One of the most important factors in establishing or maintaining metabolic health is to eat in a healthy way.
On the one hand this is simple, because eating in a heart healthy way is straightforward. But in reality, there’s so much misinformation about nutrition that it can be difficult to filter out the noise and separate fact from fiction.
This misinformation is particularly prevalent when it comes to fats and oils. Incredibly, possibly the most frequently promoted oils are vegetable oils – which, ironically, are among the least healthy.
Cooking with vegetable oils will not help with heart disease prevention, in fact it will have the opposite effect.
What are vegetable oils?
Vegetables have a strong reputation as being healthy, so it stands to reason that their oils should be too. Unfortunately, the term ‘vegetable oils’ is little more than a clever marketing technique.
They may (or may not) begin with vegetables, but they then go through such a large number of extensive chemical and mechanical processes that by the end they bear no similarity to the vegetables or seeds they once were.
If you’ve been following my blog for a while then you already know my golden rule for heart healthy eating, that people should eat things that grow in the ground or which eat things that grow in the ground.
Heavily refined and processed oils do not fit within this rule!
Vegetable oils are often advertised as healthy because they contain Omega 3 and are lacking in saturated fats. But as is often the case with advertising, this is not everything you need to know about the product. There are two other elements that vegetable oils are high in:
- Omega 6
- Trans-fatty acids
And these can cause issues if you’re focused on heart disease prevention.
The problems with Omega 6
Omega 6 is necessary for our health, so consuming it is certainly not a bad thing. But the importance is in maintaining a healthy balance of omega 3 and 6. The recommendation is a ratio of 1:4 of omega 3:6 – but the typical American diet is so unhealthy that we’re consuming up to 25 times more omega 6 than 3!
So the problem is not omega 6 itself, but the quantities in which it’s being consumed.
One of the roles omega 6 plays in our bodies is promoting inflammation. That’s also a necessary function, as inflammation plays an important part in healing. However, an excess of inflammation is also a contributing factor to many chronic illnesses, including:
- Obesity
- Diabetes
- Heart disease
- Cancer
- Depression
- Pain
- Inflammation
- Autoimmune illnesses
With vegetable oils being used in almost every type of pre-packaged food imaginable, it’s easy to see why we’re consuming so much of it – and why any attempts to improve metabolic health or prevent heart disease should focus on balancing the omega 3:6 ratio.
The dangers of artificial trans-fats
Artificial trans fats are used as a preservative and flavor enhancer in a wide range of food products, including:
- Bread
- Cakes
- Pastries
- Ice creams
- Fast food
- Cereals
They are also prevalent in vegetable oils.
And this gets to the root of the problem that we face today: our pre-made foods are made with unhealthy ingredients, making it literally impossible to eat a heart healthy diet without eliminating so many of them.
Commercials will tell us that cereals are fortified with vitamins and certified as protective against heart disease, while simultaneously created with trans fats (and other ingredients) that work against our health.
You can test this prevalence for yourself. Take a look in your pantry and refrigerator and look at the list of ingredients for your items. You’ll probably be surprised at just how many foods you have that contain some form of vegetable oil, from salad dressing to microwave meals.
What oils should you eat and cook with?
As is usually the case, the problem with vegetable oils is that they’re the result of heavy processing. The healthiest fats to consume are those that have had as little processing as possible: lard, butter, tallow, olive and coconut oil.
When choosing olive oil, it’s important to do a little research into the brand first as it’s been found that 80% of olive oil sold in the USA is not as described, being cut with cheaper vegetable oils. As a first step, look for extra virgin olive oil sold in dark bottles, and try to ensure that the brand is truly selling olive oil.
I know trying to remember lots of nutritional information can feel overwhelming, so just remember that it all comes back to the golden rule of reducing processed foods as much as possible.
If you’re interested in fixing your diet once and for all, eating to improve your health and reach your ideal weight, my book explains how to eat for metabolic health on any diet – including vegan and carnivore. Take a look here.