Continuing our series on picking the low hanging fruit (the simpler, foundational principles) along one’s pathway to restoring (or improving) your overall wellness and health, today’s installment has a particular interest for me, as many allopathic physicians across the fruited plain continue to recommend the consumption of high-PUFA industrial seed oils instead of far healthier saturated (and mono-unsaturated) fats.
As noted in prior Low Hanging Fruit posts, what follows is again primarily aimed at those who are following an approach to nutrition and food much more aligned with the Standard American Diet (the infamous SAD approach), not necessarily those thoughtful folks who have already begun to take a hard and discerning look at the healthy – and the unhealthy – aspects of their nutrition plan. That said, the more I talk to people about food and nutrition, good folks from all across the health, wellness, and fitness spectrum, the more surprised I am about how little attention some people pay to the disastrous effects that seed oils can have on the human body.
And once again, of critical note, your best food plan will be one that is UNIQUE TO YOU, given, for simple example (out of many possible factors), your current body composition, your overall metabolic health, your daily activity package, your current health, wellness, and fitness objectives, your overall general health, and where you happen to be in your “recovery” journey.
So Why Dump the Industrial Seed Oils?
There are a host of great reasons to absolutely eliminate the toxic industrial seed oils from one’s diet; entire books have been written detailing the litany of problems these products can cause. Outlining the expansive, detailed case for dumping industrial seed oils often makes the eyes of neophytes to healthier eating glaze over or causes suspicion to creep in as after all, the experts have been touting their benefits since the 1970s.
Let’s make it simple, and look at just four reasons industrial seed oils aren’t your friends.
One, industrial seed oils disrupt the delicate balance between omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in the body, contributing to a chronic state of inflammation in, which in turn contributes to the avalanche of chronic diseases issues impacting the world today. Ancestral omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid ratios were estimated to be close to 1 to 1; today’s Westernized diets feature omega-6 to omega-3 ratios anywhere from 10 to 1 to even 20 to 1. Industrial seed oils are the largest contributor to this essential fatty acid imbalance in the modern diet.
Two, industrial seed oils are damned unstable, meaning they oxidize easily when exposed to light, when heated, or exposed to other chemical influences. When that happens, two particularly harmful products are produced – lipid peroxides (toxic byproducts that damage proteins, DNA, membranes, and more) and trans fats, the infamous contributor to CVD, T2DM, and more.
Three, and related to the instability issue above, industrial seed oils are full of additives in the form of synthetic antioxidants to extend their shelf life, attempting to prevent oxidation and eventual rancidity. Agents commonly used include BHA, BHT, and TBHQ; for the sake of brevity I’m not going to address their litany of problems in detail, but these compounds have been implicated as disrupting endocrine homeostasis, being carcinogenic, and critically impacting immune function.
Four, the overwhelming majority of industrial seed oils are derived from genetically modified plants. The top genetically modified plants in the US, for example, are those very plants used for industrial seed oil products. In the US, 94 percent of rapeseed, 94 percent of cotton, 93 percent of soy, and 88 percent of corn comes from genetically modified crops. Dr. Gundry’s explanation on the immune system impacts of plant lectins is probably the best in the game, to explore further pick up his Plant Paradox for an informative read.
There are many other reasons to drop the industrial seed oils and replace them with far healthier fats, like butter and ghee, coconut oil, olive and avocado oil, pastured tallow and lard, and even duck fat, though when walking new clients through the rationale for implementing changes in their food plan, I like to start here, keep it simple, and build from this foundation.
If there are still industrial seed oils in your kitchen, it’s past time for a pantry purge. Git ‘er done.
