The Greatest Hidden Threat: Part 2
Why you eat so much deadly seed oil and how to stop
If you eat like the average American adult, approximately one-third of the calories your body uses are from a deadly poison that you think is healthy, or at least harmless. As introduced in Part 1, these toxic foods are seed oils, including anything called “vegetable oil,” margarine, a butter substitute, or one of the “hateful eight” refined oils (canola oil, soybean oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, rice bran oil, grapeseed oil, and cottonseed oil).
I suspect you are thinking this volume of seed oil consumption does not describe you. Before you adopt this view, open your cupboards to see if they contain any of these oils you use for cooking or baking. Now look in your refrigerator at the labels of any bottled, canned, packaged, or processed food. How many of them include seed oils? Did you find any margarine or butter substitutes? Now go back to your kitchen cupboards and look at all the labels on any packaged food in the rest of your kitchen. Finally, estimate how many meals a week you eat somewhere besides home. Unless they are specialty, organic or farm-to-table restaurants, you are eating seed oils in those meals also. Surprised? You may be consuming a half cup of poison a day!
Most people discover that they eat a lot more seed oils than they have ever noticed before. Why? They are tasteless and not noticeable in most of the foods you eat. They are everywhere and food manufacturers want to keep it that way.
How did this happen?
It reminds me of one of those sci-fi movies where a poisonous alien fog settles over a town and kills the inhabitants before they know what is happening. The seed oil phenomenon feels the same, but it began more simply as part of a solution to problems in the soap and textile business. In the 1890s when Proctor and Gamble (P&G) was running out of tallow and lard used to make soap, they thought a textile industry byproduct might be more available and cheaper: cottonseeds. By 1907, a German chemist had developed a refining process to extract the toxic oil from cottonseeds, then hydrogenate it to make it semi-solid. This industrial substance became an acceptable substitute for tallow and lard in their flagship soap brand, Ivory.
Always in search of new product ideas, a few years later, P&G experimented with the process to produce a softer, spreadable substance from the inedible cottonseed oil that looked like lard. Of course, it was not lard or anything else you could safely eat. But further processing made it more edible, so it became Crisco. In 1911, with few regulations and unsophisticated science, the absence of any research or nutritional studies went unnoticed.
P&G did have a marketing task to convince consumers they should switch from healthy, traditional lard. Because it had no taste, the company created a marketing story that Crisco was a better, healthier alternative to animal fats, “clean,” more economical, and would produce children “with better character.” None of these messages were true except for the lower price.
During this same time, P&G and others were developing seed oils in liquid form, but it took more robust industrial refining technologies developed in the 1950s to remove any lingering taste or smell. Acceptability bred opportunity for Big Ag and food manufacturers, and they developed more varieties of seed oils. Sales jumped from tiny in 1950 to over $115 billion today. Solid research on their long-term effect was still lacking until recently.
From some of the most subsidized crops in the U.S., corn and soybeans, came soybean oil and corn oil, with a variety of rapeseed (an animal feed) yielding canola oil. Others were introduced soon after. None of these oils could exist without the intensive refining technologies developed after World War II.
It takes a lot to make a seed oil
Have you seen pictures of the huge facilities used in the oil and gas industry? The processing plants used to refine seed oils look much like those. After the seeds are harvested, multiple industrial processing steps are involved, typically including:
Cleaning and dehulling
Grinding and conditioning with heat and phosphoric acid
Using a chemical solvent (hexane) and heat to extract the oil
Removing the solvent & toasting at hot temperatures
Degumming with phosphoric or citric acid
Removing free fatty acids with lye to neutralize the oil
Bleaching with heat and activated carbon
Deodorizing with heat
Adding chemical additives for shelf stability (varies)
Some of these steps might require an entirely separate facility. Many of the processes and chemicals involved also decrease the stability of the oil and potential harm to your body.
Why do consumers and manufacturers consume so much seed oil?
For your health, seed oils are a disaster, but for the food and restaurant industries, they have many benefits:
Inexpensive, much cheaper than healthier, less processed options
Long shelf life
Neutral flavor
Contribute to a smooth, creamy texture in processed foods
High smoke point
Emulsify ingredients so they mix well
Readily available and interchangeable with other seed oils
False health perception due to low levels of saturated fat
The misinformation problem
Remember the “biggest lie” developed by Ancel Keys years ago and kept on life support even today? If you do not, see my article on “The Biggest Lie #4.” To refresh your memory, this lie, “saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease,” gave rise to the ultra-processed foods and low-fat foods that are killing us! It led to many other downstream effects that have killed millions and led to pain and suffering for even more. Both saturated fat (mostly from animals or natural oils like coconuts) and dietary cholesterol are critical for your health, and we eat far, far too little to be healthy. For the record, saturated fats are the healthiest, natural fat needed by every cell in your body, and cholesterol is made by the body because it, too, is critical for each cell. Neither cholesterol nor saturated fat cause heart disease.
Read that paragraph again! If you have not read the Biggest Lie article recently, please do so. Turning reality upside down by saying healthy saturated fat is “bad” and unhealthy (refined) unsaturated fat is “good” gives the food industry credence that toxic seed oils are somehow good for you when they are not. Expect some popular health writers or health care “experts” to wrongly use this lie that demonizes healthy saturated fat to defend seed oils as “heart healthy” because their fat is mostly unsaturated. Do not fall for this lie that has been thoroughly debunked by hundreds of well-designed research studies!!
Seed oil and food manufacturers have been using this lie for over sixty years to sell processed food and seed oil poison. As mentioned above, this effort has been incredibly successful. For this reason, much of the information you find online about seed oils is inaccurate or wrong because of a lack of understanding about how different fatty acids in oils impact our bodies. Most edible oils contain all three types of fatty acids, but one type tends to predominate, each with a different chemistry:
Unsaturated fat has a straight structure “saturated” with a hydrogen atom for every carbon atom, giving it the most stable chemical structure in or outside your body, making oxidative stress unlikely. These predominate in some of the healthiest, natural, healing fats you can eat, including butter, coconut oil, and beef tallow. The high consumption of these fats by our hunter-gatherer ancestors made them so healthy they almost never experienced any chronic illness.
Monosaturated fat has one double bond with two carbon atoms, making it slightly less stable than unsaturated fat, especially when heated to high temperatures. If used at room temperature or for cooking at low heat, these are also healthy fats, including olive oil, avocado oil, macadamia nut oil, and walnut oil. According to extensive research, their consumption significantly improves health and extends life.
Polyunsaturated fat (PUFA) has two or more double bonds, making it very chemically unstable, even before it gets inside you, especially when exposed to heat, light or air. When it reaches your mitochondria energy factories, they will struggle to make enough energy with this poor fuel, and they will oxidize (burn) like crazy in the process. In fact, the PUFA in seed oils oxidizes easily, creating a firestorm of free radicals as mentioned in Part 1, promoting excessive oxidative stress. Seed oils are composed mostly of this PUFA type of fatty acid, making them dangerous for cooking or as an ingredient.
How to avoid seed oils
How do you avoid something that is hidden, but everywhere? You look out for them in your kitchen, at the grocery store, in foods you currently eat, and in restaurants of all types.
In your kitchen
You may have already thrown out the seed oils, “vegetable oil” and margarine in your kitchen, but if not, do that first. Replace them with healthy traditional fats like butter (preferably grass-fed), tallow, lard, chicken fat, unrefined coconut oil, ghee, or unrefined avocado oil.
Several new cooking oils have recently appeared on the market that may be good alternatives to seed oils for cooking, but they are too new to thoroughly evaluate. Examples include Zero Acre (from fermented sugar cane) and algae oils. Both are less processed, have low levels of PUFA (the primary type in seed oils), and are mostly monosaturated fats like olive oil, but with the ability to heat them at higher temperatures.
If you are cooking at lower temperatures or using an oil for a salad, the best choice is olive oil, with avocado oil, macadamia nut oil, and walnut oil as alternatives. Because these tend to be some of the more expensive oils, they are more likely to be adulterated, so choose carefully. Olive oil must be extra virgin or unrefined and from a quality source, such as a single area in Italy or 100% California olive oil. Do not buy oil that is cheap, from an unknown source, or a mixture of sources. Private branded or store-brand avocado oil may contain other oils or ingredients not listed on the label. Stick with the Chosen brand of avocado oil, which is high quality and less refined than most.
At the grocery
Here, anything with a label is suspect. Of course, you already know that processed foods are a minefield, and ultra-processed foods are low nutrient, devoid of fiber, and full of toxic ingredients. One of the most toxic is seed oils. Look for “vegetable oil,” margarine, canola oil, soybean oil, corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, rice bran oil, grapeseed oil, or cottonseed oil on the label. If you find it, do not buy it!
Unfortunately, most processed food items contain seed oils, and you will find them in 80-90% of ultra-processed foods (for more information see my post on “Imposter Foods…”). I just learned from the Environmental Working Group (EWG.org) that the FDA also has a “10-second” rule that allows quick deep frying of a packaged food in soybean oil without including it on the label! This legal deception is another reason to avoid all ultra-processed foods (shelf bread, chips, cereals, snack foods, frozen and packaged meals, fast food, etc.). These highly processed, grain-filled, and sugar-toxic “imposter” foods disrupt all your cellular processes and cause chronic disease.
In the case of packaged products, you must also ignore all marketing labels that have no regulated meaning, like “natural,” “healthy,” “clean,” “wholesome,” “good source of energy,” “sustainably sourced,” “farm fresh,” and many more. Even “organic” foods can contain seed oils, so beware. Your only defense is to read labels like the ones below.
Seed oils can appear on the label of almost any packaged food, but some of the most toxic are mayonnaise, margarine, sauces, and other liquid condiments. Notice how Soybean oil is listed first on the mayonnaise label of this national brand, which indicates it makes up the largest proportion of the product. In fact, the toxic PUFA fat of six grams is over 40% of each 14-gram serving! Look for non-seed oil alternatives or make your own mayonnaise.
Likewise, refined oils are a major component of butter substitutes, with soybean oil the second largest ingredient by volume on the label shown. Palm oils are not as toxic as seed oils, but they are not great ingredients. By reading the label, you find toxic seed oils (lecithin is a seed oil product), but also lots of other chemical and artificial ingredients in this “imposter” food substance. Avoid!
Even if the seed oil is lower on the ingredient label for other products, it will still be toxic in your system. Some of the other processed foods that often have considerable amounts of seed oils include shelf bread, crackers, chips, cereals, canned soups, frozen meals, pre-made doughs, energy/snack bars, packaged baked goods, vegetable spreads, processed cheese, and candy bars. Sadly, you will even find them in some baby formula and “nutritional“ meal replacement drinks like Ensure!
The good news: substitutes are available for most of the foods that contain seed oils. Whole Foods, natural food stores, and online companies are useful resources. The best substitutes are fresh real foods, such as tree nuts instead of chips or an orange instead of a snack bar.
Dining out
As a nation, we are dining out more often than ever before. Do you think you are safe from seed oils because it is a “nice” restaurant? I wish that were true. No solid estimates are available, but some in the industry suggest nine out of ten restaurants in the U.S. use seed oils for cooking and as an ingredient. A high-quality, fine dining restaurant in a large city is less likely to use seed oils, but you still must ask!
Look at their menu online in advance, then call them before you plan to visit, which avoids any explanations if you are in a group. Call outside of mealtimes, such as 2-4 pm and ask if they use any seed oils, which you or someone in your group cannot eat. Explain that you are concerned about any seed oils, such as soybean oil, corn oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, rice bran oil, or grapeseed oil. You would like to know if they use seed oils or seed oil blends in preparing any menu items. If yes, which items on the menu do not contain and are not prepared with seed oils?
Be gracious and do not expect the person you talk to on the phone to know the answers. Ask them to check with the kitchen. Some restaurants will prepare an item using butter or olive oil (if low heat) instead, on request. Most will have at least one or two items that do not involve oil at all, such as grilled meats, steamed vegetables, fresh fruit, and salads topped with olive oil and vinegar.
However, do not assume that the salad oil is genuine olive oil without checking. Some restaurants use a seed oil/olive oil blend instead. Be sure to ask. Avoid creamy salad dressings that are made with mayonnaise that will surely include seed oil.
If you do confirm that a restaurant is mostly or all seed oil free, be sure to report it on the “Seed Oil Scout” app you can download to your phone so that others can find it and reward them with their patronage. Although this app has some kinks to be worked out, it may be useful.
Spread the news!
Too few doctors, health care professionals, and members of the public know about this serious threat to our health. Talk it up with your friends, relatives, and neighbors. Share this article (Part 1 & 2) on social media, email to people you care about, and if anyone doubts this message, refer them to the best book on the topic: Dark Calories by Dr. Catherine Shanahan, a functional medicine doctor who has thoroughly researched the impact of seed oils on our bodies.
It may take three or four years for your body fat cells to switch back from poor energy, high PUFA fat to healthy high-energy fat your mitochondria can use more effectively, but you will feel the difference in a matter of two or three weeks. Once you know the danger of seed oils, you can easily avoid them. I guarantee the process will be easy and you will not miss them one single bit.
Thanks for reading!
Note: Based on the recent writings of some of the top functional medicine doctors, including Drs. Catherine Shanahan (Dark Calories), Georgia Ede (Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind), Michael T. Chang (Mitochondrial Dysfunction), David Perlmutter (Grain Brain), and Michael Greger (How Not to Die).