The Problem With Seed Oils
Which is healthier steak or almonds?
The answer is that the steak is much healthier than the almonds. Here’s why.
Omega-3 fatty acids often called “fish oil” are very good for us and found in the highest quantities in fish and meat though they can also be found in some plants, even almonds. Omega-6 fatty acids on the other hand, though we need to eat some of them, are very bad for us when we eat too much of them because they stimulate inflammation in our bodies. They are the primary source material for the manufacturing process in our bodies of the chemicals called “Inflammatory Mediators” that cause inflammation. Thus when we eat to much of them we develop increased inflammation which contributes to multiple diseases.
Aspirin, Motrin, Alleve and other “anti-inflammatory medicines all work by blocking the COX arm of the pathway that produces these inflammatory mediators. Please click on each disease below for a study explaining the association with inflammation.
CANCER
HEART DISEASE
DIABETES
ARTHRITIS
ASTHMA
KIDNEY DISEASE
Seed oils were never a major part of the human diet until the early 20th Century when Proctor & Gamble introduced Crisco, a shortening made by bubbling hydrogen through Cotton Seed oil (introduced in 1911). This was a double whammy because not only was this a seed oil but the hydrogenation also produced “Trans fatty acids” which are toxic in their own right. Now it is estimated that Soybean oil accounts for about half of the worlds edible oil production.
Were randomized trials comparing it to traditional oils like lard and tallow to see if it was safe done? NO!
All seed oils (Soy, Canola, Safflower, Corn, Cotton, walnut, pecan, almond to mention a few) contain primarily Omega-6 fatty acids and little to no Omega-3 fatty acids. For Instance 100 grams of almonds contain just 6 mg of Omega-3 fatty acid but contain 12065 mg of Omega-6 fatty acid while containing only 6 mg of Omega-3 .
But there is another problem with seed oils and other plant sources of Omega-3’s. Plant Omega-3 is not in a form that the body can use and must be converted by enzymes to a usable form so we can only access about 5% of the Omega-3 fatty acids we eat in plant form.
One thing that has been proven to be very important in your diet is the ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 fatty acids. Our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate a ratio close to 1:1. One study showed getting the ratio down below 4;1 can cut the risk of heart disease by 70%.
That 100 grams of almonds had a ratio of 2011:1 (OUCH!)
The best places to get healthy omega-3’s is fish or meat. For example the same 100 grams of Salmon contains 339 mg of Omega-6 and 3982 mg of Omega-3 for a ratio of 1:10 (AWESOME!).
Beef is another good source. 100 grams of ribeye steak contains 510 mg of Omega-6 and 240 mg of Omega-3 for a ratio of 2:1 (YEAH!)
Soybean Oil which is a particularly nasty seed oil, is the most widely consumed oil in the United States.
100 grams of it contain 50,422 mg of Omega-6 and 6789 mg of Omega-3. This gives a ratio of 7.4:1 (Sad!). That same 100 grams of Soybean Oil contains 290 μg of N‐Nitrosodi-n-butylamine. This is a carcinogen and the recommended safe level is less than 0.06 μg/day. Thus 100 grams of Soybean oil contains 29 μg of this carcinogen, 283 times the level considered safe.
Soybean oil is in an astonishing number of common products. Where is it? Almost all salad dressings, mayonnaise, peanut butter, ice cream, frozen dinners, and commercial baked goods. Just check the labels and get depressed.
Another substance produced when most vegetable oils are heated including Soybean Oil is “Toxic Aldehydes”. Here’s a nice article on how to avoid these.
One of the Aldehydes produced is called ACROLEIN and was used as gas warfare during WWI. It has also been shown to be a mutagen and the poor workers at the many fast food restaurants around the nation are now exposed to it daily since the switch from saturated fats for deep frying. Yet no safety testing has been done.
Many seed oils contain a high percentage of an Omega-6 fatty acid called linoleic acid which is associated with weakening the immune system and exacerbating many auto-immune diseases. It may well turn out to be that the dramatic rise in many cancers, especially skin cancers like melanoma which are known to be kept in check by the immune system and many autoimmune disease like type 1 diabetes whose rise in the US parallels the rise in the consumption of processed seed oils are the result of introducing the widespread consumption of processed seed oils without ever testing them for safety in controlled randomized experiments.
And there are more problems with linoleic acid. In a trial published in the British Medical Journal called “The Sydney Study”, 458 men who had heart attacks were divided into 2 groups. One group ate a normal diet. The other group had almost all of their saturated fat replaced with linoleic acid and and they were followed for 7 years looking at recurrent heart disease and mortality. Here was the resulting statement “In this cohort, substituting dietary linoleic acid in place of saturated fats increased the rates of death from all causes, coronary heart disease, and cardiovascular disease. An updated meta-analysis of linoleic acid intervention trials showed no evidence of cardiovascular benefit.”
That’s why I, like so many of our hunter-gather ancestors prefer to eat a diet based on animal products. I don’t have to worry about “Seed Oils”!.