The American Heart Association has it all wrong.
Their most recent recommendations on what fats we should eat seem to have been copied from a 1980s nutrition textbook:
“Choose vegetable oils and margarines with liquid vegetable oil as the first listed ingredient. Examples are canola, corn, olive, peanut, safflower, sesame, soybean and sunflower oils.”
This is complete nonsense, and I’ll prove it to you.
Reason #1: Vegetable oil sucks
Refined vegetable oils are the WORST kind of fats you can eat — period.
You see, plants contain very fragile polyunsaturated fats that are sensitive to heat, oxygen, and even light.
(That’s why quality oils are always kept in dark bottles.)
But, food manufacturers don’t care about damaging your healthy fats.
They extract plant oils from peanuts, canola, corn, safflower, soybean, and sunflower, using the industrial solvent hexane — at very high temperatures.
Once the oil has been extracted, it’s a smelly grey mess.
But, they filter, degum, and deodorize that goo, until it looks good and smells neutral, and then sell it to you.
This refined oil does not only contain ZERO nutrients at all…it’s also inflammatory to your heart, and downright dangerous.
And ironically, that is the oil the AHA wants you to use…
Reason #2: Most olive oils are fake.
Using olive oil is a good alternative, but only if you know exactly what you’re doing.
According to Tom Mueller, the author of a groundbreaking book on the subject, about 70% of the olive oil sold is fake, and has been cut with fattening cheaper oils.
That has been confirmed by many sources like the UC Davis, where tests have found that 73% of extra virgin olive oils should NOT be labeled as such.
Again, these fake olive oils are mostly rancid, and will do little to improve your health. In fact, they may do the exact
opposite…
If you can’t afford the organic, certified, extra-virgin oils sold in specialty stores, you might be better off avoiding it altogether.
This leaves us with the question… what the heck should I use instead?
That’s simple.
For cooking: Coconut oil, or expeller-pressed coconut oil if you want to avoid the coconut taste (organic is better).
On your salads: Ultra-high-quality olive oil, or — even better — organic, unrefined seed oil.
Most diets are extremely deficient in the healthiest oils on earth: Seed Oils.
For example:
- Flax seeds – Contains 8 grams of alpha-linoleic acid (ALA), making it the richest source of ALA in the standard North American Diet. It boosts your metabolism, keeps your hair healthy, and helps your nails grow. It also relieves discomfort in colitis sufferers.
- Pumpkin seeds – Helps in regulating the level of cholesterol and also reduces the risk of stroke, heart disease, arteriosclerosis, and certain cancers. A powerful anti-inflammatory, pumpkin seed oil also stops kidney stones.
- Sesame seeds – High in vitamin E, it contains sesaminol and sesamin, which helps reduce the risk of heart disease, and may protect the body from cancer. Also, very high in B-complex vitamins, amino acids, and essential minerals. It’s also an anti- bacterial, and provides kidney support.
- Sunflower seeds – Healthy for our cardiovascular system. It contains plenty of vitamin E and high levels of essential fatty Sunflower also provides skin and cardiovascular support.
- Coriander seeds – Found in King Tut’s Tomb, a tonic for the heart and stomach. A natural aphrodisiac, anti-inflammatory,
antioxidant, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal. Also a known home remedy for diabetes, coriander supports the pancreas, liver, spleen, and digestive system.
As you can clearly see, going out of your way to consume seeds from oils is definitely worth the effort.
Which leads me to problem #1 with friendly fats and oils.
Problem #1: Portion Control
Unfortunately, it typically takes about 500 extra calories worth of raw seeds, or more, in order to reap a good portion of the benefits listed above.
So, even though we all need these friendly oils in our nutrition plan, raw nuts, raw seeds, and friendly fats, have a VERY high likelihood of adding an additional 500-700+ calories a day to your plan if you really want to get effective dose.
This is obviously not practical, if you want to be in a deficit to lose, or maintain weight.
Always, always, monitor your portion control when eating friendly fats and oils.
Problem #2: Label Lies
If you depend on retail and online stores for your source of seed oils, (grapeseed, cottonseed, sunflower, almond, etc.) you could be doing more harm than good.
The truth is that almost every kind of oil available for purchase in retail stores (as well as online) contains micronutrients so
severely damaged, they can be harmful.
Simply put, seed oils sold in stores or online are 99% rancid by the time you take them home and consume them.
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