Medical experts have been misleading the American public about food for decades. We’ve been told that cholesterol and fat are our enemies. Eggs, shrimp, nuts, and olive oil were not allowed. This has led the food industry to create carbohydrate-rich, highly processed foods that include sugar and fat substitutes. Margarine, canola oil, and low-fat yogurt were considered healthy. Amid the battle over health claims and cooking trends, the edible oil confusion leaves Americans facing mixed messages. Two recent articles prompted many questions from readers. In this new post, I would like to answer some of them.
Food flip-flops: advice keeps changing:
A lot has changed in the past few decades. The eggs are now OK. The same goes for nuts. Low-fat yogurt sweetened with margarine or jelly is no longer a magical health food. However, confusion regarding edible oils remains serious. Readers want to be clear about their choices.
Over the past few weeks, we’ve written a lot about the dangers of a diet focused on omega-6 fatty acids. If you missed these articles, here are two links:
What’s in your frying pan? Omega-6 oil or Omega-3 oil?
Seed oils from corn and soybeans are associated with an increased risk of cancer. Omega-3 oils from avocado, fish, and olives appear to be safer
This article provides a super brief overview of fatty acid biochemistry. Linoleic acid (L.A.) and ⍺-linolenic acid (Ara). In the opinion of many health experts, the balance of these essential fatty acids is very important when it comes to inflammation in the body.
Here’s another recent article on this general topic:
Are some vegetable oils worse than saturated fats? Colon cancer?
For decades, Americans have been told to eat lots of vegetable oils. They’re also found in our favorite crunch foods. Are there any hidden dangers?
War over oil creates confusion over cooking oil:
Pro-omega-6 fatty acids:
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the fatty acid controversy is a war. Many of the nation’s most prestigious nutrition experts discuss polyunsaturated fatty acids (P.U.F.A.) as our friends.
They claim that seed oil rich in omega-6 fatty acids is absolutely beneficial. do not have Pro-inflammatory. they claim that anti-inflammatory. However, the recent article mentioned above linking omega-6 fats to both colorectal and prostate cancer appears to challenge that view.
Omega-6 supporters are highly regarded as academics. They claim that seed and vegetable oils such as sunflower, sesame, safflower, corn, soybean, and rapeseed (canola) are very good for you. They declare that using such oils lowers cholesterol and reduces the risk of heart disease.
Anti-omega-6 fatty acids:
Rebels point out that seed oil must be highly processed using high heat and solvents, along with mechanical oil extraction, deodorization, and several other steps. But more importantly, they blame many modern chronic diseases such as arthritis, hypertension, COPD, and diabetes on an imbalance in the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids. (BMC endocrine diseaseNovember 29, 2024).
They begin by criticizing the research methods of Dr. Ancel Keyes, the father of the cholesterol and heart disease hypothesis. For more than 70 years, a basic pillar of health advice has been to avoid saturated fats and replace them with vegetable oils. This was based on Ancel Keys’ theory of heart disease, which concluded that excessive intake of saturated fat and cholesterol clogs coronary arteries.
Critics claim that Dr. Keyes was selective in the countries he studied and the data he collected to support his hypothesis. They point out that he excluded countries that might challenge his theory. But his opinion stuck.
Vegetable oil and heart:
For decades, cardiologists and nutritionists have been saying that using vegetable oils instead of butter or cream can help. Americans are being urged to reduce their total fat intake, which is why they were initially advised to avoid olive oil, which contains saturated fat, along with nuts and avocados.
Instead, they were told to use margarine, consume low-fat yogurt or skim milk, and eat highly processed soy-based meat substitutes. How effective was the program in preventing heart disease? Did it have any unexpected or undesirable consequences?
Sydney diet cardiology = cooking oil chaos!
It should have been obvious in the 1970s that the vegetable oil program might be flawed. That’s when Australian scientists conducted a randomized controlled trial they called the Sydney Diet Heart Study. This experiment would have provided better evidence than the epidemiological data collected by Dr. Ansel Keyes.
Researchers divided 458 men who had recently had a heart attack into one of two groups. The first group continued with their normal diet. The second group was given safflower oil, which is rich in unsaturated omega-6 fatty acids, and margarine made from safflower oil.
When this study was published in 1978, researchers did the following: do not have Analyze who was most likely to have another coronary event or die during the study. In retrospect, that seems like a huge oversight.
When the original data was rediscovered and analyzed decades later, it was found that 60 percent of the men in the experimental group were consuming safflower oil instead of butter. more likely to die during the study (BMJFebruary 4, 2013).
Even worse, they were 75% more likely to die from coronary heart disease. In other words, 16.3% of the people who received the experimental high-PUFA diet died, compared to 10.1% of those who received the regular butter-containing diet. If this had been published in 1978, experts might have reconsidered their enthusiasm for margarine in the 1980s and 1990s. Looking at the dates above, you can see that even though the original data was available in the 1970s, important information was delayed by decades. Hmm.
Corn oil research:
Even earlier, British scientists published their research results. british medical journalJune 12, 1965.
the purpose:
“Our aim was to study the effects of prescribing vegetable oils and a fat-restricted diet to patients with ischemic heart disease. Our main interest was unsaturated oils, which have a cholesterol-lowering effect.”
What they found:
The trial was scheduled to last three years, but researchers stopped the study early because preliminary results were dismal.
They wrote:
“Patients who received the key therapy (corn oil) had worse outcomes than patients in the other two groups. Two years after starting treatment, there were fewer infarctions in patients who received corn oil than in the control group. Death occurred in one quarter.
“In the circumstances of this trial, it was concluded that corn oil cannot be recommended for the treatment of ischemic heart disease.”
Somehow these disappointing results disappeared without a trace.
Another corn oil study with disappointing results:
The Minnesota Coronary Experiment almost never saw the light of day. Dr. Ancel Keyes was one of the principal investigators. However, the results did not support his hypothesis of cholesterol-induced heart disease.
Perhaps as a result, the data remained unpublished for decades. Approximately 9,000 patients were randomly assigned to eat a diet high in either omega-6 corn oil or saturated fat. As it turns out, people who ate a diet high in corn oil had lower cholesterol, but that wasn’t actually the case. do not have Please live long (BMJApril 12, 2016).
Reduce cooking oil mess:
This article cannot resolve disputes over cooking oil. But what we can say is that everyone seems to think olive oil is great. Among them is Dr. Walter Willett of Harvard University’s THhan School of Public Health. He is one of the country’s leading nutrition experts and epidemiologists. Although Dr. Willett is an advocate of omega-6 vegetable oils, he confessed to us that his favorite cooking oil is olive oil. I also use it for bread and salads.
What kind of fat is desirable? The monounsaturated fats found in olives and avocados appear to have health benefits. These are the first choice for dishes and salads. What are our favorites? california olive ranch extra virgin olive oil.
Avocado oil is expensive! And most of them are sophisticated. Having said that, ConsumerLab.com (Our website where you can obtain such information) Chosen Foods 100% Pure Avocado Oil. It’s in my cupboard at home. Suitable for high-temperature cooking such as stir-frying. I also confess that I sometimes cook with butter.
Omega-3 fatty acids from fish and nuts also appear to have anti-inflammatory effects. It will take time for the nutrition industry to incorporate this new evidence into its recommendations. In the meantime, people may want to cut back on processed foods, crunchy snacks, and dishes made with “light” oils such as corn, sunflower, and safflower. Reading labels can be a pain, but it’s the only way to make sure you’re not getting more omega-6 than you need.
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