It's one thing to be aware of these toxic oils, the challenge is getting them out of your diet. We have far too many deceptive products sold. "Olive Oil" Mayo that has a trace of olive oil but is still primarily canola oil. 🤦♂️
As an example: I enjoy salads with salad dressing. Sure I've made my own salad dressing, but I also like to buy some. The "best" you can buy still has seed oils.
2nd example: I love making high end salmon, but I like tartar sauce on it. You can't buy healthy tartar sauce and making your own "fake" tartar sauce is still challenging.
Cooking fresh means using real ingredients and they spoil quickly so it also is a challenge to plan out what to buy and what to eat. Those of us living in a small town with terrible grocery options are even more challenged.
Agreed! I've been cooking and eating healthy for twenty years now. Invest in yourself!
My terrible grocery options are local, so at least I'm not wasting ton of time driving to the grocery. I have a lot of food shipped to me (best way to get top quality food but it's expensive).
Learning not to cook is far better! Eating food as our Creator intended for humans to eat, would be primarily raw. One Tablespoon of any oil is 14 -15 g of fat...and I nearly died from the migraines that I experienced for years, until i became aware that there is a limit to the amount of fat the human body needs. My limit is 22 g daily. I have a kitchen scale with a gram counter. We have our own chickens...and I have eggs every other day...and use some butter in making them. I use 7 g as the eggs contain approx. 5 g of fat each. All foods have some fat and it adds up by the end of the day. In the past there was no machinery to break down nuts and seeds. Today, the amount of fat in the human diet is overwhelming....and many are totally unaware of how destructive it is to their health. I stopped using salad oils, nuts, seeds, mayo, etc. in 1993 and have not had one headache since.
Thank you, Dr. Shanahan. I'm a lay person, but I believe one of the most important things MAHA can do it to reinstate home ec in our schools. It's important for people to know these oils are dangerous to their health and that of their children. But until kids learn how to make their own meals, it won't do any good. They'll still be primarily eating processed meals. I'm a longtime home cook. And it has paid off throughout my life. This last year I've been in recuperation since nearly dying from Septic Shock (from a ruptured hernia I didn't know I had). I've cooked almost all the meals my husband and I've eaten in the last year. It's how I can control what kind of oils and fats we eat, because, as you know Sepsis destroys everything it can in your body and this is the only way I can rebuild. Yesterday when I saw my skin doctor he said how amazingly my skin and hair recovered. And I'm 73. Yes, I don't have a job, but I also have been exhausted and need a walker to get around. If I can make meals without seed oils and that have the protein, fiber, probiotics that I need — so I'm not eating processed food — then young people can, too. They just have no idea what it is to cook, other than watch Top Chef competitions.
We changed our diet a while ago to only include real olive oil, butter and ghee, but you added layers to my understanding of the metabolic consequences of seed oils. Thanks.
Food processing machinery has made oils far too available in the human diet...and I learned through suffering with migraines for 30 years, how deadly fats were. When I became a vegetarian in 1973, my headaches became worse. In 1993, I experienced an excruciating migraine and wanted to die! I prayed for help and was guided to stop all fats. I learned the liver creates bile to emulsify and break down fat . As a vegetarian I was eating far too many salads with dressings, such as, oil, mayo, plus eating nuts and seeds. There is a limit to the amount of grams of fat people need daily. I learned that I only needed 22 g of fat daily...and I was eating far more. One Tablespoon of Salad Oil is 14 - 15 g of fat! In 1993, I stopped all the fats (plus nuts, seeds, etc) and totally avoided processed foods. I have not had one more headache in 32 years...and my health improved. Going on 92, I am healthier mentally and physically than I was in my 20s and 30s.
Thank you, Dr. Cate, for the crucial info you provide to the world. For me, it's olive oil, and coconut oil, avocado oil, and red palm oil from Nutiva. Also ghee (easy to make at home). And pork lard, leaf lard, and beef tallow from Fatworks. My mother was a "health food nut," and I, at 79, take zero prescriptions.
This article is disingenuous and another attempt to discredit healthy plant based nutrition which does not promote 'seed oils'. Check out Drs. Fuhrman, Klaper, Esselstyn, Kahn, etc. for healthy plant based diets that do not promate either potential harm from seed oils or tallow. As Elizabeth Kucinich writes in her substack. 'In reality, diets like Keto often rely on meat and dairy from industrial production systems, where contamination with drugs and chemicals is routine. The promise of healing through meat and fat collapses when those foods carry residues of antibiotics, steroid hormones, synthetic preservatives, arsenicals, cocciodiostats, and pesticides. Many of these toxins accumulate precisely in the fats and organs being celebrated as nutrient rich.
There is a stark gap between the idealised narrative of ancestral eating and the toxic burden of modern industrial food. Until the USDA addresses the pharmaceutical and chemical contamination of the meat supply, it cannot credibly recommend increased animal fat consumption in the name of health.'
It's so important to avoid commercial meats and buy directly from one's local farmer and rancher, especially if they utilize regenerative ag principles.
We keep reading about the bad seed oils and why they are bad. Let’s see more about some of the good oils - avocado, coconut, and olive oil, and why they are not bad.
I use VERY little oil in cooking-only on a rare occasion. Sometimes I will spritz a little organic extra virgin olive oil on veggies that I am roasting or put a very fine layer of organic avocado oil on a baking sheet. Otherwise, I water sauté my veggies, tofu, etc. (I am vegan) in a stainless steel skillet or a stainless steel wok-both without non-stick or any other type of coatings. Yes, there is a bit of a learning curve to using this method, but it works really well-no chemical coatings on cookware which can leach into food, and no added calories or other unwanted chemicals from oils.
By law all oils today cannot be partially hydrogenated. Cold pressed oils won't have other potential toxins like 3-MCPD. Of the "hateful 8" canola oil is the lowest in 3-MCPD but the oil one with the most 3-MCPD is palm oil. Palm oil, along with coconut and palm kernel oils are all far higher in artery clogging saturated fatty acids. The scientific research proves these 3 "tropical oils" along with animal fats like beef tallow and ghee are almost certainly worse for your health than these so-called "Hateful Eight" IMO. Go by science and not by dubious speculation.
Many people are getting their health back and healing using Keto and the those with worse health problems are using carnivore to the point of beef and salt only. Plant only is a personal choice but protein sources are difficult to achieve.
Here is to all of us that are struggling with our health and realizing that just taking a prescription for the symptoms is not working.
It's horrible that our "health" agencies have permitted the take-over of the food industry. Many medical doctors have been warning us for decades about seed oils and processing. Harmful manufacturing by-products such as fluoride and those from petroleum have been repurposed and slipped into condiment, cosmetic, food, skin care pet products and even textiles. We have to look at the root of everything that has been mandated in the USA. Who profits? We're literally being fed and wrapped in harmful products.
Wow, Dr Cate. Lovely, informative article! I would love to have a conversation with you about the processing of seed oils and some of the other problems created within the seed oil industry that cause more health problems than any other part of nutrition.
I began to work with oils as part of trying to recover from pesticide poisoning in 1980. My book FATS THAT HEAL FATS THAT KILL was published in 1993.
My work has been disparaged by a loud (but not deeply enough homework-informed) voice. All my work was done independent of any of the oil companies. After several years of in-depth study of the research journals (LIPIDS was the original, which split into three different journals later on), I did develop a method for making oils with health in mind and developed guidelines for using oils with health in mind.
I also took on the carb, insulin, and obesity issues and both the excess calories (mostly from carbs, because excess fats suppress appetite and excess oils {especially Omega-3} increase thermogenesis that blows off extra calories as heat and keeps people warm in cold climates) and the inflammation (mostly from damaged food molecules and other unnatural molecules that stimulate the immune system to retain water in tissues) that produce obesity.
My experience in these and other health issues were hands-on with people in about 40 different countries; lots of feedback from practical applications.
At present, I'm involved in turning Total Health, based in nature and human nature, into a systematically organized, teachable field. I think that after 200 thousand years of living on this planet and NOT doing so, it's about time to do that.
My educational background is biological sciences (biochem, genetics to Master's level), one year of medicine, psychology (Master's), and other aspects of human nature outside that fall outside university curricula and limited narratives.
Maybe we need to create educational curricula for human nature and for health that are based on the nature of these untwisted by commercial interests or compromised institutions.
Without that kind of based-on-truth educational foundation, Making America Healthy Again is not likely to become a permanent foundation, and frankly, America right now is the only place in the world that is in a position to create this foundation for health world-wide. I'd love to be part of THAT project. Warm regard, Udo Erasmus, 778-916-3369; udo369@gmail.com
It's one thing to be aware of these toxic oils, the challenge is getting them out of your diet. We have far too many deceptive products sold. "Olive Oil" Mayo that has a trace of olive oil but is still primarily canola oil. 🤦♂️
The only hard part about getting them out of your diet is learning to cook for yourself and not depending on fast food.
As an example: I enjoy salads with salad dressing. Sure I've made my own salad dressing, but I also like to buy some. The "best" you can buy still has seed oils.
2nd example: I love making high end salmon, but I like tartar sauce on it. You can't buy healthy tartar sauce and making your own "fake" tartar sauce is still challenging.
Cooking fresh means using real ingredients and they spoil quickly so it also is a challenge to plan out what to buy and what to eat. Those of us living in a small town with terrible grocery options are even more challenged.
I live in a small town with terrible grocery options that are 25 miles away. This requires learning to make grocery lists, and multiple freezers.
I look at it this way: do I want cooking challenges now, or health challenges later?
It's also helpful to remember that incremental changes are better than nothing, and more doable. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
smart cookie.
Agreed! I've been cooking and eating healthy for twenty years now. Invest in yourself!
My terrible grocery options are local, so at least I'm not wasting ton of time driving to the grocery. I have a lot of food shipped to me (best way to get top quality food but it's expensive).
Learning not to cook is far better! Eating food as our Creator intended for humans to eat, would be primarily raw. One Tablespoon of any oil is 14 -15 g of fat...and I nearly died from the migraines that I experienced for years, until i became aware that there is a limit to the amount of fat the human body needs. My limit is 22 g daily. I have a kitchen scale with a gram counter. We have our own chickens...and I have eggs every other day...and use some butter in making them. I use 7 g as the eggs contain approx. 5 g of fat each. All foods have some fat and it adds up by the end of the day. In the past there was no machinery to break down nuts and seeds. Today, the amount of fat in the human diet is overwhelming....and many are totally unaware of how destructive it is to their health. I stopped using salad oils, nuts, seeds, mayo, etc. in 1993 and have not had one headache since.
Not that hard really, I’ve been cooking my family’s food for years. Though I much admit i used organic canola oil in the past.
I now cook with raw jersey milk ghee. Its the bomb and its hard to burn as well
YUM
I do a ton of healthy cooking myself. But I still encounter a lot of challenges to eat good food. And forget being healthy when traveling!
Or like the Shake Shack "tallow" fries flash fried at the factory...in seed oils!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
🤦♂️ Fortunately I never eat out.
Thank you, Dr. Shanahan. I'm a lay person, but I believe one of the most important things MAHA can do it to reinstate home ec in our schools. It's important for people to know these oils are dangerous to their health and that of their children. But until kids learn how to make their own meals, it won't do any good. They'll still be primarily eating processed meals. I'm a longtime home cook. And it has paid off throughout my life. This last year I've been in recuperation since nearly dying from Septic Shock (from a ruptured hernia I didn't know I had). I've cooked almost all the meals my husband and I've eaten in the last year. It's how I can control what kind of oils and fats we eat, because, as you know Sepsis destroys everything it can in your body and this is the only way I can rebuild. Yesterday when I saw my skin doctor he said how amazingly my skin and hair recovered. And I'm 73. Yes, I don't have a job, but I also have been exhausted and need a walker to get around. If I can make meals without seed oils and that have the protein, fiber, probiotics that I need — so I'm not eating processed food — then young people can, too. They just have no idea what it is to cook, other than watch Top Chef competitions.
Couldn't agree more!
I would read some of the latest articles @mindandmatter substack
Seed oils increase appetite as well
A weakness of Substack is not having a decent search function. We have to provide exact links. Searching for mindandmatter finds nothing. 😢
Lack of a decent search function is one of my constant complaints to Substack.
I love Substack so I try not to complain much, but yes, the user interface is very weak and search is virtually useless.
https://mindandmatter.substack.com/p/seed-oils-and-body-fat-when-did-modern
https://mindandmatter.substack.com/p/seed-oils-and-body-fat-6-pufas-cause
Thank you!!!
We changed our diet a while ago to only include real olive oil, butter and ghee, but you added layers to my understanding of the metabolic consequences of seed oils. Thanks.
Food processing machinery has made oils far too available in the human diet...and I learned through suffering with migraines for 30 years, how deadly fats were. When I became a vegetarian in 1973, my headaches became worse. In 1993, I experienced an excruciating migraine and wanted to die! I prayed for help and was guided to stop all fats. I learned the liver creates bile to emulsify and break down fat . As a vegetarian I was eating far too many salads with dressings, such as, oil, mayo, plus eating nuts and seeds. There is a limit to the amount of grams of fat people need daily. I learned that I only needed 22 g of fat daily...and I was eating far more. One Tablespoon of Salad Oil is 14 - 15 g of fat! In 1993, I stopped all the fats (plus nuts, seeds, etc) and totally avoided processed foods. I have not had one more headache in 32 years...and my health improved. Going on 92, I am healthier mentally and physically than I was in my 20s and 30s.
Thank you, Dr. Cate, for the crucial info you provide to the world. For me, it's olive oil, and coconut oil, avocado oil, and red palm oil from Nutiva. Also ghee (easy to make at home). And pork lard, leaf lard, and beef tallow from Fatworks. My mother was a "health food nut," and I, at 79, take zero prescriptions.
This article is disingenuous and another attempt to discredit healthy plant based nutrition which does not promote 'seed oils'. Check out Drs. Fuhrman, Klaper, Esselstyn, Kahn, etc. for healthy plant based diets that do not promate either potential harm from seed oils or tallow. As Elizabeth Kucinich writes in her substack. 'In reality, diets like Keto often rely on meat and dairy from industrial production systems, where contamination with drugs and chemicals is routine. The promise of healing through meat and fat collapses when those foods carry residues of antibiotics, steroid hormones, synthetic preservatives, arsenicals, cocciodiostats, and pesticides. Many of these toxins accumulate precisely in the fats and organs being celebrated as nutrient rich.
There is a stark gap between the idealised narrative of ancestral eating and the toxic burden of modern industrial food. Until the USDA addresses the pharmaceutical and chemical contamination of the meat supply, it cannot credibly recommend increased animal fat consumption in the name of health.'
It's so important to avoid commercial meats and buy directly from one's local farmer and rancher, especially if they utilize regenerative ag principles.
We keep reading about the bad seed oils and why they are bad. Let’s see more about some of the good oils - avocado, coconut, and olive oil, and why they are not bad.
I use VERY little oil in cooking-only on a rare occasion. Sometimes I will spritz a little organic extra virgin olive oil on veggies that I am roasting or put a very fine layer of organic avocado oil on a baking sheet. Otherwise, I water sauté my veggies, tofu, etc. (I am vegan) in a stainless steel skillet or a stainless steel wok-both without non-stick or any other type of coatings. Yes, there is a bit of a learning curve to using this method, but it works really well-no chemical coatings on cookware which can leach into food, and no added calories or other unwanted chemicals from oils.
I understand to look for cold pressed oils NOT hydrogenated oils
By law all oils today cannot be partially hydrogenated. Cold pressed oils won't have other potential toxins like 3-MCPD. Of the "hateful 8" canola oil is the lowest in 3-MCPD but the oil one with the most 3-MCPD is palm oil. Palm oil, along with coconut and palm kernel oils are all far higher in artery clogging saturated fatty acids. The scientific research proves these 3 "tropical oils" along with animal fats like beef tallow and ghee are almost certainly worse for your health than these so-called "Hateful Eight" IMO. Go by science and not by dubious speculation.
I am glad attention is being brought to the health danger of these highly toxic oils.
What about sesame seed oil?
2 excellent articles
https://mindandmatter.substack.com/p/seed-oils-and-body-fat-when-did-modern
https://mindandmatter.substack.com/p/seed-oils-and-body-fat-6-pufas-cause
Many people are getting their health back and healing using Keto and the those with worse health problems are using carnivore to the point of beef and salt only. Plant only is a personal choice but protein sources are difficult to achieve.
Here is to all of us that are struggling with our health and realizing that just taking a prescription for the symptoms is not working.
It's horrible that our "health" agencies have permitted the take-over of the food industry. Many medical doctors have been warning us for decades about seed oils and processing. Harmful manufacturing by-products such as fluoride and those from petroleum have been repurposed and slipped into condiment, cosmetic, food, skin care pet products and even textiles. We have to look at the root of everything that has been mandated in the USA. Who profits? We're literally being fed and wrapped in harmful products.
Wow, Dr Cate. Lovely, informative article! I would love to have a conversation with you about the processing of seed oils and some of the other problems created within the seed oil industry that cause more health problems than any other part of nutrition.
I began to work with oils as part of trying to recover from pesticide poisoning in 1980. My book FATS THAT HEAL FATS THAT KILL was published in 1993.
My work has been disparaged by a loud (but not deeply enough homework-informed) voice. All my work was done independent of any of the oil companies. After several years of in-depth study of the research journals (LIPIDS was the original, which split into three different journals later on), I did develop a method for making oils with health in mind and developed guidelines for using oils with health in mind.
I also took on the carb, insulin, and obesity issues and both the excess calories (mostly from carbs, because excess fats suppress appetite and excess oils {especially Omega-3} increase thermogenesis that blows off extra calories as heat and keeps people warm in cold climates) and the inflammation (mostly from damaged food molecules and other unnatural molecules that stimulate the immune system to retain water in tissues) that produce obesity.
My experience in these and other health issues were hands-on with people in about 40 different countries; lots of feedback from practical applications.
At present, I'm involved in turning Total Health, based in nature and human nature, into a systematically organized, teachable field. I think that after 200 thousand years of living on this planet and NOT doing so, it's about time to do that.
My educational background is biological sciences (biochem, genetics to Master's level), one year of medicine, psychology (Master's), and other aspects of human nature outside that fall outside university curricula and limited narratives.
Maybe we need to create educational curricula for human nature and for health that are based on the nature of these untwisted by commercial interests or compromised institutions.
Without that kind of based-on-truth educational foundation, Making America Healthy Again is not likely to become a permanent foundation, and frankly, America right now is the only place in the world that is in a position to create this foundation for health world-wide. I'd love to be part of THAT project. Warm regard, Udo Erasmus, 778-916-3369; udo369@gmail.com