I recently got my mom off the canola oil but couldn’t articulately tell her why–though I did a good enough job to convince her 🙂 Today, she forwards me an article from Bottom Line Daily Health News, one of a few newsletters I recommend you read (more listed at the end of this article), with a concise summary of why to avoid canola & co. I only cook with pastured butter, olive oil, and coconut oil.
An excerpt:
Unsavory Truth About Vegetable Oils
It used to be that heavy weights were used to squeeze the oil from plants (which is what’s really meant by the term “vegetable oil”), but now most manufacturers use heat and chemical solvents, in particular petroleum-derived hexane. Both methods end up removing potential health benefits, I learned from Maggie Ward, MS, RD, LDN, nutrition director of Dr. Mark Hyman’s UltraWellness Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. The principle demon is heat. At certain temperatures, heat oxidizes and neutralizes many of the plant’s nutrients. This makes the oil rancid (yes — even though you can’t tell, which I will explain in a minute) and as a result, the oil’s healthy antioxidants and essential fatty acids are replaced by destructive free radicals.
Adding insult to injury, most vegetable oils are then refined after extraction — using yet more chemicals and high heat to bleach and deodorize them. This removes color to make the oil look more appealing and erases any rancid smell and taste. The result is oil that is bland enough to add moisture and texture without changing the taste of baked foods, for instance. And the supposed benefit is that cooks can use these oils for frying, because they can be taken to high temperatures without smoking. But the real result of all this processing means that we end up using nutritionally void oil to cook in a way that is inherently unhealthful. And yes, this includes oils such as soybean and canola oil that are marketed as “healthy” and “good for you.”
Source(s):
Maggie Ward, MS, RD, LDL, nutrition director of Dr. Mark Hyman’s UltraWellness Center, Lenox, Massachusetts. www.UltraWellnessCenter.com.
Dr. Mercola writes one of the best newsletters on health around, you should subscribe today.
Mark’s Daily Apple is also a winner, very primal diet focused.