If health is important to you then eliminating industrialised seed and vegetable oils from your diet is paramount. All industrialised seed and vegetable oils, such as peanut, soy, sunflower and canola, contain a high percentage of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). Polyunsaturated fats are fantastic for cooking, for frying and for conserving foods. Because they impart no taste they can be used for both sweet and savoury dishes, and for this reason the food industry loves them. But the PUFA’s, unfortunately, are very problematic for our health.

The Problem with Industrialised Seed and Vegetable Oils

Industrialised seed and vegetable oils are high in the polyunsaturated fatty acid Omega 6, which promotes inflammation. All PUFA’s are very unstable. When exposed to air, heat and light, all of which are inevitably involved in the refining process, they oxidize: the oil molecules react with oxygen and form free radicals. Moreover, the refining process extracts the phytonutrients, which, being antioxidants, protect them from rancidity whilst in their natural form. Rancid, oxidised oils are toxic. Because PUFA’s are easily damaged through heat, they become even more toxic when used for cooking.

This is devastating for our health. Our cells need fat and thus our cell membranes absorb these rancid PUFAs. The immune system responds to the toxicity with inflammation. The more toxic oils we have in our system, the more we’re prone to Chronic Systemic Inflammation.

The Problem with Trans Fats

Trans fats are also known as hydrogenated fats or partially hydrogenated fats. These are vegetable oils that have been heated with hydrogen gas. This industrial heating process converts the fats from a liquid to a solid state and actually changes the molecular form. Instead of being round, they become oblong. When our cells absorb these deformed fats, the consequence is damage at the cellular level.

Trans fats are found in foods such as biscuits, fries, all kinds of processed foods and in fats “without butter” such as margerine.

That trans fats are implicated in heart disease, insulin resistance, obesity, high cholesterol, diabetes, stroke, immune disorders and other chronic diseases cannot be argued. In June 2015, the American Food and Drug Administration opted to ban all trans fats from restaurants, giving them three years to comply.

Replace Unhealthy Oils with Healthy Fats

Industrialised seed and vegetable oils and trans fats are no joke. If we want to be healthy then we have to eliminate them from our homes and replace them with healthy cooking oils.

Healthy cooking fats include

• Saturated fats eg butter, lard, coconut oil
• Cold Pressed Monounsaturated fats eg olive oil, avocado, macadamia nut

For more details about the fat families, see the post, Good Fats, Bad Fats and Poison.

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Read More

What’s Wrong with Beans and Legumes? 4 Things to Know – They’re not the great source of vegetarian nutrition that they’re made out to be.

Cereals and Grains: The Dirty Secrets – Along with Industrialised Seed and Vegetable Oils, this is the big food category that we really need to avoid.

What We Eat, What We Don’t – The Paleo Diet, Simply Explained – In a nutshell, the Yes Foods and No Foods.

Credits

Frying Food Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash | Fries Photo by Magnus Jonasson on Unsplash | Eating Burgers and Fries Photo by Dan Gold on Unsplash | Doughnuts Photo by Elisheva Gohar on Unsplash