Vegetable Oils Unsafe? A Lot to Swallow!

[4myhoonie]

Vegetable Oils Unsafe? A Lot to Swallow!
Above is a link to some research I've done on vegetable oils, how they are made and the effects they have on the human body. Included in the notes is some information on how coconut oil is produced and what to look for in manufacturers and labeling.

i read your article and it was great and very informative.  just one question--not sure if i overlooked the part on what to look for in labeling?  i couldn't find it, if you could point it out that would be great!  thanks!

[SC]

Vegetable Oils Unsafe? A Lot to Swallow!
Above is a link to some research I've done on vegetable oils, how they are made and the effects they have on the human body. Included in the notes is some information on how coconut oil is produced and what to look for in manufacturers and labeling.

i read your article and it was great and very informative.  just one question--not sure if i overlooked the part on what to look for in labeling?  i couldn't find it, if you could point it out that would be great!  thanks!

There are basically three methods of producing oils from vegetables, foods and/or seeds. Truth in labeling is largely dependent upon the trustworthiness of the manufacturer as each manufacturer is able to define for itself what is meant by these terms. What I list here are the definitions of terms most generally accepted by honest practices. . . .

[referring to the first method] Virgin SHOULD apply only to the first pressing by a hydraulic press without heat. Cold pressed should refer only to hydraulic pressing without heat.

. . . .[referring to the second method] These oils are often called “crude” or “unrefined.”

The first two methods would be labeled as one of the two above. Solvent extraction is the third method by which all others are processed (you won't necessarily find them labeled as such). This section starts a little better than 1/2 way down the page "The History of Vegetable Oil."

Hope that helps. 

[SC]

I almost posted this under the trans-fats/hydrogenated fats thread. However, the information I have is a bit broader than just the chemical process used to turn a liquid oil into a solid (hydrogenation) and their resulting trans-fats.

The attached article resulted from my own research after hearing someone I consider an authority on the subject mention vegetable oils as a product that can compromise health. I had heard that certain kinds of oils/fats might be better than others, but I'd never heard vegetable oils as a group discussed in this way.

I decided to do some digging, and I found more than I thought I would and enough to make me recommit myself to some changes that I had let slide.

I mention this in the article, but wanted to restate here that our very cells utilize the oils we consume. Fats and oils are utilized by our body to access the nutrients in our foods. That's why Granny served green beans with BUTTER. There are enzymes in healthy saturated fats that both satiate us and help us digest our food. Without the proper types of fats and oils, we can become depleted of vital nutrients and our cells' membranes become thickened, less efficient and susceptible to disease.

Consuming non-food oils (or oils that have been created using toxic methods) can cause soft tissue to become hardened and inflamed (heart, lung, joints, etc.) and create compromised bones subject to fractures (as in osteoporosis). Every organ that needs to run efficiently in order for you to maintain a healthy and robust life, needs healthy fats and oils.

So, if vegetable oils in my diet were compromising this, I wanted to know how that could possibly be the case . . . especially since Granny's mama started using Crisco when they gave away those nice cookbooks . . . Yeah, that and the evaporated milk.

Anyway, here's what I found. Click on the document and let me know what you think. . . . Or you can go to this link for an htm document with links intact:
http://home.windstream.net/hughesnw/HealthDocs/vegetable_oil_history.htm

[lotsaboys]

Thanks for sharing your well written and eye-opening article SC! It'll be a great resource to share.

[Whiterock]

I'm surprised this has not been discussed on WTM before. I know it has come up in various threads, and that a lot of folks here don't use vegetable oils, for the reasons discussed, but I'm surprised there was no thread on it before now.

I first heard about this when I read Nourishing Traditions, so we stopped using vegetable oils years ago. I haven't missed them a bit. The only vegetable oil we use is olive oil and I really don't don't know if coconut oil is classified as a vegetable oil or a nut oil but we use that too. I also use butter and recently started using palm oil shortening, but because of the price I will probably use it sparingly. I also use tallow, lard, and chicken fat when I have them. It takes a little adjustment in the beginning but it's not hard and well worth it.

WR

[SC]

WR the research I've done has made me rethink the use of any non-animal source oil unless I can detect by the labeling the method used. . .
This even extends to things like grapeseed oil, grapefruit seed extract, etc.  These are products that I might have looked for a best sale price in before . . . 
Now I want to know all I can about the manufacturer and their processes.

I want to know how they got the oil out of the source before I consume it.

Yes, I had already been using butter, olive oil and organic coconut oil . . .
BUT now I have a better understanding about why to avoid the poorly processed oils . . . even among butter, olive oil and coconut oil.

Also, it helps to explain it to my little ones why we avoid 'foods' (often baked goods and condiments) that have listed in their ingredients oils such as cottonseed, canola (rapeseed, contains toxic acids -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapeseed), corn, etc. With the exception on corn, these other two aren't even foods, and corn doesn't naturally yield oil without being subjected to chemical extraction methods.

It also better explains why those aches, pains and inflammation seem to go away when these foods are avoided.

This (and other items in the article) was information I hadn't quite gleaned from NT.

And yes, I'm surprised we'd never really discussed it before either. 

[Whiterock]

Yep, reading ingredient lists has become a habit with me. I look out for soy, what oils are used, and how much unpronoucable stuff is it. LOL! Oh, and another problem with corn oil is that so much of the corn crop in the USA is genetically modified. So I try to avoid corn oil, and corn in general, in my foods.

I thought rancidity, solvents, chemical or molecular changes, the inherent toxicity of certain oils like rapeseed, inflammation, and all that, was discussed in NT. Or maybe I read it at the WAPF website.

WR

[Mrs. B]

In regards to this subject....
Have you heard anything about olive oil that is bought in the grocery store not being olive oil?
A baking company in my area had the oil they were buying and selling tested and it turned out to not even be olive oil.  They then went and had other brands tested and most of them also weren't olive oil.
I have heard that much of the olive oil brought into the US from Italy specifically is actually hazelnut oil, unless it specifically says "bottled in Italy" versus being labelled as just a product of Italy.
I took note of how the bottles were labelled at the store and noticed that there were alot that said "product of" and not "bottled in".
I have since found some good organic olive oils from South America that I currently buy...
I was just wondering if anyone else might have heard this or if I am advancing some kind of urban legend.  I have found this bread company to be very honest and reputable....
For me it was just one more thing to feel like I have to stay on top of....

[milmuth]

So, are there brands that can be recommended? 

Our motto has always been eat real food- if it's not real, it's not worth the calories and probably not healthy anyway!  That said, we too only use butter, olive oil and some coconut oil in our home.  I found Mrs. B's post very interesting.  I know there are many different grades of olive oil, but had no idea a product can be labeled something it isn't?

I try to buy a "decent" brand, but would appreciate personal recommendations (if that is allowed, HB?)

Thanks!

[herbfever]

An article that discusses the olive oil corruption Mrs. B was referring to:

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_mueller

[SC]

For our house, we use only olive oil that is organic, extra virgin, cold pressed. This stuff looks green. We also use it sparingly, as a condiment (I make mayo with it). Our major source of daily use fats is in the form of raw butter. I reserve the chicken fat when I make broth. We also use coconut oil sparingly . . . like for baking, in a treat, or for topical uses. I once tried to consume it daily and had poor responses (and developed an aversion to the taste  ).

I'm going to start re-incorporating lard into our daily diet as well. . . .

Once upon a time, beef tallow was available. If it still is, I'd imagine you'd have to search for it. I thought about buying a duck and saving the renderings . . . But I decided against that when I saw how MUCH they cost.  ( $20 for a single bird!)

To save myself a little trouble (ha!) I purchased some organic canola mayonnaise which we used over several months. The result was that all of us developed various aches and pains. Not worth it.

WOW! thanks for the link, herbfever!

[beppyjo]

 

 Oh, I should not have read this thread....... We have just recently had to go casein free. I have been experimenting with other oils- olive,peanut, grapeseed, sesame, palm, coconut. I make sure the label says expellar or cold pressed, but now I am wondering if I can even trust the labeling and if that is going to be good enough! We can't do pork so lard is out....... I may try to save the chicken fat from now on as I hadn't thought of that, but if vegetable oils are bad we are gonna starve!

 O.k., sorry, that was a bit on the melodramatic side. I have so much that I am trying to do healthwise in our family right now and this was just very disheartening to read.  I sure wish healthy living didn't have to be so hard! It isn't too bad until you start getting into food allergies and financial stuff. Makes me want to curl up in a ball and hide forever. Bleck! I wish food was optional!

[SC]

Yeah, herbfever, I know what you mean. Right now, I've got some of Newman's Own in the pantry . . . But short of investing in an olive orchard and a millstone, or submitting everything to the lab for testing, it's hard to know who's monkeyed around with the stuff and who hasn't . . .

After all, they've learned from the guys who made a fortune with vegetable oils: Make sure it doesn't kill right away, find a way to make it look & taste comparable to the real thing, take the money and run before science figures out what's happened.

The worst part of it all is that the poorest populations will be most affected as they will be be forced to consume the products which are cheapest -- the ones LOADED with these toxic oils.

Of course, I've also been reading about the neurotoxins in vaccines. This coupled with the neurotoxins used to produce these oils makes me wonder that we don't have a LARGER incidence of learning disabilities, defects, infertility, etc.

These things actually affect the formation of bone structure within a single generation. Ever wondered why we need so much orthodontia? People used to have straight teeth and no cavities. What would our smiles look like without modern dentistry? Granny had a nice smile without modern dentistry. Why?

. . . And at the risk of sounding like a defender of c-section happy doctors, I suspect that pelvic formations in women who grew in utero as momma ate these "heart-healthy" oils likely has something to do with the incidence of c-section deliveries and the lower incidence of natural childbirth and the resulting difficult deliveries . . . . hormone imbalance . . . loose & painful joints . . . etc.

*shaking head & muttering to self* 

[healthybratt]

Related thread:

Cooking with Lard:  Is it healthy?

This topic has been touched on but not thoroughly discussed for lack of good information--thanks SC.

There are a few threads around on Peanut Oil, Corn Oil, etc. 

[hi_itsgwen]

So, my Mom just bought a bottle of Trader Joe's Expeller Pressed Canola Oil and it specifically says "no solvents".  So I guess it may be possible to extract veggie oils without using solvents, but it's probably way quicker and cheaper to just squirt in a load of solvents? 

Here's the ingredients list from their Canola Cooking Oil spray:
Trader Joe’s Canola Oil Cooking Spray is made from naturally clear expeller pressed canola oil. Canola Oil spray is excellent for non stick frying, sautéing or baking. It can be used for cooking meats, poultry, eggs and vegetables or to make garlic bread. It can also be lightly sprayed directly onto salad greens, hot pasta or vegetables to add flavor. Trader Joe’s Canola Oil Cooking Spray is a sodium and cholesterol free food and is made without alcohol.

I kind of see where you're coming from on the animal fats issue.  The corn oil can definitely go...but the Aztecs did grind up peanut paste as one of their revered foods.  So I ain't giving up my peanut butter yet.   

I also like your perspective on being more careful about just picking up a 'natural' product from a health food store.  You can't assume that it's not processed and treated with chemicals.  It seems like some families are way more sensative than others to chemicals and even traditional and natural food sources.  But even those of us who are not as sensative should take heed that the human gene pool can only take so much before our bodies begin to strain under the burden of even 'natural' food sources. 

Animal fats are way easier to come by.*  So if you believe that God created things for humans to eat, then it makes way more sense to eat easy to come by butter than heat-extracted-solvent-hardened-bleached-deoderized-corn oil.  (I often wondered why corn isn't oily if they get oil out of it.) 

So that's all fine and good for Adam and his descendants up until about 100 years ago.  But, hey.  I don't plan on hanging around forever in this flawed up earth suit anyway.  Bring on New Heaven and New Earth! 

*I remembered an important Biblical clue this morning: Man didn't eat animals until post-flood.  Of course, they did have access to butter/milk.  But some vegetable sources of fats must have been available and part of the diet for the first thousand years or so of human history.  No doubt that the condition of plants was hugely altered post flood...and man needed to introduce meats into the diet.  But God was good to preserve a portion of the power of plants, as can be seen in our lovely herbs.  So plant fats can't be all that bad in their natural state.  I guess I'll pay more attention to finding healthy plant based fats as close to their natural state as possible, and try to focus on using animal based fats for cooking. 

Thanks for such a thought provoking topic, and all of your research and great info SC!

[tonysgirl]

Wow, thanks for the informative research. Sometimes my head seems to swim with all that I'm trying to comprehend on eating healthy. I sure am enjoying the journey, tho! There is an article in a side column in NT from a novel by Mark Twain, that discusses two men, one of whom claims to be selling "olive oil" made from cottonseed, I think. That always half chilled me, and I wondered if there was any fact. Blows my mind that you can't trust the labeling-  that things aren't what they say always....