Why You Should NEVER Eat Vegetable Oil or Margarine!

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TitanGM
TitanGM Posts: 1,161 Member
Aside from “healthy whole grains,” vegetable oils and margarine are some of the most misunderstood and over-recommended foods in the health community. You’ve probably heard these referred to as “heart healthy oils,” a good alternative to those “artery clogging saturated fats.”

These oils are supposed to help lower cholesterol and blood pressure, increase weight loss and somehow improve overall health.

Only one problem…. again, science doesn’t back these claims up!

What Are Vegetable Oils /Margarine?

Vegetable oils (and margarine, made from these oils) are oils extracted from seeds like the rapeseed (canola oil) soybean (soybean oil), corn, sunflower, safflower, etc. They were practically non-existent in our diets until the early 1900s when new chemical processes allowed them to be extracted.

Unlike butter or coconut oil, these vegetable oils can’t be extracted just by pressing or separating naturally. They must be chemically removed, deodorized and altered. These are some of the most chemically altered foods in our diets, yet they get promoted as healthy.

Vegetable oils are found in practically every processed food, from salad dressing to mayo to conventional nuts and seeds. These oils are some of the most harmful substances you can put into your body, but more on that in a minute!

How Vegetable Oils are Made

Vegetable oils are manufactured in a factory, usually from genetically modified crops that have been heavily treated with pesticides. This article has fascinating videos contrasting the production of vegetable oils and butter.

Take for instance, the common Canola oil, the beauty queen of the vegetable oil industry. It was developed by making a hybrid version of the rapeseed, and it was given its name in the 1980s as part of a marketing effort organized by a conference on mono-saturates.

Rapeseed oil contains high amounts of the toxic erucic acid, which is poisonous to the body. Canola oil is an altered version, also called Low Erucic Acid Rapeseed (LEAR) and it is commonly genetically modified and treated with high levels of pesticides.

Canola (modified rapeseed oil) is produced by heating the rapeseed and processing with a petroleum solvent to extract the oil. Then another process of heat and addition of acid is used to remove nasty solids (wax) that occur during the first processing.

At this point, the newly created canola oil must be treated with more chemicals to improve color and separate the different parts of the oil. Finally, since the chemical process has created a harsh smelling oil, it must be chemically deodorized to be palatable.

If the vegetable oil is going to be made into shortening or margarine, is undergoes an additional process called hydrogenation to make it solid at cold temperatures. Unlike saturated fats (butter, coconut oil, etc) vegetable oils are not naturally solid at these temperatures and must be hydrogenated to accomplish this. During this process of hydrogenation, those lovely trans fats we’ve heard so much about are created.

Nothing like petroleum produced, overheated, oxidized and chemically deodorized salad dressing for dinner…. yum.

(Compare that to butter… Step 1:milk cow. Step 2:let cream separate naturally. Step 3:skim off cream. Step 4:shake until it becomes butter.)

History of Vegetable Oil Production and Consumption

As I mentioned, vegetable oil was practically non-existent in its current form in the early 1900s. Until that time, most people got their fats from animal sources like meat, tallow, lard, butter, cream, etc.

The overall amount of fat consumed has not changed much since then (it has decreased slightly) but the type has changed dramatically. In 1900 the amount of vegetable based oils that people consumed was basically none. Today, people consume, on average, about 70 lbs of vegetable oils throughout the year. (Hmm, I wonder what 70 pounds of a “food” that was previously non-existent in human consumption might do to our health?)

Add to this the fact that the animals we eat are also often fed genetically modified pesticide treated seeds and grains (cows are supposed to eat grass by the way!) and the amount of omega-6 rich oils and seeds in our diets is really high!

Though vegetable oil existed in the early 1900s, its use increase that much until the 1950s, when a governmental campaign was launched to convince people to eat vegetable oils and margarine and avoid “artery clogging saturated fats

As an interesting correlation, check out the rates of heart disease and cancer since then. As this article notes:

All one has to do is look at the statistics to know that it isn’t true. Butter consumption at the turn of the century was eighteen pounds per person per year, and the use of vegetable oils almost nonexistent. Yet cancer and heart disease were rare. Today butter consumption hovers just above four pounds per person per year while vegetable oil consumption has soared–and cancer and heart disease are endemic.

Since the 1950′s these vegetable oils and their derivatives have been increasingly used in processed foods and for frying or cooking. They are marketed as healthy because they contain monounsaturated fats and some level of Omega 3 fatty acids.

What’s Wrong with Vegetable Oils?

There are many problems with vegetable oil consumption, and in my opinion, no amount is safe. To understand why, let’s look at a few of the biggest problems with vegetable oils:

Our Bodies Aren’t Meant to Consume Them!

The human body is about 97% saturated and monounsaturated fat, with only 3 % Polyunsaturated fats. Half of that three percent is Omega-3 fats, and that balance needs to be there. Vegetable oils contain very high levels of polyunsaturated fats, and these oils have replaced many of the saturated fats in our diets since the 1950s.

The body needs fats for rebuilding cells and hormone production, but it has to use the building blocks we give it. When we give it a high concentration of polyunsaturated fats instead of the ratios it needs, it has no choice but to incorporate these fats into our cells during cell repair and creation.

The problem is that polyunsaturated fats are highly unstable and oxidize easily in the body (if they haven’t already oxidized during processing or by light exposure while sitting on the grocery store shelf). These oxidized fats cause inflammation and mutation in cells.

In arterial cells, these mutations cause inflammation that can clog arteries. When these fats are incorporated into skin cells, their mutation causes skin cancer. (This is why people often get the most dangerous forms of skin cancer in places where they are never exposed to the sun, but that is a topic for another day!)

When these oils are incorporated into cells in reproductive tissue, some evidence suggests that this can spur problems like endometriosis and PCOS. In short, the body is made up of saturated and monounsaturated fats, and it needs these for optimal health.

Vegetable Oils Contain High Levels of Omega-6 Fatty Acids

I’ve talked before about how the body needs Omega-3 and Omega-6 fats in balance, preferably a 1:1 ratio. Most people consume a much higher ratio of Omega-6 fats, and this can lead to problems.

Vegetable oils contain a very high concentration of Omega 6 fatty acids and polyunsaturated fats, which cause an imbalance of these oils in the body. Omega 6 fats are easily oxidized with heat or light exposure. This is another reason that when these types of fats/oils are incorporated into tissue like skin cells, the heat and light from sun exposure can increase skin cancer risk.

Unbalanced levels of Omega-3 and Omega-6 fats have been linked to skin cancer and many types of cancers. As this article explains:

In one study performed at the University of Western Ontario, researchers observed the effects of ten different dietary fats ranging from most saturated to least saturated. What they found is that saturated fats produced the least number of cancers, while omega-6 polyunsaturated fats produced the most. Numerous other studies have also shown that polyunsaturated fats stimulate cancer while saturated fat does not 1 and that saturated fats do not break down to form free radicals. 2

In another study, Dr. Vivienne Reeve, PhD, Head of the Photobiology Research Group at the University of Sydney irradiated a group of mice while feeding while feeding different groups of them polyunsaturated and saturated fats. She discovered that the mice that consumed only saturated fat were totally protected from skin cancer. Those in the polyunsaturated fat group quickly developed skin cancers. Later in the study, the mice in the saturated fat group were given polyunsaturated fats. Skin cancers quickly developed.

The 3% of our body that is made up of polyunsaturated fats is approximately half Omega-3 fatty acids and half Omega-6 fatty acids and our body needs this balance. Omega-3s have been shown to reduce inflammation and be protective against cancer, while too much Omega-6 fats cause inflammation and increase cancer risk.

Over time, consumption of these oils high in Omega-6s and polyunsaturated fats can also lead to other problems, as the above article elaborates:

The journal Epidemiology published a study called, “Margarine Intake and Subsequent Coronary Heart Disease in Men.” Authors of the study followed participants of the Framingham Heart Study for 20 years and recorded their incidence of heart attack. They also tracked both butter and margarine consumption.

The researchers discovered that as margarine consumption increased… heart attacks went up. As butter consumption increased… heart attacks declined.

The study also divided the data into ten year increments. What they discovered is that during the first ten years, there was little association between margarine consumption and heart attacks. However, during the second decade of follow-up, the group eating the most margarine had 77% more heart attacks than the group eating none!


For more info, go to the source article:
http://wellnessmama.com/2193/why-you-should-never-eat-vegetable-oil-or-margarine/
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Replies

  • joejccva71
    joejccva71 Posts: 2,985 Member
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    TL;DR but the base of this is pretty good.

    Hydrogenated is horrible. (did i sp that right?)
  • naveej
    naveej Posts: 73 Member
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    thanks for info don't have time to read it right now but will catch up later
  • BeautyFromPain
    BeautyFromPain Posts: 4,952 Member
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    bump
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
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    Old news. Like, 20 years old. Also, some decent information, but way too much fear mongering mixed in that absolutely kills the credibility of the author. Why can't people just rely on facts anymore? If something is bad, explain why it is bad. As soon as the hyperbole and exaggeration starts, it pretty much tells me the author has run out of actual information with which to make their point.

    1. Butter > margarine

    2. Olive oil > all
  • Kymmu
    Kymmu Posts: 1,650 Member
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    I've made the switch to coconut oil, I won't go back to the old ways!
    Thanks for the informative post!
  • vjrose
    vjrose Posts: 809 Member
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    I would have been a bit more specific myself in an attack on any oil that is not dairy based. I noticed you gave one line to natural oils but most of this just talks about "vegetable oils". One, vegetable oils is a misnomer, most oil is sourced from grains or fruit, they just got tagged with that name. Yes many are way overprocessed but.

    Olive oil: which is the one most often recommended to improve health is from a fruit and if you buy cold pressed quite good for you.
    Coconut Oil: already proven to be good for you in many studies.
    Sunflower oil: processed in small batches.
    There are many others.

    Yes, Canola and corn are not the best stuff in the world, but there are many oils and margarines that would fall under your "vegetable oil" umbrella but are not bad for you. Is this any diffferent from the sugar tirades?
  • TitanGM
    TitanGM Posts: 1,161 Member
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    Old news. Like, 20 years old. Also, some decent information, but way too much fear mongering mixed in that absolutely kills the credibility of the author. Why can't people just rely on facts anymore? If something is bad, explain why it is bad. As soon as the hyperbole and exaggeration starts, it pretty much tells me the author has run out of actual information with which to make their point.

    1. Butter > margarine

    2. Olive oil > all

    Check the web page because there you have a lot of facts and more info than here
  • LATeagno
    LATeagno Posts: 620 Member
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    I knew that canola/soy/etc. oils were made in an industrial setting, but I had no idea how. I'll be sticking to my butter and coconut oil from now on!
  • renstwin
    renstwin Posts: 66 Member
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    Wow. Thanks for the information. This was a very interesting read.
  • LATeagno
    LATeagno Posts: 620 Member
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    Old news. Like, 20 years old. Also, some decent information, but way too much fear mongering mixed in that absolutely kills the credibility of the author. Why can't people just rely on facts anymore? If something is bad, explain why it is bad. As soon as the hyperbole and exaggeration starts, it pretty much tells me the author has run out of actual information with which to make their point.

    1. Butter > margarine

    2. Olive oil > all

    Check the web page because there you have a lot of facts and more info than here


    I don't think olive oil > all. That's only true if you believe that saturated fat clogs arteries, which it really does not. No scientific evidence supports it. It's one of the biggest nutritional/health misnomers of our time.

    I'm not saying olive oil is bad, but I don't think it's truly any better than organic butter or coconut oil. In fact, many folks in the health and sciences communities are starting to tout organic coconut oil as a nutritional "gold nugget" of sorts, despite its high saturated fat content.
  • TitanGM
    TitanGM Posts: 1,161 Member
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    I would have been a bit more specific myself in an attack on any oil that is not dairy based. I noticed you gave one line to natural oils but most of this just talks about "vegetable oils". One, vegetable oils is a misnomer, most oil is sourced from grains or fruit, they just got tagged with that name. Yes many are way overprocessed but.

    Olive oil: which is the one most often recommended to improve health is from a fruit and if you buy cold pressed quite good for you.
    Coconut Oil: already proven to be good for you in many studies.
    Sunflower oil: processed in small batches.
    There are many others.

    Yes, Canola and corn are not the best stuff in the world, but there are many oils and margarines that would fall under your "vegetable oil" umbrella but are not bad for you. Is this any diffferent from the sugar tirades?

    The article has info for olive oil as well, but I couldn't include all. But briefly told, olive oil is one of the healthiest oils out there.
  • joejccva71
    joejccva71 Posts: 2,985 Member
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    I would have been a bit more specific myself in an attack on any oil that is not dairy based. I noticed you gave one line to natural oils but most of this just talks about "vegetable oils". One, vegetable oils is a misnomer, most oil is sourced from grains or fruit, they just got tagged with that name. Yes many are way overprocessed but.

    Olive oil: which is the one most often recommended to improve health is from a fruit and if you buy cold pressed quite good for you.
    Coconut Oil: already proven to be good for you in many studies.
    Sunflower oil: processed in small batches.
    There are many others.

    Yes, Canola and corn are not the best stuff in the world, but there are many oils and margarines that would fall under your "vegetable oil" umbrella but are not bad for you. Is this any diffferent from the sugar tirades?

    The article has info for olive oil as well, but I couldn't include all. But briefly told, olive oil is one of the healthiest oils out there.

    ^ This. Also if you don't take w-3's (fish oil capsules), then flaxseed oil is a decent alternative and has some benefits as well.

    I agree though, olive oil is the best.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
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    Also, not all vegetable oils are polyunsaturated. Safflower oil for one, it's 73% monounsaturated, and has almost an identical nutritional profile as olive oil. Same with peanut oil. You just have to know what you're buying, and do your research.

    As for olive oil compared to butter, the ideal is both of them. As for coconut oil being pushed as the "good nugget," that's how olive oil was pushed, and canola oil, and even margarine. I take anything that's pushed by doctors as the next great thing for health and do my own research before making a decision, and based on my research, I still prefer olive oil.
  • SinkTheBismarck
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    Read the whole thing even though I already knew most of the content. While some information there are very true (I am sick of getting weird looks from people who STILL think that margarine is healthier than butter), I'd want to have more sources to others (relation between vegetable oils and skin cancer, for ex.).
    Vegetable oils are one of the reasons I don't go vegan. I did a research in high school about vegetarianism and veganism, and vegetarians consume much higher levels of these fats. While I do believe that it IS possible to be healthy being a vegetarian (and I've tried it myself), I still think people should do more research on it before saying it's miraculous and will work for everyone. What many people do is talk, but they have no idea or scientific proof of what they're preaching.

    Anyway, great text. Thanks for sharing this!
  • ann2012evans
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    I just do olive oil always have always will, but frankly I fry maybe 2% of my food, fryed foods at home are very rare and salt use is only for mashed potatoes and corn on the cob...nothing more. Natural fat in meats season stews or pot raost nothing more is added and spices I use alot of cinniamon because of impact on diabetes, pepper, parsley, basil, and thyme....no premixed varities that you wonder what portions of what are in them. Usually premixed is like proccessed foods...too much sodium. No salad dressings just vinegar, lemon, or lime juice....or none at all. No breakfast meats look at the contents of the meats and the fat in them...not worth it. Keep things as natural and basic as you can and the better you will be. My down fall is portion amounts and my fiances need to go out for special meals away from home. Get that under control and I'd be set.
  • TitanGM
    TitanGM Posts: 1,161 Member
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    I just do olive oil always have always will, but frankly I fry maybe 2% of my food, fryed foods at home are very rare and salt use is only for mashed potatoes and corn on the cob...nothing more. Natural fat in meats season stews or pot raost nothing more is added and spices I use alot of cinniamon because of impact on diabetes, pepper, parsley, basil, and thyme....no premixed varities that you wonder what portions of what are in them. Usually premixed is like proccessed foods...too much sodium. No salad dressings just vinegar, lemon, or lime juice....or none at all. No breakfast meats look at the contents of the meats and the fat in them...not worth it. Keep things as natural and basic as you can and the better you will be. My down fall is portion amounts and my fiances need to go out for special meals away from home. Get that under control and I'd be set.

    You got a very good point that I always try to keep in mind and practice. To keep the diet as basic and natural as possible. Basically the same our ancestors did, when most of the health problems today were never an issue!
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
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    Oh, and finally, the 100% false statement pertaining to "toxic erucic acid." Erucic Acid is not toxic. It's an Omega 9 monounsaturated fatty acid, so it's not even the "evil polyunsaturated" that this article is fear mongering against. It's classified as a nonessential fatty acid, because the human body actually manufactures it. Erucic acid is also very commonly found in cabbages and mustard. This is what I'm talking about when I say hyperbole and fear mongering kills the author's credibility.
  • Helloitsdan
    Helloitsdan Posts: 5,565 Member
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    Halftone.jpg
  • FrenchMob
    FrenchMob Posts: 1,167 Member
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    Not to mention this is a blog with a few research quotes taken out of context.

    Olive and/or coconut oil or bust.
  • TitanGM
    TitanGM Posts: 1,161 Member
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    Oh, and finally, the 100% false statement pertaining to "toxic erucic acid." Erucic Acid is not toxic. It's an Omega 9 monounsaturated fatty acid, so it's not even the "evil polyunsaturated" that this article is fear mongering against. It's classified as a nonessential fatty acid, because the human body actually manufactures it. Erucic acid is also very commonly found in cabbages and mustard. This is what I'm talking about when I say hyperbole and fear mongering kills the author's credibility.

    Can you show me the source of the study?