Recently, vegetable oil has come into question as a supposed health food. For decades, people were led to believe that refined oils made from canola, corn, soy, and sunflowers provided a healthy alternative to butter, ghee, and lard. After all, they are made from plants, and so do not contain saturated fat and cholesterol which are considered harmful for our heart health, or so the argument goes.
Not only that, but we have seen some of the top health organizations, such as the American Heart Association, promote them as healthy foods. But is this really the case?
This question has become the center of another heated debate in the health and medical communities, and it has left the average consumer confused. For example, one side of the debate says olive oil is a healthy food and part of the Mediterranean diet, one of the healthiest diets in the world, while the other says all fats are bad and should be avoided.
But as you will see in this article, not all oils (or fats) are created equal, so we want to give you a brief outline of the different issues surrounding vegetable oil. This will help you decide for yourself whether you should avoid all kinds of vegetable oil completely, reduce their use in your kitchen, switch to animal-based fats for cooking, or keep using vegetable oil for cooking. If you do decide to keep using cooking oils, this article will offer you some guidelines on how to use them more safely.
This is especially important if you are already suffering from a chronic condition or some kind of dysregulation in your body. For example, if you have Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome (AFS), you will be required to make drastic changes to your diet – not just what you eat, but when you eat and also how you cook the food you eat – in order to make a full recovery.
AFS can be a debilitating condition that affects all areas of your health and wellbeing. It comes as a result of facing chronic stress, whether physical, such as eating an unhealthy diet or getting recurring infections; or psychological, such as dealing with continuous work or relationship pressures.
When your body is undergoing so much stress, your adrenal glands have to work overtime to produce your body’s main anti-stress hormone, cortisol. Increased cortisol levels, then their eventual decline, is the major driver of AFS. Symptoms can include fatigue, insomnia, weight gain, hypoglycemia, heart palpitations, hair loss, loss of libido, PMS, infertility, brain fog, anxiety, mild depression, food and drug sensitivities, lowered immunity, and salt and sugar cravings.
The adrenals are part of a network of organs and systems that work together to fight stress – the NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) Stress Response. So when they are engaged, you can be sure that the rest of the NEM will follow suit as well. The NEM is composed of the Hormone, Bioenergetics, Cardionomic, Neuroaffect, Inflammation, and Detoxification circuits. The adrenal glands are part of the Hormone circuit, but the other circuit that is most affected by your diet is the Inflammation circuit.
This is especially the case if you eat foods that are considered inflammatory, one of which is the vegetable oil.
Refined vegetable oil is known to be highly inflammatory. When it enters your system through the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, it will prompt an immune response that then creates inflammation in your gut.
Inflammatory foods like refined vegetable oil can also affect your gut flora, creating a state of dysbiosis, which can lead to leaks in the gut lining. Leaks in the gut lining will allow substances into the bloodstream that are considered toxic and the immune system will get activated as a result.
Although your body is equipped to handle acute inflammation, certain food products like vegetable oil which is considered inflammatory is still consumed on a regular basis. This means that the immune response is cyclical and inflammation can become chronic. Chronic inflammation is the main cause of most chronic diseases. For example, inflammation can spread from the gut to the nervous system, leading to depression, anxiety, and brain fog. It has also been implicated in neurodegeneration.
One of the vital roles of cortisol is to neutralize inflammation, so when your body is in a state of chronic inflammation, your adrenals have to secrete more and more cortisol to deal with it. Continuous high levels of cortisol in the system is inflammatory, so the cycle of increased inflammation and cortisol continues with no respite or giving a break to the adrenal glands.
The other problem with consuming vegetable oil is that it will create a huge imbalance between the levels of omega-3 fatty acids and omega-6 fatty acids in your system.
Even though your body needs both, their levels need to be in equilibrium in order to keep that inflammation in check. This is because omega-6 is prone to increasing inflammation, while omega-3 can fight it. Unfortunately, for the vast majority of people, this ratio is out of balance because they consume way more omega-6 than omega-3 fatty acids. This makes it essential to add omega-3 supplements in your daily diets.
But it is equally important to try to equalize this imbalance by reducing omega-6 consumption and increasing omega-3 consumption without supplementation. This means you should be reducing your intake of vegetable oil, which is rich in omega-6, while eating more omega-3 rich foods like walnuts, flax seeds, chia seeds, cold-water wild-caught fatty fish, and other types of seafood.
Another important factor to consider is the smoke point of of all kinds of cooking oils, including vegetable oils. Smoke point is defined as the temperature at which the oil you are heating begins to smoke. Overheating oil until it reaches the smoke point is considered harmful. If you decide that you must use oil for cooking, or if you need to reduce your use of it gradually, make sure you know the smoke point of the oil you want to use.
Do not allow your vegetable oil to get to the smoke point, as that carries with it a lot of risks for your health. Cooking with overheated oil will produce free radicals, which can lead to oxidative stress. This is another underlying cause of many chronic diseases, including different types of cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, and heart disease.
As mentioned earlier, not all vegetable oils are created equal. Some are indeed healthier than others. It is possible to eliminate certain oils based on the factors mentioned like those that are more inflammatory, contain more omega-6, and have a low smoke point (if you plan on cooking with them).
As an example, olive oil is considered one of the healthier types of oil, especially if you get extra-virgin, cold-pressed, organic olive oil. It is anti-inflammatory, as it is rich in the fatty acid oleic acid, which helps fight inflammation. But it should not be heated, as it has a lower smoke point than most other oils. Olive oil is very good for using as a salad dressing or to drizzle on roasted vegetables.
On the other hand, a vegetable oil like avocado oil has a very high smoke point, and so could be used to cook at high temperatures. However, in our opinion, it’s far better to eat avocados whole than to cook with their oil. Avocados contain fiber and monounsaturated fatty acids, and because they are full of these healthy fats, they can be very satiating. You can even use them as a base for a creamy salad dressing if you do not want to use oil at all.
Another stable vegetable oil for cooking is coconut oil, even though its smoke point is lower than avocado oil. But it is highly anti-inflammatory and if you get used to its flavor, you will develop a taste for it that will be hard to replace. Again, just make sure you get cold-pressed, extra-virgin coconut oil for best results.
Even though ghee and butter, has always been discarded as “bad for health”, recent opinions suggest that they are actually healthy fats. Ghee is clarified butter that you can use in cooking, while butter is a tasty addition as a spread or as a garnish on dishes later, rather than to cook with. They will provide the balancing omega-3s that are missing from vegetable oil, as well as give your food that irreplaceable butter flavor. Use organic and grass-fed.
The method of cooking your food is important too. It is also better to steam or roast your food than to fry or grill, as it will retain more nutrients that way. It will also stop the food from burning so often, which can create free radicals and more oxidative stress.
It is possible to avoid vegetable oil and sauté and stir-fry instead by adding a splash of water or broth to the pan on medium heat, and allow the liquid to steam a little. Add the onions and garlic, or whatever you want to begin your sautéing with, and cook them until soft. Then add a bit more water or broth, the next batch of vegetables or animal protein, and stir again until cooked. Keep adding more liquid as needed until the food is cooked.
To replace some of the lost flavors in this method, you can just add more spices and herbs, and allow yourself some time to get used to the new way of eating. And, remember, you can drizzle some olive oil or add some butter on top, without any of the risks of heating.
© Copyright 2020 Michael Lam, M.D. All Rights Reserved.
Once again, a health debate that was supposed to have been put to rest is back at center stage: is vegetable oil better for you than animal fat? In this article, we’ll cover the nuances and give you the information you need to make the best decision for you.
