Why Industrial Seed Oils are bad for your health.

Industrial seed oil‘s are a very recent addition to the human diet. In fact, industrial seed oil‘s, we’re only introduced to the American diet in the early 1900s.

This makes them an evolutionary mismatch. Our genes are almost identical to our ancestors genes more than a hundred thousand years ago. The high amounts of vegetable oils work against our ancestral biology, causing us to become overweight and sick.

Let’s have a closer look at the history of these oil‘s.

Cotton seeds are the seeds from the cotton plant. These seeds were worthless until the 1850s when the extracted oil was used for lighting. But this was quickly replaced by petroleum leaving cottonseed oil consigned to toxic waste. That was until Proctor and Gamble realized that all that unwanted cottonseed oil could produce soap. They also realized that the oil could be chemically altered. A process called hydrogenation could turn cottonseed oil into a solid cooking fat.

That’s how an oil, formally classified as “toxic waste” was now becoming a staple of the American diet. Soybean oil, canola, corn, safflower oil‘s and many more followed shortly after that. The low cost of these cooking oil’s and effective marketing by the manufacturers made them very popular in American kitchens.

By the 1940s industrial seed oil‘s were now more kindly referred to as “vegetable oils”. And thanks to a $1.5 million donation from Proctor & Gamble. The American Heart Association endorsed them as “Heart Healthy”

How are these oil‘s made?

The general process is not natural. The extracted oils must be refined, bleached, and deodorized before they are suitable for human consumption.

1. The seeds are heated to extremely high temperatures.

2. The seeds are then processed with a petroleum based solvent.

3. Chemicals deodorize the oil’s which have a very off putting smell once extracted.

4. More chemicals are added to improve the color.

This process creates an energy dense, nutrient poor oil that contains chemical residue, trans fats and oxidized byproducts.

Why industrial seed oil‘s are bad for your health.

1. Eating these oil‘s raises or omega six to omega-3 fatty acid ratios, with significant consequences for our health.

2. They contain harmful additives.

3. Industrial seed oil‘s are unstable and oxidize easily.

4. They are derived from genetically modified crops.

5. When repeatedly heated they become more toxic.

These industrial seed oil’s are associated with many health problems.

Asthma, diabetes and obesity, heart disease, inflammation, and auto immune disease, cognitive function and mental health.

Two ways to avoid industrial seed oils:

• Remove from your kitchen all bottles of:  

  ·       Canola/rapeseed

  ·       Corn

  ·       Cottonseed

  ·       Soybean

  ·       Sunflower

  ·       Safflower

  ·       Peanut

• Avoid all processed foods. These are very high in industrial seed oils. Also try to cut back on restaurant foods. These are usually cooked in industrial seed oils that are repeatedly heated.

Four Fats you should be cooking with.

Let’s look at fats our ancestors have used for thousands of years.

Extra-virgin olive oil: has been put apart of the human diet for thousands of years. It is rich in the antioxidant vitamin E and polyphenols.

Coconut oil: Is a superfood with many health promoting properties and is excellent for energy. It is very heat stable.

Butter: If you tolerate dairy, butter may be great additions to your diet. Butter from grass-fed animals contain conjugated linoleic acid. This is a type of fatty acid with anti-cancer and metabolic health-promoting properties.

Duck Fat: Duck fat is a delicious traditional cooking oil that also has great versatility. It has a high smoke point, making it great for high-heat cooking, but a delicate flavor and similar fatty acid profile to olive oil.