Don’t eat this if you are serious about getting healthier!
I don’t usually give nutrition advice in my newsletter, but this year I have been reading and hearing the old saying, ‘everything in moderation’. I morally need to tell you that vegetable oils * – especially when heated at high temperatures or in processed foods are seriously damaging to your health.
Many vegetable oils are made from anything but vegetables. Rapeseed and sunflower oils come from seeds. Soybean oil comes from soybeans (obviously)!
Vegetable oils were not even in our diet until the last century when the technology became available. The way these oils are made is by using chemical solvents or harsh metal extraction methods and further refined. When seen under a microscope, tiny metal fragments may appear. These end up in our bodies.
Most processed foods contain vegetable oils. They are cheap for the food industry. However, they are very high in omega 6 oils. What we want to be increasing and focusing on having more of is omega 3s. Both types of oils are essential. However, the ratio we have has changed from 1:1 in early civilisation to 20:1 or 40:1 in western populations.
Too much omega 6 leads to chronic inflammation, which is a marker of disease in the body. Inflammatory diseases include heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes and arthritis. We all want to avoid those, don’t we?
There are exceptions. Olive oil and coconut oil * are vegetable oils that are good for your health. However, olive oil should not be heated at high temperatures. If oil smokes when heated, throw it away and start again!
This may be new information to you. You might have understood that vegetable oil or rapeseed oil is very healthy because it is high in polyunsaturated fatty acids. You may have even been recommended margarine like Flora Proactive because it is high in plant stenols. I say eat the plants and avoid the fake margarine.
The fats and oils we eat aren’t only used for energy or stored, it is in our cell membranes. We need fats and oils in our diets. They are essential. This is not an exhaustive list of the importance and dangers of fats and oils in our diet, but an introduction.
At eat to be slim, I recommend eating naturally occurring fats like butter (I recommend a specific brand), fats that are solid at room temperature, and no oils except the two mentioned above* as well as one other that derives from a fatty fruit.
Common vegetable oils and those found in processed foods are hydrogenated. This means they contain trans fats. This leads to chronic inflammation.
Please check your labels and avoid any item which contains vegetable oils, especially hydrogenated vegetable oils. There are many recipes online to make delicious snack foods and desserts or I have many delicious recipes available in my programme.