After sugar, seed oils like canola, safflower, sunflower, peanut, corn, soybean, cottonseed, palm and vegetable are next on the list of ingredients to avoid. They cause inflammation and are just as terrible for you. I’ve never really worried about them because I don’t eat too much processed food to begin with. I stopped using oil when I bake a long time ago too. A recent visit to an alternative wellness doctor, detected I was having a sensitivity to seed oils. It wasn’t there in the visits in previous months. I realized I had switched up my breakfast and was now eating sunflower seeds almost daily. That’s not a bad thing, but after reviewing the ingredient list, realized they were roasted in vegetable oil, so be sure to check labels. Don’t just assume a product is healthy. I’ve been fooled many times. Sunflower seeds are healthy, but not when they are roasted and coated in seed oils. I replaced them with organic, unroasted, raw sunflower seeds. I’ve been very diligent the past month to not eat anything that contains seed oils. Surprisingly, or maybe not surprisingly, I do feel better and have more energy.
Packaged snacks like potato chips, crackers and cookies, also contain seed oils. Even products like salad dressing contain seed oils. Even Kind bars use palm oil.
Most items have alternatives made without seed oils, but it’s really hard to find potato chips alternatives. Boulder Canyon is one option though. They have potato chips made with avocado or olive oil. They seem to be made by Utz.
Larabar is a good minimum ingredient alternative bar.
Seed oils raise the omega 6 to omega 3 ratio. Omega 6 fats increase production of acids that promote inflammation while omega 3 fats increase production of acids that reduce inflammation.
Seed oils also contain harmful additives and are genetically modified. Repeatedly heating them, like in deep fryers, creates more harmful byproducts. The gut lining is thin, seed oils promote inflammation which leads to a leaky gut that allows toxins to get into the blood stream causing even more inflammation throughout the body and health problems.
Seed oils have been linked to all sorts of health issues, including but not limited to heart disease, obesity, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, digestive issues, macular degeneration, cancer and asthma.
The only oils that I use are good for you omega 3 fats like coconut, olive and avocado oil. Avocado and coconut oil are best for cooking because olive oil doesn’t have a high heat tolerance. Olive oil is best used for drizzling over ready to eat food rather than sauteing. I do use it to cook when using low to medium low temperatures though for things like vegetables, but not high temperatures like searing a steak.
Sometimes I also use butter. Grass fed butter has more omega 3 fats than conventional, but conventional butter is better than gmo seed oils. Ghee is also a good alternative. It is 100% butterfat extracted from milk and doesn’t contain water or any impurities that could be in butter. It has a very high heat tolerance. It also doesn’t contain any of the milk proteins casein and whey or lactose.
If you are looking for a restaurant that doesn’t cook with seed oils, check out the Seed Oil Scout app. You can search and find restaurants within the search area that are seed oil free.
One restaurant I recommend is True Food Kitchen. It’s a chain of restaurants started by Dr. Andrew Weil. One of the pioneers in health and wellness. I ate several times at one in Bethesda, MD. Every meal was fantastic! Every area needs one of these restaurants.
Challenge:
Take a look at the ingredient list of a few packaged snacks that you regularly eat. If there are any seed oils from the list above, work on finding a replacement that doesn’t contain those oils. Healthier replacements exist, it’s just a matter of finding them.
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Omega 3 Fat Books
References
https://chriskresser.com/how-industrial-seed-oils-are-making-us-sick/
https://drhyman.com/blog/2016/01/29/why-oil-is-bad-for-you/
https://www.bulletproof.com/supplements/aminos-enzymes/omega-3-vs-omega-6-fat-supplements/