Safflower (supplement/oil/etc)

BrandyontheRun

Has anyone here heard of this stuff?? I've read that it doesn't help you lose weight per say but it will lower the fat in your abdomen area? Originally I saw it on Dr.Oz (i'm usually pretty skeptical about shows like that) with Montel Williams and his safslim product. Has anyone tried this stuff? Or a safflower supplement? What's your opinion on it?

Anu_mee13

I ordered the Safslim from Vitamin Shoppe, but I'm waiting on the product to be delivered. Supposedly, it works really well. It was only like $23. I said that if it didn't work, it wasn't that bid. I would be a lot more upset if it were $50 and didn't work.

Texaganian

Snake oil reduces fat in your abdomen area better!

NYCDutchess

My husband is taking it...I was but then I kept forgetting. I'd like to start again. It DOES take a while to start working so you have to be patient. Hell, can't hurt right!?

slim422

I too saw this featured on Dr. Oz and as a medical researcher by profession I was intrigued so went to check it out....there is conflicting evidence in the medical/nutrition literature so here's what I have come up with so far.

1. You can't expect safflower oil to work on it's own, the basics of calories in and calories burned still apply

2. There is evidence that taking safflower oil does 'encourage' the fat cells in our bodies to more readily release stored fat therefore when doing all the right things it's an added boost not a solution on it's own

3. You do not need to purchase any special kind of oil or any particular product-much of this is marketing gimmicks and a way to make money, simply go to the grocery store. It is advisable to purchase a good quality even an organic version if you have access and can afford it.

4. Count these calories, they are excellent healthy fat calories but count them just the same - a good way is to get a vegetable spray bottle, a 1 sec spray is roughly equivalent to 1 teaspoon or 5 ml.

My husband and I are both taking it and I do feel it may be contributing to the inches lost - we do both work out but here's where I am convinced something is going on. My husband as severe chronic shoulder issues therefore cannot perform upper body strength training or workouts. He has been doing ab crunches for ~3 1/2 weeks. I can see a dramatic loss in inches in his chest and stomach despite his actual lost numbers on the scale and he isn't doing exercise that would dramatically burn fat. He underwent by-pass surgery a few years ago and walks on the treadmill to ensure his heart stays healthy.

As for me, I have had 3 children over 20 years ago and have always had my mommy pouch, regardless of what I have done in the past, even losing weight and looking good in a pair of jeans, the results have never made any real difference in my lower ab area. Since Jan 9th I too see a difference.

So we figured given we are painstakingly entering everything we eat, making sure we get some exercise each week why not include safflower oil in our diets on the off chance it works and gives us a little extra boost to shedding fat, especially when it's a few dollars at the local grocery store.

As I spend each day reading medical literature and writing reports, if I come across anymore information I will post for the MFP community.

PaleoPath4Lyfe

Has anyone here heard of this stuff?? I've read that it doesn't help you lose weight per say but it will lower the fat in your abdomen area? Originally I saw it on Dr.Oz (i'm usually pretty skeptical about shows like that) with Montel Williams and his safslim product. Has anyone tried this stuff? Or a safflower supplement? What's your opinion on it?

I stay away from all vegetable type oils and safflower ranks right in that stay far far away from group. Add to safflower oil, soybean oil, vegetable oil. corn oil, safflower, etc.............

I ONLY use Coconut oil, animal fats (ghee, rendered and filtered bacon fat, beef tallow), olive oil, avocado oil, pumpkin seed oil and a couple other seed oils and that is about it. Olive oil and avocado oil I use cold only for salad dressings and such.

SATURATED FATS CAUSE HEART DISEASE. Unsaturated fats, especially polyunsaturated fats, balance hormones, strengthen the immune system, and prevent cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, arthritis, and all types of inflammation. Some polyunsaturated fatty acids are so important to health that they are called essential fatty acids, or EFAs — you literally can’t be healthy without them. Polyunsaturated vegetable oils are the safest fats for cooking, especially deep-fat frying, and they’re the key ingredients in healthful salad dressings. Canola oil, flax seed oil, soy oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, and other polyunsaturated vegetable oils are today’s true health foods.

Right?

“Wrong on all counts,” says Ray Peat, Ph.D., a physiologist who has studied hormones and dietary fats since 1968. According to Peat, every one of the above statements is incorrect. In fact, he says, the polyunsaturated fatty acids or PUFAs in vegetable seed oils are the bane of human health — they actually cause cancer, diabetes, obesity, aging, thrombosis, arthritis, and immunodeficiencies. Their only appropriate use, he says, is as ingredients in paints and varnishes.

What’s wrong with vegetable oils? The main problem is that polyunsaturated oils contain long-chain fatty acids, which are extremely fragile and unstable. “The unsaturated oils in some cooked foods become rancid in just a few hours even when refrigerated,” says Peat, “and that’s responsible for the stale taste of leftover foods. Eating slightly stale food with polyunsaturated oils isn’t more harmful than eating the same oils when fresh, since the oils will oxidize at a much higher rate once they are in the body. As soon as a polyunsaturated vegetable oil enters the body, it is exposed to temperatures high enough to cause its toxic decomposition, especially when combined with a continuous supply of oxygen and catalysts such as iron.”

Even if you stop eating them, polyunsaturated fatty acids remain stored in tissue, only to be released during times of stress or fasting—including the middle of the night, when one is asleep.

Although PUFAs damage every part of the body, the endocrine system, especially the thyroid, is particularly vulnerable. A slow metabolism, low energy, and sluggish thyroid often accompany the consumption of vegetable oils.

http://thescreamonline.com/essays/essays5-1/vegoil.html