA and DNA strands leading to cellular mutations in the body tissues. Free radicals play a significant role in many chronic illnesses including cancer, diabetes, dementia, asthma, inflammatory joint disease, degenerative eye disease, and atherosclerosis. Free radicals also cause wrinkles and premature aging.

Cooking food in vegetable oils inundates your body with these free radicals, damaging your cells and increasing the risk for diseases. To minimize risk, you should use more stable oils such as butter and other animal oils for cooking.  Animal oils contain high levels of saturated fatty acids, are stable, and resist oxidation when heated.

Trans Fats

Vegetable oils are partially or fully hydrogenated. This chemical process adds hydrogen to vegetable oil, causing the oil to be solid at room temperature like butter. Hydrogenated vegetable oils have a longer shelf life. Trans-fat is formed when vegetables are hardened and can be found in margarine, vegetable shortening, vegan cheese, and butter.

Hydrogenated oil is less likely to spoil, and some restaurants use it in their deep fryers since it doesn’t have to be changed as often as animal oils. This explains why trans-fat can be found in a variety of processed and manufactured food products including:

·       Microwave popcorn

·       Fried foods like fried chicken, french fries, and doughnuts

·       Baked goods like pies, cakes, and cookies

·       Frozen pizza

·       Non-dairy coffee creamer

Trans-fat can also be found in non-hydrogenated vegetable oils. A study looking at vegetable oils including soybean and canola oils found that their trans-fat contents ranged between 0.56% and 4.2%. Trans-fats are associated with multiple chronic diseases, including type2 diabetes, heart attack, obesity, and cancer. Trans-fat also has an unhealthy effect on your cholesterol levels.

There are two main types of cholesterol:

·       High-density lipoprotein (HDL): this is the ‘good’ cholesterol and removes excess cholesterol and takes it back to the liver.

·       Low-density lipoprotein (LDL): is the ‘bad’ cholesterol and can build up in your arteries walls making them narrow and hard.

Trans-fat decreases your HDL cholesterol and increases your LDL cholesterol. This results in fatty deposits clogging up your arteries, increasing your risk for heart attack. It also suppresses prostacyclin production, which is an effective vasodilator preventing blood clots. When your body cannot produce this compound, blood clots may form, blocking blood flow to your brain, causing a stroke or to your heart and ultimately leading to a heart attack.

Toxic By-products

When polyunsaturated fats are broken down and oxidized, they produce toxic by products, including Acrolein, malondialdehyde (MDA), and 4‐hydroxy‐hexenal (HNE). These substances are highly reactive and bind with key cellular enzymes resulting in their depletion or inactivation. Furthermore, they are linked to several health problems including cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, and cardiovascular diseases. Studies show that MDA and HNE are present in all vegetable oils.

Imbalanced Omega 6: Omega 3 Ratio

Omega 6 fatty acids are polyunsaturated fatty acids and are mostly found in vegetable oils, while omega 3 fatty acids are mostly found in animal foods like fish. These fatty acids are essential to your body as the body is unable to manufacture them.

Throughout human evolution, omega 6 and omega 3 were consumed in a 1:1 ratio. In the past century, this ratio has dramatically shifted to 20:1 or even higher in modern diets. The fact that vegetable oils form a significant part of the western diet contributes to this explosive increase. Introducing refined oils into the human diet whilst moving away from traditional, naturally occurring fats has increased omega 6 fat intake. Vegetable oils contain an unnatural amount of omega-6 fats, which wildly distorts the ideal omega fatty acid ratio.

The benefits of omega 3 are well documented and include lower blood pressure, reduced risk for stroke and heart disease, and slow development of plaque in the arteries. A high omega 6: omega 3 ratio can reverse these benefits, shifting the body into a more pro-inflammatory state.

Chronic inflammation is an underlying factor in almost all severe medical conditions and chronic disease including cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and cardiovascular disease. An overly high omega 6 consumption can lead to blood clots that can cause stroke and heart attack, an increase in your blood pressure, and water retention.

The best way to change your fatty acid profile is by eliminating vegetable oils and only using animal oils for cooking.

Coconut Oil, Olive Oil, Avocado Oil & MCT Oil

Oils derived from fruits such as coconuts, olives and avocados are believed to be healthy since they’re low in omega-6 fatty acids. Olive oil contains monounsaturated fats, which are moderately stable, while coconut oil comprises 90% saturated fat and 10% unsaturated fat. MCT oil, on the other hand, is manufactured from saturated fat from coconut and palm oils.

But these so-called healthy plant oils still have some harmful toxins such as polyphenols, salicylates, and oleosin. Polyphenols are antioxidants and are supposed to benefit your body, but studies show that polyphenols can inhibit iron absorption resulting in iron depletion and interfering with thyroid hormone biosynthesis.

Salicylate is a natural chemical that plants use to protect themselves from disease, insects, and bacteria. When consumed, it can cause bronchial asthma, gastrointestinal inflammation, hives, nasal polyps, diarrhea, or rhinitis. Oleosin is a plant protein that triggers an immune response in some people and causes an allergic reaction. MCT oil is a processed food and can also cause an allergic reaction with symptoms like tightness in the chest or throat, rash and hives, diarrhea and vomiting, and peeling skin.

Fats To Use

Animal fats are far superior to vegetable or plant oils. They’re an excellent source of bioavailable minerals and nutrients, and there is. No concern about them triggering inflammation. Some common animal fats include

·       Butter

·       Cow Ghee

·       Tallow

·       Lard

·       Bacon grease

·       Duck fat

·       Chicken fat

Remember

Vegetable and plant oils are highly inflammatory and can be dangerous to your health. When embarking on any eating plan to reach your wellness and fat loss goals, eliminating plant and vegetable oils from your diet is the best thing you can do to maximize your benefits. Use animal fats for cooking as they are highly stable and resist oxidation even at extreme heat. They also taste delicious!