The Vegetable Oil Myth

The Vegetable oil Myth

One of the biggest revelations I had in 2013 was the news that vegetable oils are not good for a person’s health. On the contrary, most vegetable oils can cause serious health problems, especially when they are used for cooking. These oils include most oils extracted from grains and seeds such as corn, cotton, canola, soy, and sunflower oils.  One of the few exceptions is olive oil, but only if you use it in its natural form without overheating it.

The main reason why vegetable oils are so bad for you is the fact that the human body is not meant to consume them .Vegetable oils (and margarine, made from these oils) are artificial oils that have been extracted from seeds like the rapeseed (canola oil) soybean (soybean oil), corn, sunflower, safflower, etc. They were practically non-existent in our diets until the early 1900s when new chemical processes allowed them to be extracted. These vegetable oils can’t be extracted just by pressing or separating naturally. They must be chemically removed, deodorized, and altered.  Ironically enough, these are some of the most chemically altered foods in our diets, yet they get promoted as healthy.

Here is a list of serious health problems caused by using vegetable oils for human consumption:

·         The human body needs more saturated fats than polyunsaturated fats in order to function well. Vegetable oils contain very high levels of polyunsaturated fats, and these oils have replaced many of the saturated fats in our diets since the 1950s. This imbalance is not good for us since polyunsaturated fats are highly unstable and oxidize easily in the body that is if they haven’t already oxidized during processing or by light exposure while sitting on the grocery store shelf). These oxidized fats cause inflammation and mutation in cells.

·         In addition, vegetable oils are chemically produced, so they contain harmful chemicals. Most vegetable oils and their products contain BHA and BHT (Butylated Hydroxyanisole and Butylated Hydroxytoluene) which are artificial antioxidants that help prevent food from oxidizing or spoiling too quickly.

·         These chemicals have been shown to produce potential cancer- causing compounds in the body, and have also been linked to liver/kidney damage, immune problems, infertility or sterility, among other problems.

·         Vegetable oils may also contain residues of the pesticides and chemicals used in the cultivation of the grains they are obtained from. On top of that, many of those grains may have come from genetically modified sources such as soy beans.

In conclusion, I think that most of us have been misled by the vegetable oil industry into switching from the more natural and healthy sources of dietary fat such as lard, beef tallow, and butter from grass-fed cows. We should also include oils tropical oils such as coconut and palm fruit oils, which are very similar to animal fats.  Fortunately, it is not too late to get back to those natural sources of fatty acids that are necessary for good health.