Seed oils have been marketed as hearth-healthy since the 1960s. Courtesy︱Twitter
With soaring obesity rates, spikes in allergies, and increasing rates of heart disease, it’s time for Americans to reclaim their health and stop consuming seed oils.
Seed oils, like canola, corn, safflower, soy, grapeseed, rice bran, and cottonseed oils, are high in polyunsaturated fats, otherwise known as PUFAs, according to the U.S. News and World Report. These PUFAs contain Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids are traditionally considered by some experts, such as the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, to be good for cardiovascular fitness, but both are needed in a proper 1:1 ratio.
But the ratio between Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids for the average Western diet is 16:1, which can lead to chronic inflammation and disease in the body, according to an article from the National Library of Medicine.
Carmel Richardson ’21, contributing editor for the American Conservative and former editor-in-chief of The Collegian, said it’s time to ditch the traditional diet mindset of calorie and macro counting, in favor of a more holistic approach to nutrition.
Seed oils, labeled as the heart-healthy choice since the 1960s, have rapidly replaced animal fats such as butter, lard, and beef tallow for everyday use, according to Richardson.
“We are more unhealthy today than we were decades ago before we were eating mechanically processed seed oils,” Richardson said. “It’s time to do some soul-searching.”
Richardson wrote in The American Conservative that consumption of canola and other vegetable oils has increased “dramatically” since 1960, while diabetes and prediabetic conditions have increased at close to the same rate.
Consumption of animal fats and red meats, meanwhile, has remained constant, according to Richardson in The American Conservative.
The average American in 2020 consumed close to 100 pounds of seed oils per year, according to nutritionist and doctor Cate Shanahan.
And no wonder why – they’re everywhere. Seed oils are used in cooking, packaging products, and makeup.
Procter & Gamble popularized vegetable oils by marking them as health food, according to Richardson.
“Beginning with ivory soap, the entrepreneurial brothers found ways to produce a plethora of household staples for cheap by replacing animal fats with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils to earn a profit during the economic recession of the 1870s,” Richardson wrote.
According to the same graph, consumption of seed oils spiked close to the year 2000. This correlates to obesity, which has increased by 10% since the early 2000s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Raymond Peat, a private nutritionist with a P.h.D. from the University of Oregon, wrote that seed oils are also dangerous because of their unsaturation.
“When an oil is saturated, that means that the molecule has all the hydrogen atoms it can hold,” Peat wrote. “Unsaturation means that some hydrogen atoms have been removed, and this opens the structure of the molecule in a way that makes it susceptible to attack by free radicals.”
These free radicals, which are unstable atoms, damage cells and contribute to aging, according to Peat.
“The risks of abnormal blood clotting, inflammation, immune deficiency, shock, aging, obesity, and cancer are increased,” Peat wrote. “Thyroid and progesterone are decreased. Since the unsaturated oils block protein digestion in the stomach, we can be malnourished even while ‘eating well.’”
The National Institutes of Health acknowledges the havoc which free radicals wreak on the human body in a study published in 2008.
“When an overload of free radicals cannot gradually be destroyed, their accumulation in the body generates a phenomenon called oxidative stress,” the study reads. “This process plays a major part in the development of chronic and degenerative illnesses such as cancer, autoimmune disorders, aging, cataract, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases.”
As alternatives to seed oils, Peat recommends animal products from grass-fed pigs and cows such as butter and lard, in addition to olive and coconut oils. Animal fats are saturated fats, which makes them less susceptible to oxidation, and less susceptible to free radicals.
So Americans should eat normal healthy things, but take it a step further. Avoid regular fast food stops, as your wallet and your health will thank you. Invest in low-toxin makeup products. Make tasty food at home with animal fats or coconut oil. Buy less pre-packaged food, and make at-home substitutions to satisfy cravings. Check labels.
Ultimately, this is about reclaiming your health from the corporations, media, and government which allow these oils to be consumed in such large quantities. So, be radical, but don’t eat foods that cause free radicals in your body. Don’t eat seed oils.
With soaring obesity rates, spikes in allergies, and increasing rates of heart disease, it’s time for Americans to reclaim their health and stop consuming seed oils.
Seed oils, like canola, corn, safflower, soy, grapeseed, rice bran, and cottonseed oils, are high in polyunsaturated fats, otherwise known as PUFAs, according to the U.S. News and World Report. These PUFAs contain Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids are traditionally considered by some experts, such as the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, to be good for cardiovascular fitness, but both are needed in a proper 1:1 ratio.
But the ratio between Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids for the average Western diet is 16:1, which can lead to chronic inflammation and disease in the body, according to an article from the National Library of Medicine.
Carmel Richardson ’21, contributing editor for the American Conservative and former editor-in-chief of The Collegian, said it’s time to ditch the traditional diet mindset of calorie and macro counting, in favor of a more holistic approach to nutrition.
Seed oils, labeled as the heart-healthy choice since the 1960s, have rapidly replaced animal fats such as butter, lard, and beef tallow for everyday use, according to Richardson.
“We are more unhealthy today than we were decades ago before we were eating mechanically processed seed oils,” Richardson said. “It’s time to do some soul-searching.”
Richardson wrote in The American Conservative that consumption of canola and other vegetable oils has increased “dramatically” since 1960, while diabetes and prediabetic conditions have increased at close to the same rate.
Consumption of animal fats and red meats, meanwhile, has remained constant, according to Richardson in The American Conservative.
The average American in 2020 consumed close to 100 pounds of seed oils per year, according to nutritionist and doctor Cate Shanahan.
And no wonder why – they’re everywhere. Seed oils are used in cooking, packaging products, and makeup.
Procter & Gamble popularized vegetable oils by marking them as health food, according to Richardson.
“Beginning with ivory soap, the entrepreneurial brothers found ways to produce a plethora of household staples for cheap by replacing animal fats with partially hydrogenated vegetable oils to earn a profit during the economic recession of the 1870s,” Richardson wrote.
According to the same graph, consumption of seed oils spiked close to the year 2000. This correlates to obesity, which has increased by 10% since the early 2000s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Raymond Peat, a private nutritionist with a P.h.D. from the University of Oregon, wrote that seed oils are also dangerous because of their unsaturation.
“When an oil is saturated, that means that the molecule has all the hydrogen atoms it can hold,” Peat wrote. “Unsaturation means that some hydrogen atoms have been removed, and this opens the structure of the molecule in a way that makes it susceptible to attack by free radicals.”
These free radicals, which are unstable atoms, damage cells and contribute to aging, according to Peat.
“The risks of abnormal blood clotting, inflammation, immune deficiency, shock, aging, obesity, and cancer are increased,” Peat wrote. “Thyroid and progesterone are decreased. Since the unsaturated oils block protein digestion in the stomach, we can be malnourished even while ‘eating well.’”
The National Institutes of Health acknowledges the havoc which free radicals wreak on the human body in a study published in 2008.
“When an overload of free radicals cannot gradually be destroyed, their accumulation in the body generates a phenomenon called oxidative stress,” the study reads. “This process plays a major part in the development of chronic and degenerative illnesses such as cancer, autoimmune disorders, aging, cataract, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases.”
As alternatives to seed oils, Peat recommends animal products from grass-fed pigs and cows such as butter and lard, in addition to olive and coconut oils. Animal fats are saturated fats, which makes them less susceptible to oxidation, and less susceptible to free radicals.
So Americans should eat normal healthy things, but take it a step further. Avoid regular fast food stops, as your wallet and your health will thank you. Invest in low-toxin makeup products. Make tasty food at home with animal fats or coconut oil. Buy less pre-packaged food, and make at-home substitutions to satisfy cravings. Check labels.
Ultimately, this is about reclaiming your health from the corporations, media, and government which allow these oils to be consumed in such large quantities. So, be radical, but don’t eat foods that cause free radicals in your body. Don’t eat seed oils.
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