By Joan L. McDaniel October 8, 2017
The American Heart Association (AHA) Warning
On June 2017 the AHA’s wrote an article entitled “Dietary Fats and Cardiovascular Disease”. The article was a warning of Coconut Oil being bad for you. This Is my response, in the form of a five (5) part group of articles on Oils. The first was on coconut oil, the next was on Antioxidants and now part 3 on Cooking Oils.
This is also my answer to the articles following the AHA like USA Today wrote, “Coconut oil isn’t healthy. It’s never been healthy.”. I plan to do two others One on Omega Fats, and one on Canola Oil.
This is a re-write and revision of my previous article dated 2012 Is Your Cooking Oil Healthy?
Cooking Oil is made from Fatty Acids
Cooking Oil uses fat. More than any other food, the type of fat you consume determines your body’s ability to maintain health or to succumb to inflammation and diseases. The Food you eat is very important especially the type of fats.
You should consume at least 20,000 antioxidants a day and close to 0 (zero) oxidized free-radicals. Your body makes enough free-radicals on its own to rid itself of toxins.
Vegetable oil refers to any of various oils obtained from the fatty acids of plants (seeds) or the fruit of the plant and used in food products and industrially..
Are Cooking Oils Safe?
On the subject of cooking oils Dr. Peter Glidden in his book The MD Emperor Has No Clothes Page 114
“One of the worst foods you can consume on a regular basis is …Oil in a bottle… including everyone’s favorite Olive Oil. Why is oil in a bottle a problem? “. There are forms of fatty acids that are extremely unstable and become rancid when exposed to the air and to heat.
And many people agree…What the oil comes from and how the oil is processed determines if the oil is good for us or bad.
Oxidation and Free Radicals
“Like the cut apple on the table top turning brown, when oil is processed it can become unstable and oxidized. When you apply further heat to the oil becomes oxidized more and faster. This is not good.” Oxidization created Free Radicals.
And as I said in my last article, Free Radicals cause inflammation and illness.
According to The American Heart Association
There are four major dietary fats in the foods we eat:
I will leave Trans fats for another time except to quote Dr. Mercola “Trans fat is the artery-clogging, highly damaged omega-6 polyunsaturated fat that is formed when vegetable oils are hardened into margarine or shortening.”
Three Types of Fat:
They are polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and saturated. What makes them different is their molecular structure. Polyunsaturated are 4 molecules, and monounsaturated are two molecules from Saturated Fat.
Most bottled oil is made from seeds. The manufacturing process requires extreme high heat. According to Dr Mercola “Polyunsaturated fat is the most unstable. It is one of the WORST oils to be used when cooking because these omega -6 rich oils are highly susceptible to heat damage and oxidation.”
To produce the finished oil, the seeds are heated to extreme high heat and crushed. High heat oxidizes everything it comes across especially unstable polyunsaturated and monounsaturated. Saturated Oils are a little better. More of this later.
A Brief History of Cooking Oils
I am a History nut and I like my history, so let me take a minute to talk about the history of Cooking Oils. You can skip this part if you don’t like history. To me history just makes the story a little more interesting.
Cooking oil is made from animal, plant, or synthetic. Cooking oil is used for baking, cooking, frying and many another forms of cooking. It is also used in food preparation and flavoring. Before the World Wars I, and II, cooking oil came animal fat in the form of butter or lard. People often made their own Lard by saving the left over animal fat pan drippings such as bacon.
The First Synthetic (Man made) Oil (Margarine) Updated 10/9/2017
According to the Web-Site Mental Floss; “The Emperor Napoleon III offered a prize for anyone to come up with a cheaper form of butter” “…His concern was for his navy and his poorer subjects.
In 1813, a French scientist Michel Eugene Chevreul discovered in his lab, a new fatty acid in 1813. The discovery contained lustrous, pearly deposits, so he named it after the Greek word margarites, for “pearly.”
“In 1869, French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès. In 1869, Mège-Mouriès perfected and patented a process for churning beef tallow with milk to create an acceptable butter substitute, thereby winning the Emperor’s prize.”
Paul Sabatier -(5 November 1854 – 14 August 1941) In 1912 a French chemist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Victor Grignard. Sabatier was honored specifically for his work improving the hydrogenation of organic species in the presence of metals.
In America Crisco Soon took Control of the Market
In 1907 the process of Hydrogenation was further refined by E.C. Kayser for the company Procter and Gamble and a synthetic cooking fat called Crisco was created. The purpose was to replace the natural cook fat from meat called Lard. Crisco Oil was first marketed in 1911. Crisco was extremely successful and it soon took control of the cooking oil market replacing other products like butter, beef tallow and lard.
Then Came Social Engineering
In America with the encouragement of his socialist friends, Upton Sinclair wrote the novel, The Jungle, which demonized the meat packing industry. With the resulting decrease in sales of tallow and lard, PGs previously developed product now received a receptive audience. Crisco, a hydrogenated soybean cooking oil, turned a liquid into a solid fat. Crisco was marketed as the new cleaner, less expensive and superior lard.
“I aimed at the public’s heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach.” Upton Sinclair
Low Fat and the Lipid Hypothesis
During World War II, solders in the field ate what was called Field Rations. The creator of these Field Rations, was Dr. Ancel Keys. After the war Dr. Keys came up with what he called the Lipid Hypothesis.His concern was for a Heart Healthy diet. This heart healthy diet became Low Cholesterol and/or Low Fat Diet and/or The Standard American Diet (SAD).
Everyone was so worried more about cholesterol and Heart Health, they forgot about nutrition. But as time passed, there became in increasing concern about the health effects of what is Trans Fat. Trans Fat can be found in most processed foods and all Vegetable Oils.
Health Concerns caused the FDA to require Trans Fat Labels
Growing concerns over the side/effects from the consumption of trans fat pressured the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to finally do something. In 2003, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was forced to agree and initiated regulations that required food and dietary supplement manufacturers to stipulate the trans fat content on food labels.
Find a Replacement Oil to Continue the Command of the Market
to Protect the Profit margin
Since that time, the Vegetable oil industry has been desperate to find a substitute especially another synthetic product that can be under Corporate control via a patent which will keep their very lucrative profit.
Almost everyone consumes oil either in their own cooking or especially from process and commercial food like fast food and/or restaurant food. This is a very large market and the manufactures of vegetable oils have a very large profit margin.
History Lesson Over
A Guide to Choosing Cooking Oils
Now back to the three types of fat
They are Polyunsaturated, monounsaturated and saturated:
Polyunsaturated fatty acids– is a fatty acid mostly found in plants. They are also known as Omega – 6 fatty acids. Polyunsaturated fats are the absolute WORST oils to use when cooking because these omega-6 rich oils are highly susceptible to heat damage . When these fats are exposed to heat, light or oxygen they readily oxidize (to your car that means rust) and create free radicals.
Polyunsaturated are grouped into two families, the omega-6 EFAs and the omega-3.
Our bodies do need omega-6 fats along with omega -3 fats. We need a balance of both. Our diets are loaded with Omega-6, but missing the needed Omega-3’s.
This category includes common vegetable oils such as: Canola, Chia Seed, Cod Liver, Corn, Cotton seed, Fish Oils, Flaxseed, Hemp Seed, Herring, Lecithin, Linseed, Menhaden (Fish Oil), Safflower, Salmon Oil, Sardine Oil, Sesame seed, Soybean, Sunflower, Vegetable Oil, and Wheat germ.
Monounsaturated fatty acids – is two hydrogen atoms short of being a saturated fat. This category includes Almond, Avocados, Butterfat, Grape Seed, Olive, Peanut, Pumpkin, Rapeseed (canola) and, Sesame. Good source for fat but also become toxic if heated.
Saturated Fatty Acids – Saturated fat has a bad reputation since Dr. Ancel Keys and the low-fat diet. He is known as the father of the low-fat diet. Saturated fat is a vital nutrient for the human body. It is not a poison. It is an important source of energy. It aids in the digestion process and provides antioxidants to help repair free-radical damage.
This category includes Animal fat, Butter, Coconut Oil, Lard, and Palm Oil
Type of Fat and Percent Composition
What are Oils made from?
Most Cooking Oils in a bottle come from Fatty Acids. Nuts and Seeds are loaded with fatty acid. Nuts and seeds are harvested in the autumn and provide food loaded with fat for the winter.
Now if you have teeth, and a good digestive system you simply chew a handful of nuts or seeds.
Cooking Oils Are processed to Death
To quote The Food Babe
“Most cooking oils go through an insane amount of processing with chemical solvents, steamers, neutralizers, de-waxers, bleach and deodorizers before they end up in the bottle.”
If you watch this video on the modern canola oil making process, and you’ll see exactly what I mean.”
After processing the Oil is now dead! It is refined, odorless, colorless, tasteless, and void of most nutritional value. This is similar to the way the natural fats in milk and harmed by the high-heat during the ultra-pasteurization process, or during homogenization when the fats are slammed through a tiny filter, making them homogenized, meaning “all the same size.”
Where do Certain Oils Come From?
How are Cooking Oils Made?
There is Cold-Press and Expeller Pressed processes. Both process use a lot of heat that can easily make unstable oil go rancid especially if the oil is made from a source that consists mostly of polyunsaturated fatty acid.
The Modern cold-pressing process heats the oil multiple times, rendering most oils either rancid or so sterile. Sterile means empty, or null and void— there are no natural ingredients left to actually go rancid.
Natural unrefined oils (Like Olive Oil)are so delicate that even minimal exposure to daylight will trigger a chain reaction of free radical damage, creating not only trans fats but other byproducts that experts believe to be even more harmful than trans fats!
The Oil is now dead! It is refined, odorless, colorless, tasteless, and void of most nutritional value. This is similar to the way the natural fats in milk and harmed by the high-heat during the ultra-pasteurization process, or during homogenization when the fats are slammed through a tiny filter, making them homogenized, meaning “all the same size.”
When heated Cooking oils and fats react differently, but in general, the hotter they get, the more they break down (oxidize) and eventually start to smoke. Smoke Point is normally referring to Monounsaturated and Saturated Fats.
Monounsaturated fats like Olive are more stable than polyunsaturated but once they are heated they can easily become rancid. Saturated Fats are much more stable more on that later.
Ideally, Olive oil (An Monounsaturated fat)should not be used for cooking, but can be added to foods after they are removed from the heat.
Making Cooking Oils isn’t easy visit this web-site called How Products Are Made for more detail
Smoke Point
Most Polyunsaturated and some monounsaturated oils are processed at such a high heat the Smoke Point is of not importance because the oil is already completely dead, rancid, full of free radicals and without any nutritional value..
In some cases Virgin and Extra Virgin Olive oil has been process at low heats but one used for cooking or exposed to air and sunlight can become very unstable and oxidize. Note most saturated fat oils have a high smoke point.
Look for expeller-pressed (screw pressed) manufactures that make an effort to keep the pressing temperatures low. Pressed temperatures below 122 F These oils are safe for cooking if the temperature is kept below it’s smoke point
Organic Oils and Corresponding Smoke Point Temperature
GMO Foods
Another subject concerning cooking oils is which oils are GMO’s? I don’t want to get into what are GMO’s I already have written an article on the subject – What are Genetically Modified Foods (GMO’S)
But here is a list of GMO Foods.
Alfalfa
Corn
Cotton
Canola oil
Papaya
Soy Bean
Yellow Squash
Sugar from sugar beets
Zucchini
Until my next post
Joan
Sources
https://www3.epa.gov/ttnecas1/regdata/IPs/Vegetable%20Oil_IP.pdf
http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Cooking-Oil.html#ixzz4uYM4JztL
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/10/30/rudi-moerck-on-cooking-oils.aspx
https://www.naturalnews.com/036391_monounsaturated_fats_nutrients_vegetables.html