Health authorities are telling us to replace saturated fats, found in animal products like meat, cheese and yogurt, with vegetable oils. I think many of these oils deserve closer scrutiny.
The name “vegetable oil” sounds natural, but many of these products are extracted from seeds rather than vegetables. In reality, vegetable oils are dangerous to health, and furthermore, they’re not even really vegetable oils, but industrial seed oils.
https://twitter.com/Rob_NBF/status/1269644757334097923
We can distinguish two groups of oils; those I prefer to use and those I prefer to avoid.
The oils I tend to use are:
- Olive oil (preferably extra virgin)
- Coconut oil
- Avocado oil
- Palm oil
The oils I tend to avoid are:
- Sunflower oil
- Safflower oil
- Flaxseed oil
- Canola oil
- Corn oil
- Soy oil
- Cottonseed oil
- Grapeseed oil
- Rice bran oil
The oils in the first group can be extracted with relatively little processing and contain a mix of saturated and monounsaturated fats. Many oils in the second group are refined through several industrial steps and are high in polyunsaturated fats.
Restaurants and the food industry use mostly the oils in the second group because they are often cheaper. In the early 1900s, Procter and Gamble came up with the idea to turn these toxic waste products into cooking oils.
Oils once used for candles and soap were later hydrogenated into solid fats resembling animal fats.
They even paid the American Heart Association to promote vegetable oils as a healthy alternative to animal fats in the 1940s. That promotion had a lasting influence on modern nutrition advice is still based on these old recommendations.
Over the following century, annual vegetable-oil consumption rose from 11 to 59 pounds per person. Chronic diseases also rose, though that parallel alone does not establish a cause.
I recommend watching this video for more context.
I have two main concerns about the oils I avoid:
The way they are extracted
These oils often require substantial processing. To extract oil from these seeds they heat them to extremely high temperatures and press them with industrial machinery. The oils are then refined by heating to a high temperature and adding sodium hydroxide (lye), and finally, degummed, bleached, and deodorized.
Think about it. When you press an olive, you’ll get oil. When you press a coconut, you’ll get oil. But when you press a soybean or a sunflower seed, you will not get nearly as much. Industrial chemicals and solvents are being used to extract oil, change its colour, and remove the unpleasant smell.
The type of fats they contain
The malevolent oils are very high in omega-6 fatty acids. Those fatty acids aren't intrinsically harmful, we need them to survive. However, we need omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids to be roughly in balance, like 1:1.
In some modern diets, this ratio is reported as more like 20:1 to 50:1 in favour of omega-6. A high ratio of omega-6 to -3 fatty acids may contribute to chronic inflammation in the body.
I have seen claims linking that imbalance to disease and to how easily some people get sunburned so fast. An imbalance may contribute to a great number of chronic diseases, including obesity, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, acne, and autoimmune conditions.
So omega-3 fats are essential fats that you must get from your diet. They play important roles in the heart, brain, and metabolism. Omega-6 fats as well are essential fats that are an important source of energy for the body. The Western diet, however, can provide much more omega-6 than omega-3.
Vegetable oils are high in polyunsaturated fats, which oxidise easily due to their molecular structure, both in your pantry and in your body. They end up in your cell membranes, and when they oxidise there they damage cell molecules.
Via negativa
Adding omega-3 alone may not be enough to change the balance substantially. Because omega-6 fatty acids are so ubiquitous, matching that intake by adding omega-3 alone could be impractical.
You'll achieve a healthy ratio by cutting down on omega-6 intake rather than increasing omega-3 intake (via negativa). In other words, reducing foods rich in omega-6 may shift that ratio.
You can do this by:
- Stop using vegetable oils for cooking.
- Throw away margarine.
- Avoid foods that list industrial seed oils among their ingredients.
- Don't eat out that often.
- Don't buy processed foods, so avoid basically everything in a box or package (80% of supermarket products).
And instead:
- Focus on whole foods.
- Eat animal fats such as meat, fish, cheese and yogurt.
- Eat other healthy fats such as nuts, seeds, olive oil, coconut oil and avocados.
- Use butter, olive oil or coconut oil for cooking.
- Take fish oil supplements.
- Eat real vegetables.
It's not realistic to think that you will completely eliminate toxic vegetable oils from your life, unless you never eat anything you didn't buy or prepare yourself. Life has to be fun, after all.
If you limit them in daily life, there is no need to worry about every occasional restaurant meal or social event.
Products that contain vegetable oils are, among many others:
- Bread
- Cookies and pastries
- Breakfast cereals
- Fried food
- Condiments, marinades, sauces and dressings
- Potato chips
- Microwaveable meals
- Everything in a box or package
- Veggie burgers
- Meal replacement products
If you want to read more about this topic, I recommend Deep Nutrition and The Big Fat Surprise.