Health Euqo: September 2013

Debunking Food Myths: Vegetable Oils Are Not Healthy… Not Even Olive Oil, Coconut Oil or Fish Oil!

May292012

Summary

One of the biggest nutritional myth in industrialized countries is that vegetable oil, especially olive oil, is a healthy source of fat. The purpose of this posting is to provide factual evidence of two things. First, oil is not a health food. Second, oil is actually a junk food that should be avoided at all cost. These findings fly in the face of common nutritional advice so we will take the time to explain why. More details are provided below in the forms of articles and videos from medical doctors and nutritional experts who have expertise helping people reverse chronic diseases.

Fact #1

Vegetable oil does not exist in nature. It is a highly refined processed food. Most scientists, nutritionists and dietitians would agree that refined foods are not as healthy as the original whole foods found in nature. Why should oil be an exception? Last time I checked, bottles of olive oil do not grow on trees so why is a highly refined processed food considered health food?

Fact #2

Vegetable oil is an isolated ingredient. The oil had to be mechanically extracted from the original food (seed, corn, soybean, avocado, coconut, olive, etc.) This means the oil found in a bottle is no longer stored within the cell walls of the original plant food it came from. The fiber has been removed when the oil was extracted. Most of the nutritional content like vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals has also been removed. Oil is simply the pure calorie content part of the food, without the nutrients and fiber needed to slow down digestion. The nutritional term used to define a food that has a lot of calories without any nutritional value is “empty calorie”. Another term used by most people is “junk food”. Therefore, vegetable oil is junk food. Olive oil is no different than any other oil and is also considered junk food. The same applies to all other oils, including coconut oil.

Fact #3

Vegetable oil is 100% fat. There is no fiber in oil to slow down digestion. This means that oil is pure fat that gets absorbed by the human body very quickly. Vegetable oil moves from our lips to our hips in about 15 minutes. The body is very efficient at storing oil as fat in our tissues. How could a food that gets stored as fat on the human body in about 15 minutes be considered a health food when the last thing an overweight/obese human population needs is a food that makes it store fat and gain weight? The reason is because oil is compared against other unhealthy fats like butter or lard and somehow the oil industry has re-badged the term “not as bad as butter” as “healthier than butter” and then simply as “healthy”…

Fact #4

Most oils are rancid and oxidized. One way that pure oils cause damage is because they are easily oxidized when unprotected by their natural surroundings (the ingredients provided by the rest of the food before the oil was extracted). Oxidized oils contain “free radicals” that donate electrons that damage the arteries and other tissues.

Alternatives to Oil

Vegetable oil is typically used to stir fry food or as a salad dressing. To stir fry foods, use instead a low sodium vegetable broth or just water. It will taste just as good and you will avoid a ton of empty calories. For salad dressings, just blend a piece of fruit, some vegetables, some juice, flavored vinegar and perhaps a couple walnuts or pieces of avocados. The recipes section on this site includes hundreds of oil-free salad dressings.

For the rest, oil is typically used as an ingredient in packaged processed food. We suggest you avoid these foods containing oil.

But don’t we need some fat in our diet?

This argument is often used to justify the consumption of oil. While it is true that human needs a small quantity of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids, there is absolutely no need to consume vegetable oil to get the required quantity of fats. People generally have no problem getting a ton of omega-6 fats in their diet and often time need to reduce the amount of omega-6. The problem is more frequently getting the healthy omega-3 fats that are helpful in turning off inflammation. Good sources of omega-3 fats include walnuts, flax seeds, green leafy vegetables. While fish and fish oil do contain omega-3 fats, they are not safe sources because of the contaminants.

What about fish oil as a good source of DHA?

DHA is a long-chain of omega-3 fatty acids. The human body can convert short chain omega-3 fatty acids (walnuts, flax seeds, green vegetables) to long chain omega-3 fatty acids like EPA and DHA. Sometimes, certain people need or want an extra amount of DHA because the conversion by the body might be insufficient. Fish oil does contain a good amount of DHA. However, fish and fish oil are also very polluted with mercury and other contaminants. The fish did not make the DHA. The DHA came from algae (green vegetation) that floats in the ocean, got absorbed by the fish that swims all day long with its mouth open in the ocean and got stored over time in the tissue of the fish (along with other pollutants). The fish is just a middleman. Fish did not make DHA, the algae did it. Skip the middleman and get your DHA from the original source: green vegetation. There are several companies that now grow algae in clean water and prepare extra clean DHA. Plant-based DHA with veggie caps are available online for cheap dollars. If your body needs extra DHA – after you tried to get your body to make some by eating walnuts, green leafy vegetables and ground flax seeds; and got a blood test to confirm you are low – then and only then get it from a clean vegan supplement.

Evidence from the Cleveland Clinic: No Oil — Not Even Olive Oil!

Caldwell Esselstyn Jr MD of the Cleveland Clinic has shown heart disease can be reversed 100% of the time, using a plant-based diet. Olive oil — and ANY oil — increases heart disease, the same way butter does. If you want to avoid heart disease and cancer, ditch all oils, which are in any case just highly refined and processed (i.e., junk) food.

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Olive Oil is NOT Health Food but Sick Food

Short video with Whole Foods’ nutritionist Jeff Novick. So many are deceived into believing that olive oil and the Mediterranean Diet are “health promoting.”

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OIL TO NUTS: The Truth About Fats (Jeff Novick DVD)

This is a short excerpt from Jeff Novick’s 90-minute talk on fats. Want the full picture about olive oil? About the Mediterranean Diet? The various kinds of fats?

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Fish Oil in Troubled Waters by Dr. Michael Greger, MDMajor fish oil manufacturers and drug stores are being sued for failing to disclose the PCB pollutants in fish oil supplements.