My niece Dana from Chicago stayed with me this weekend, and she bought some healthy food from Costco for the four of us, including hubby Mark and their son Neelam. Dana and Mark are health aficionados, Mark having placed 18th in the world iron man competition in Hawaii in 2005, and Dana having completed the same contest a few years ago. The Iron Man is a 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike ride, and marathon run of 26.2 miles — all at one time. (Excuse me while I take a nap.)
But when I read all of the ingredients on the bag of multigrain tortilla chips by a brand named Food Should
Taste Good, I realized she likely was unaware of the health aspects of one category of food. I speak of vegetable oils.
Unwell-oiled
The ingredients looked great: flax seeds, sesame seeds, quinoa, sea salt, and everything certified gluten free and verified non-GMO. We dipped into the guacamole with relish – that is, we happily dipped into the guacamole; there was no relish. Today, I checked the back of the package, and there they were, way up high in the complete list of ingredients: sunflower oil and/or safflower oil and/or canola oil.
I’d bragged to Dana about my supposedly way better snacks by a brand named, uh, Way Better Snacks, which I bought at Publix. They also were tortilla chips. I decided to again check those ingredients, and lo and behold, they included sunflower and/or safflower oil. I had slipped up in my shopping. (By the way: Both companies are owned by General Mills.)
Most vegetable oils are unhealthy. Here’s what the website AuthorityNutrition.com has to say about them: “Industrial seed and vegetable oils are highly processed, refined products that are way too rich in omega-6 fatty acids.” The problem, alternative doctors say, is that our diets contain far too many omega-6s compared to omega-3s. Both are polyunsaturated fats. “Not only should you not cook with them (omega-6s), you should probably avoid them altogether,” the website says.
Don’t always believe what you read.
“These oils (high in omega-6s) have been wrongly considered ‘heart-healthy’ by the media and many nutrition professionals in the past few decades. However, new data links these oils with many serious diseases, including heart disease and cancer. Avoid all of them.”
Here they are:
Soybean Oil
Corn Oil
Cottonseed Oil
Canola Oil
Rapeseed Oil
Sunflower Oil
Sesame Oil
Grapeseed Oil
Safflower Oil
Rice Bran Oil
The reason omega-6s in excess are unhealthy is because they cause inflammation, while omega-3s fight inflammation. Our bodies need some inflammation, but have been getting too much with the imbalance in consumption of omega-6s versus omega-3s.
Big fat coconut
The best oil is coconut oil, which is high in saturated fat. Conventional nutrition tells us that saturated fat is harmful, but this has been exposed in many studies as a myth. Nonetheless, the powers that be continue to perpetrate the fallacy, and the big majority of people don’t know the difference.
It’s the high saturated-fat content of coconut oil that makes it the healthiest oil, studies show. Saturated means that all of the carbon atoms in the molecules are filled with hydrogen. Another healthy oil is palm oil, also high in saturated fat.
Olive and avocado oils are good because they are high in monounsaturated fat. One of their carbon atoms lacks hydrogen. Polyunsaturated fats have two or more of the carbon atoms devoid of hydrogen. Scientists call these atoms that aren’t saturated double-bonded. Monounsaturated atoms have one double bond, and polyunsaturated fats have two or more double bonds.
And if you can figure out what all of that means, your brain is better lubricated than mine is – with the right kind of oil.
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