Why Vegetable oil is bad for you? Avoid them to stay healthy
Fat is important macroelement for body. We provide it with diet in form of nuts, oils or fishes. There is whole range of oils we can use. However, inappropriate oil causes harm to your body especially heart and cardiovascular system. In this article I show you why vegetable oil is bad for your health.
IN THIS ARTICLE
1. Drastic Change
For most part of human history people eat fat from animals. The most common sources of fat were animal meat, fishes or nuts. In 1950’s paradigm changed. Vegetable oil’s companies start campaign against animal fat and cholesterol.
From this time annual consumption of butter decrease from 8 kg
to 2kg per person. Interestingly annual consumption of vegetable
oils increase from 5kg to 26kg per person.
Food industry earn huge money on selling vegetable oils. They sell it to customers but also to huge factories that make snacks, sweets or ready meals.
2. Types of Fats
We can divide fats into two categories:
- saturated fats
- unsaturated fats
Saturated fats are in solid form because they don’t have double bonds in structure. Unsaturated fats are in liquid form because they have one or more double bonds.
Saturated fats are from animals for instance lard or tallow. There is exceptions like cocoa butter or cocoa oil. All unsaturated fats come from plants like sunflower, canola or soya.
Last form of fats are trans fats. They were hydrogened. It is the worst category of oils for your health.
HOW WE PRODUCE OILS?
Most oils on shop shelves are refined vegetable oils. It means that oils need to go through processes like:
- Heat extraction
- Bleaching
- Deodorization
- Purification
- Chemical alteration
As you see these process don’t look healthy for you. Always choose producers that
- make oil with low temperature so called cold extraction
- oils that weren’t refined.
3. Why They are Bad?
ABSORPTION PROBLEMS
Refined vegetable oils hinder absorption of Vitamin A, D, E, K.
These vitamins are fat-soulable. It means that body transport them
to cells in fat particles. Refined oils make this process harder or
in some cases impossible. Vitamin defficiency is source of problems with heart, nervous system or skin.
FREE RADICALS
Some oils like sunflower or canola are less resistant to oxidation
than olive oil. Oxidation is reaction of oil with oxygen. During this process oxygen tranform fat particles into free radicals.
Free radicals are one of main source of inflammation in human body. Inflammation decreases our longetivity so find out how to slow down aging. The more resistant to oxidation is oil the better for us.
STIFF ARTERIES
Arteries stretch with every heart beat. Imagine yourself what happen when they can’t do it. That’s what happen after eating refined oils and trans fats. Your arteries lost ability to stretch fully. In this moment your cardiovascular system isn’t work as it should.
DISTURB LIPID METABOLISM
Lipid metabolism is system in body to use fats in good way.
It packs fat particles with important substances like vitamins
or minerals. Refined vegetable oil distrub this process.
Human body can’t live without normal amount of vitamins,
minerals and antioxidants.
4. Free Radicals
We can present body as city. We call it Organopolis. In our city we distinguish 3 groups:
- Citizens
- Villains
- Heroes
Villains try to destroy peace in our city. The main villain to get rid of is free radical.
WHY VEGETABLE OILS INFLAMMATORY?
Source of inflammation from vegetable oils is free radicals. They are atoms which have electrons without pair. They can only get electron by stealing it from other atom.
During finding another atom they destroy cells around them. It will be never ending process but we have heroes who help us. Vitamin E and C destroy free radicals to stop loop.
Heating vegetable oils produce huge amount of free radicals.
5. Role of Fat in body
Every city need distribution system to work. In our Organopolis we also have this type of system, we call it lipid metabolism. To explain it we need to trace the path of food.
When food get to intestines enzymes decompound it into small compounds like fats or vitamins. Body pack these small elements
into protein shelter. Inside them is fat with vitamins, coenzyme Q10 or other important microelements. We call this packages lipoproteins.
Every protein shelter has information about what is inside. Lipoproteins flow in blood to deliver package to cells. They finish in liver where they are recycled.
WHY SHOULDN'Y YOU EAT VEGETABLE OILS?
Vegetable oils distrub lipid metabolism. They destroy information what is inside lipoprotein. It results in lipoproteins straying in your blood because cells don’t know what is inside it. Finally package falls apart so you have fat in your blood. Fat that attache to arteries can create stroke.
6. Healthiest Oils
Moderate consumption of these oils help you to stay healthy for longer. However, always check quality of products. Common practise among olive oil producers is to add vegetable oils to olive oil. It decrease a cost of production.
Next example is meat quality. There is a huge difference between beef from mass production and organic farm. The better cow eats the better meat will be.
LIST OF HEALTHY OILS TO COOK WITH
- Olive Oil
- Peanut Oil
- Coconut Oil
- Butter
- Ghee
- Animal Fat
TIPS
- Use oils resistent to high temperature
- Try to fry on low temperature
- Change oil every time you fry
- Use different cooking methods like baking, boiling, steaming
or sous vide - Use oils without heating
7. Summary
Fat is essential for body to work in proper way. We need to provide it with diet. Add to your diet more fat from animal rather than plants. There is few exceptions like olive oil or coconut oil.
Avoid processed food full of trans fat. It increase risk of diseases like cardiovascular, autoimmune or mental problems. Find out more about health from my articles.
8. Sources
Book:
,, Deep nutrition: why your genes need traditional food’’ by Catherine Shanahan and Luke Shanahan