I remember growing up as a child in the early 90s and late 80s when everybody was concerned about fat. People were worried about their consumption of cholesterol. People even believed that fats made them “fat” or overweight. There was also concern about traditional cooking fats such as tallow (cow fat), lard (pig fat), butter (cow dairy fat) because of their high saturated fat content. People were avoiding coconut products, avocados, etc. because fat was “bad”. And what did people consume in the midst of trying to cut back on fat? Refined white flour products (cookies, cakes, etc) and white sugar were the order of the day. All “fat-free” products back when I coming up contained lots of sugar and since the body often doesn’t metabolize the plethora of white sugar consumed in this country, then it simply stored as fat. And what was the solution to cooking with traditional cooking fats mostly of an animal nature? Why of course good ole’ greasy Crisco or partially hydrogenated “vegetable” oil.
The history behind partially hydrogenated oils goes back to the late 1800s when Nobel Laureate Paul Sabatier developed a process of adding extra hydrogen to cottonseed oil. Adding extra hydrogen to liquid plant-based oils extended their shelf life and also saturated them to make the fat more attractive for baking/cooking. Partially hydrogenated oils were also cheaper then your mainstream animal fats used at the time. These oils were as prevalent until the late 1980s and 90s when major restaurants and food establishments began using them for frying and/or baking. However, these fats have proven to have many negative health consequences. They have been implicated in increased rates of cancer, obesity, coronary artery disease, liver dysfunctions, infertility, and Alzheimer’s disease. Are these oils banned in the US? Of course not and as a matter of fact your citizen’s health friendly FDA did not require trans fats to even be added to nutrition labels until 2003. Under new citizen’s health friendly regulations, a food manufacturer can have .05 grams or less present in the item and have it listed in the nutrition label as zero or it can be labeled as trans fat-free. This basically means that trans fat can be still added to mainstream Standard American snacks (cookies, cakes, donuts, etc).
How is food oil produced in this country?
The production of food oil just like motor oil (petroleum) is highly toxic. First, many of the food oil crops have been GMO’ed, herbicided, pesticided, and any anything other kind of cided that there is. Once the crop is grown, then a toxic petroleum solvent, hexane, is often used to extract the oil from the crop. Hexane is similar in composition to gasoline in its toxicity. Hexane is one of the many toxic solvents or chemicals used to extract oils. Once the oil is extracted, other chemicals are added to preserve the oils and of course to increase their shelf life. For hydrogenated oils, nickel oxide (inorganic nickel) is often used and then more processing, bleaching, and chemically dyeing occurs to make it look like butter. Hydrogenated oils are straight toxic; it would be wise to leave that Crisco on your supermarket shelf or use it for greasing your bicycle parts.
What about animal fats and oils?
As mentioned in the excellent Rave Diet DVD, all animal fats including fish oils contain cholesterol which is one of the causes of heart disease. The fats from these land animals come from processing their dead flesh and often contain high amounts of toxins and chemicals from the unnatural foods they are given while alive. Fish oils come from fish that swim the same oceans that have been over the years laced with mercury and all kinds of industrial chemicals. Cod liver oil comes from the liver of cod. What is the role of the liver? One of the main functions of liver is to filter toxins from the organism and given the toxic waters that most fish are swimming in; those cod livers are doing a lot of work. Obviously, this oil from the liver of a fish is also going to also contain toxins. They are far many plant based oils which offer the same touted benefits as animal oils without all the negative side effects.
So what oils are necessary for optimal health and well-being?
There are only two essential fatty acids that the body requires. This is Omega 3 and Omega 6. Omega 9 fatty acids can be made by the body from any kind of unsaturated fats. Now I will give you an overview of the different kinds of fats.
Saturated
Saturated fats include coconut oils, palm fruit oil, and most animal oils. Since most animal oils contain cholesterol which the body then stores in the arteries, I do not recommend them. This happens because the liver already makes the required cholesterol needed for the body so any excess is unnecessary. Plant based sources of saturated fats can be very therapeutic. Your body does not necessarily need a lot of them but they can helpful. Don’t believe the hype about plant-based saturated fats; the studies done on these fats were often done on partially hydrogenated plant-based saturated fats, which do play a major factor in heart disease. Coconut oil is one of my favorites. Coconut oil is 48 percent lauric acid, which can also be found in human breast milk, and has actually been proven to lower bad cholesterol and be beneficial for the heart. Lauric acid has anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties and can help increase metabolism for weight loss. The body will use plant-based saturated fats as with any type of calorie (protein, fat, carbohydrate) for energy.
Plant based saturated fats are the best for cooking given their stability, saturation, (naturally resists rancidity, oxidation, and heat damage) and high smoke points (temperature when the oils burns). If you are going to be cooking or baking, coconut oil is the best given its high saturated fat content, which is 92 percent. I recommend using expeller-pressed, refined coconut oil for cooking or baking (temperatures over 350 F) and unrefined coconut oil for stir fries and medium heat cooking (under 350 F). Expeller-pressed palm shortening (Spectrum Organics makes a good brand of palm shortening), another plant-based saturated fat, can also be used for cooking and baking. These two oils/fats can also be used as a butter replacement.
Polyunsaturated fats
Polyunsaturated fats are the most popular oil of the American consumer. Polyunsatured fats include canola, soybean, corn, cottonseed, flax, and hemp seed oils. Polyunsatured fats are good sources of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids which are required for optimal health. While some of these oils can be beneficial, the ones that Americans consume and how they consume it, is unhealthy. First, as mentioned most of these polyunsaturated oils are GMO’ed and sprayed with industrial chemicals particularly corn and soybeans. All polyunsatured fats are also sensitive to heat and highly unstable and when cooked, they are damaged and convert into unhealthy fats or free radicals (harmful to the cells). I personally agree with the Weston Price Foundation about the connection between the overconsumption of mainstream cooked polyunsaturated fats in America and increased health ailments. However, I do not advocate the consuming of butter or lard as alternatives to these. Cold-pressed hemp oil is the best nutritional oil to consume as it contains the exact 3:1 proportion of omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids that the body needs. The following expeller or cold-pressed polyunsaturated fats are also healthy to be consumed in their raw form: Flax, sunflower, safflower, evening primose, borage oil, grapeseed oil, sesame oil, and black current seed oil. These oils can used on a salad or consumed in smoothies. If you are going to cook with polyunsaturated oils, I would recommend the expeller-pressed high oleic sunflower and safflower oils, which are technically polyunsaturated but the high-oleic versions have been hybridized to become monounsaturated fats.
Monounsaturated Fats
Monounsaturated fats are also highly prevalent in the American diet. Monounsaturated fats include canola, peanut, olive, avocado, almond, sesame, and apricot kernel oil. Guess which ones are the most heavily used for cooking? Gotta have the Canadian, low acid (canola) oil and the peanut oil. Both of these are oils I do not recommend once gain due to how they are processed (made by corporations since the term “farmer” has become a thing of the past) and their harm to the body. All peanuts grown in this country contain aflotoxin which is a known carcinogen. Canola oil is promoted to be the healthiest of all oils. I do not recommend it though. Canola oil is a hybrid of the rape plant, a known poison. This plant has been a known poison to humans for several years and has been implicated as being one of the causes of mad cow’s disease and other “food animal” dysfunctions. This is an industrial oil and has also been genetically modified. GMO’ed vesions of canola, corn, and soy are all Monsanto and big business crops and they are always looking to push more of their herbicides (making their seeds resistant to their herbicides and selling the seed and a lot of pesticides since the crop is resistant) and to find more uses for their products. This is why high corn fructose syrup is being as a sweetener in just about every mainstream American soft drink, cookie, or cake. It is also why we have ethanol (corn-based alcohol) mixed with our gasoline (10 percent). Do you ever hear of bio-diesel being made with hemp, flax, or algae? Nope and you will not because the food-industrial complex does not own or have a significant investments in these natural substances. Similar to polyunsaturated fats, monounsaturated fats are also unstable (not as unstable as polyunsaturated fats) can be succumbed to heat damage turned into a harmful substance. If you are going to use monounsaturated fats, I recommend using expeller pressed versions of sesame oil, avocado oil, almond oil, and apricot kernel oil. It is also recommended that these expeller pressed (preferably organic) oils also say “good for high heat”. The best to use would be sesame oil as sesame oil contains natural preservatives which are resistant to heat and rancidity.
This article was meant to inform you and give you some great alternatives. To keep it simple, I would recommend using organic expeller-pressed coconut oil (refined or unrefined depending on heat exposure). Besides it being great for cooking, coconut oil can also be used on the skin, hair, and feet. Coconut oil has been used for hundreds of years as a beautifying agent in the far East too. Thanks for reading!!
I remember growing up as a child in the early 90s and late 80s when everybody was concerned about fat. People were worried about their consumption of cholesterol. People even believed that fats made them “fat” or overweight. There was also concern about traditional cooking fats such as tallow (cow fat), lard (pig fat), butter (cow dairy fat) because of their high saturated fat content. People were avoiding coconut products, avocados, etc. because fat was “bad”. And what did people consume in the midst of trying to cut back on fat? Refined white flour products (cookies, cakes, etc) and white sugar were the order of the day. All “fat-free” products back when I coming up contained lots of sugar and since the body often doesn’t metabolize the plethora of white sugar consumed in this country, then it simply stored as fat. And what was the solution to cooking with traditional cooking fats mostly of an animal nature? Why of course good ole’ greasy Crisco or partially hydrogenated “vegetable” oil.
The history behind partially hydrogenated oils goes back to the late 1800s when Nobel Laureate Paul Sabatier developed a process of adding extra hydrogen to cottonseed oil. Adding extra hydrogen to liquid plant-based oils extended their shelf life and also saturated them to make the fat more attractive for baking/cooking. Partially hydrogenated oils were also cheaper then your mainstream animal fats used at the time. These oils were as prevalent until the late 1980s and 90s when major restaurants and food establishments began using them for frying and/or baking. However, these fats have proven to have many negative health consequences. They have been implicated in increased rates of cancer, obesity, coronary artery disease, liver dysfunctions, infertility, and Alzheimer’s disease. Are these oils banned in theUS
How is food oil produced in this country?
The production of food oil just like motor oil (petroleum) is highly toxic. First, many of the food oil crops have been GMO’ed, herbicided, pesticided, and any anything other kind of cided that there is. Once the crop is grown, then a toxic petroleum solvent, hexane, is often used to extract the oil from the crop. Hexane is similar in composition to gasoline in its toxicity. Hexane is one of the many toxic solvents or chemicals used to extract oils. Once the oil is extracted, other chemicals are added to preserve the oils and of course to increase their shelf life. For hydrogenated oils, nickel oxide (inorganic nickel) is often used and then more processing, bleaching, and chemically dyeing occurs to make it look like butter. Hydrogenated oils are straight toxic; it would be wise to leave that Crisco on your supermarket shelf or use it for greasing your bicycle parts.
What about animal fats and oils?
As mentioned in the excellent Rave Diet DVD, all animal fats including fish oils contain cholesterol which is one of the causes of heart disease. The fats from these land animals come from processing their dead flesh and often contain high amounts of toxins and chemicals from the unnatural foods they are given while alive. Fish oils come from fish that swim the same oceans that have been over the years laced with mercury and all kinds of industrial chemicals. Cod liver oil comes from the liver of cod. What is the role of the liver? One of the main functions of liver is to filter toxins from the organism and given the toxic waters that most fish are swimming in; those cod livers are doing a lot of work. Obviously, this oil from the liver of a fish is also going to also contain toxins. They are far many plant based oils which offer the same touted benefits as animal oils without all the negative side effects.
So what oils are necessary for optimal health and well-being?
There are only two essential fatty acids that the body requires. This is Omega 3 and Omega 6. Omega 9 fatty acids can be made by the body from any kind of unsaturated fats. Now I will give you an overview of the different kinds of fats.
Saturated
Saturated fats include coconut oils, palm fruit oil, and most animal oils. Since most animal oils contain cholesterol which the body then stores in the arteries, I do not recommend them. This happens because the liver already makes the required cholesterol needed for the body so any excess is unnecessary. Plant based sources of saturated fats can be very therapeutic. Your body does not necessarily need a lot of them but they can helpful. Don’t believe the hype about plant-based saturated fats; the studies done on these fats were often done on partially hydrogenated plant-based saturated fats, which do play a major factor in heart disease. Coconut oil is one of my favorites. Coconut oil is 48 percent lauric acid, which can also be found in human breast milk, and has actually been proven to lower bad cholesterol and be beneficial for the heart. Lauric acid has anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties and can help increase metabolism for weight loss. The body will use plant-based saturated fats as with any type of calorie (protein, fat, carbohydrate) for energy.
Plant based saturated fats are the best for cooking given their stability, saturation, (naturally resists rancidity, oxidation, and heat damage) and high smoke points (temperature when the oils burns). If you are going to be cooking or baking, coconut oil is the best given its high saturated fat content, which is 92 percent. I recommend using expeller-pressed, refined coconut oil for cooking or baking (temperatures over 350 F) and unrefined coconut oil for stir fries and medium heat cooking (under 350 F). Expeller-pressed palm shortening (Spectrum Organics makes a good brand of palm shortening), another plant-based saturated fat, can also be used for cooking and baking. These two oils/fats can also be used as a butter replacement.
Polyunsaturated fats
Polyunsaturated fats are the most popular oil of the American consumer. Polyunsatured fats include canola, soybean, corn, cottonseed, flax, and hemp seed oils. Polyunsatured fats are good sources of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids which are required for optimal health. While some of these oils can be beneficial, the ones that Americans consume and how they consume it, is unhealthy. First, as mentioned most of these polyunsaturated oils are GMO’ed and sprayed with industrial chemicals particularly corn and soybeans. All polyunsatured fats are also sensitive to heat and highly unstable and when cooked, they are damaged and convert into unhealthy fats or free radicals (harmful to the cells). I personally agree with the Weston Price Foundation about the connection between the overconsumption of mainstream cooked polyunsaturated fats inAmerica
Monounsaturated Fats
Monounsaturated fats are also highly prevalent in the American diet. Monounsaturated fats include canola, peanut, olive, avocado, almond, sesame, and apricot kernel oil. Guess which ones are the most heavily used for cooking? Gotta have the Canadian, low acid (canola) oil and the peanut oil. Both of these are oils I do not recommend once gain due to how they are processed (made by corporations since the term “farmer” has become a thing of the past) and their harm to the body. All peanuts grown in this country contain aflotoxin which is a known carcinogen. Canola oil is promoted to be the healthiest of all oils. I do not recommend it though. Canola oil is a hybrid of the rape plant, a known poison. This plant has been a known poison to humans for several years and has been implicated as being one of the causes of mad cow’s disease and other “food animal” dysfunctions. This is an industrial oil and has also been genetically modified. GMO’ed vesions of canola, corn, and soy are all Monsanto and big business crops and they are always looking to push more of their herbicides (making their seeds resistant to their herbicides and selling the seed and a lot of pesticides since the crop is resistant) and to find more uses for their products. This is why high corn fructose syrup is being as a sweetener in just about every mainstream American soft drink, cookie, or cake. It is also why we have ethanol (corn-based alcohol) mixed with our gasoline (10 percent). Do you ever hear of bio-diesel being made with hemp, flax, or algae? Nope and you will not because the food-industrial complex does not own or have a significant investments in these natural substances. Similar to polyunsaturated fats, monounsaturated fats are also unstable (not as unstable as polyunsaturated fats) can be succumbed to heat damage turned into a harmful substance. If you are going to use monounsaturated fats, I recommend using expeller pressed versions of sesame oil, avocado oil, almond oil, and apricot kernel oil. It is also recommended that these expeller pressed (preferably organic) oils also say “good for high heat”. The best to use would be sesame oil as sesame oil contains natural preservatives which are resistant to heat and rancidity.
This article was meant to inform you and give you some great alternatives. To keep it simple, I would recommend using organic expeller-pressed coconut oil (refined or unrefined depending on heat exposure). Besides it being great for cooking, coconut oil can also be used on the skin, hair, and feet. Coconut oil has been used for hundreds of years as a beautifying agent in the far East too. Thanks for reading!!