Dietary fats are a crucial component of a healthy diet, but the devil's in the details, and the type of fats you choose can make a world of difference.
Replacing dangerous oils with healthy fats is one simple way to boost your health and reduce your risk of chronic disease.
Trans Fat
Before 1900, American housewives used lard and butter for cooking. It wasn't until 1911 that our diets experienced a dramatic change with the introduction of trans fat.
Hydrogenated vegetable oils and margarine quickly became the backbone of the food industry.
Trans fats became a staple dietary fat with the introduction of processed foods, and could be found in everything from cookies and crackers to french fries and frozen food.
Trans fats interferes with the basic functioning of cellular membranes. Even small amounts of manufactured trans fat have been shown to have adverse effects on your heart, insulin sensitivity and neurological system.
Processed Vegetable Oils Do More Harm Than Good
In response to research and public opinion, many restaurants have since turned from partially hydrogenated oils to 100 percent vegetable oil. However, while these oils do not have trans fats, they're just as bad, if not worse. There are three significant reasons for this:
- When heated, vegetable oils degrade to extremely toxic oxidation products, including cyclic aldehydes, which have been linked to neurodegenerative diseases and certain types of cancer.
- Vegetable oils are a concentrated source of omega-6 linoleic acid, which has led to a severe imbalance between the omega 6/omega 3 ratio in most people's diets.
- Many of the vegetable oils produced today — especially corn and soy — are products of genetic engineering (GE) and a significant source of glyphosate exposure, and glyphosate has also been linked to gut damage and other health problems.
In summary, processed vegetable oils (polyunsaturated fat) harm health by:
Creating high amounts of oxidation products when used in cooking (as they are very susceptible to heat), including aldehydes, which are what cause oxidised low-density lipoprotein (LDL) associated with heart disease. Aldehydes also crosslink tau protein and create neurofibrillary tangles, thereby contributing to the development of neurodegenerative diseases. |
Damaging the endothelium (the cells lining your blood vessels) and causing an increase in penetration of LDL and very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) particles into the subendothelium. In other words, these oils get integrated in your cell and mitochondrial membranes, and once these membranes are impaired, it sets the stage for all sorts of health problems. |
Damaging your mitochondria and DNA by making your cell membranes more permeable, allowing things to enter that shouldn't. |
Making the cell membrane less fluid, which impacts hormone transporters in the cell membrane and slows your metabolic rate. |
Inhibiting cardiolipin, an important component of the inner membrane of your mitochondria that needs to be saturated in DHA in order for it to function properly. Cardiolipin can be likened to a cellular alarm system that triggers apoptosis (cell death) by signaling caspase-3 when something goes wrong with the cell. If the cardiolipin is not saturated with DHA, it cannot signal caspase-3, and hence apoptosis does not occur. As a result, dysfunctional cells are allowed to continue to grow, which can turn into a cancerous cell. |
Inhibiting the removal of senescent cells, i.e., aged, damaged or crippled cells that have lost the ability to reproduce and produce inflammatory cytokines that rapidly accelerate disease and aging. |
Stripping your liver of glutathione (which produces antioxidant enzymes), thereby lowering your antioxidant defenses. |
Inhibiting delta-6 desaturase (delta-6), an enzyme involved in the conversion of short-chained omega-3s to longer chained omega-3s in your liver. |
Exposing you to toxic 4-hydroxynonenal (4HNE), which forms during the processing of most vegetable oils, even if the oil is obtained from organic crops. 4HNE is highly toxic, especially to your gut bacteria, and consumption of 4HNE has been correlated with having an obesogenic balance of gut flora. It also causes DNA damage and instigates free radical cascades that damage your mitochondrial membranes. |
Exposing you to glyphosate residues, as most vegetable oils are made with genetically engineered crops. Glyphosate has been shown to disrupt the tight junctions in your gut and increase penetration of foreign invaders, especially heated proteins, which can cause allergies. |
Address Your Omega-6 to Omega-3 Ratio to Protect Your Health
Marine-based omega-3 is one of the most important fats in the human diet, as docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) are actually key structural elements of cells, including your brain cells, and not just simple fuel. If you don't have enough DHA and EPA, your body's ability to repair and maintain healthy cell structures is seriously impaired.
Unfortunately, in the past 100 years, our omega-6 intake has nearly tripled while our intake of omega-3 has decreased 10fold, and this imbalance has also likely played a significant role in our skyrocketing disease rates. Eating too much damaged omega-6 fat — found in abundance in processed vegetable oils — and too little animal-based omega-3 sets the stage for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, depression and Alzheimer's, just to name a few.
Now, omega-6 fat in and of itself is not the problem. The problem is that most people get far too much of it, and insufficient amounts of omega-3, and that most of the omega-6 people eat has been damaged and oxidised through processing.
How to Balance Your Omega Fat Ratios
Ideally, you want to maintain a ratio somewhere in the range of (4-2)-to-1 of omega-6 and omega-3 fats. This, however, is nearly impossible if you're regularly eating processed foods or restaurant fare, as these are loaded with omega-6 from industrial vegetable oils like corn oil and canola oil.
While you do need omega-6, it should be in its unprocessed form, not industrial vegetable oils. Good sources are whole, raw plant seeds and tree nuts. In summary, to correct your omega-6 to omega-3 ratio, you typically need to do two things:
1.Significantly decrease intake of damaged omega-6 by avoiding processed foods and foods cooked in vegetable oil at high temperatures. A number of studies have found that people who regularly eat deep fried foods have a significantly increased risk of stroke and death.
Common sources of harmful omega-6 to avoid include corn oil, canola oil, soy oil, hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats, margarine and shortening.
2.Increase your intake of marine-based omega-3 fats. Ideal sources include small fatty fish such as sardines, anchovies and herring, along with wild-caught Alaskan salmon, or a supplement such as krill oil.
Healthiest Fats for Cooking
Healthy alternatives include:
•Coconut oil — This is what I believe is the best cooking oil. It has a number of valuable health benefits, including a positive effect on your heart and antimicrobial properties. It's also a great source of energy, thanks to its medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs). When consumed, the MCFAs are digested and converted by your liver into energy that you can immediately use. Coconut oil also helps stimulate your metabolism to encourage a healthy weight profile.
•Grass fed butter — Raw, organic butter made from healthy grass fed cows' milk contains many valuable nutrients, including vitamins A, D, E and K2. Furthermore, it contains various minerals and antioxidants that support good health.
•Organic ghee which has been used for cooking for thousands of years, is another good choice.
•Olive oil — This oil contains healthy fatty acids that can help lower your risk of heart disease. While the standard recommendation has been to avoid using olive oil for cooking and to only use it cold, recent research in which 10 popular cooking oils were compared, contradicts this advice, showing extra-virgin olive oil actually scored best for both oxidative stability and lack of harmful compounds produced when heated.
A word of caution is warranted, however. Fake olive oil abounds, so it's important to take the time to investigate your sources. Tests reveal anywhere from 60 to 90 percent of the olive oils sold in grocery stores and restaurants are adulterated with cheap vegetable oils or nonhuman-grade olive oils, which are harmful to health in a number of ways.
Black Seed Oil — The Forgotten Gem Black seed (Nigella Sativa)
Black seed oil is another exceptional fat with a long history of use in traditional systems of medicine, including Ayurveda and Siddha. The most abundant active plant chemical in black seed is thymoquinone; other bioactive compounds include α-hederin, alkaloids, flavonoids, antioxidants and fatty acids.
Black seed oil has at least 20 different pharmacological actions, which helps explain how it can be useful for so many different and varying ailments, including:26
Antidiabetic | Anti-cancer |
Immunomodulatory | Analgesic (pain relief) |
Antimicrobial | Anti-inflammatory |
Spasmolytic | Bronchodilator |
Hepatoprotective | Renal protective |
Gastroprotective | Antioxidant |
How to Use Black Seed Oil
Black seed oil is a highly undervalued and oft-forgotten kitchen staple. When used in cooking, it imparts a warm, slightly bitter flavor that tastes something like a blend of thyme, oregano and nutmeg.
A mixture of black seed oil, honey and garlic also makes for a powerful tonic that can help soothe coughs and boost immunity, especially during cold and flu season or if you feel like you're coming down with an infection.
Like all seeds, black seed oil is high in polyunsaturated fats. So, when taken in excess, it could make your mitochondrial membranes more susceptible to oxidation.
For this reason, I suggest limiting your daily intake to 1 to 2 tablespoons or less. A simple way to get a small amount of black seed oil into your diet on a regular basis is to use it in your homemade dressing. Here are a few suggestions:
- Mix apple cider vinegar, black seed oil, fresh lemon juice, cilantro and tahini. Experiment with the ratios to enhance the flavour you enjoy the most
- A simple and yummy dressing that goes particularly well with broccoli, asparagus or salad greens includes: 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, one-half teaspoon minced garlic, a dash of ground black pepper and a few fresh basil leaves, chopped
- Alternatively, you can use apple cider vinegar and/or black seed oil as substitutes for other oils and vinegars in whatever dressing recipe you're already using. Keep in mind that the black seed oil does have a spicy kick to it, so substituting the full amount may make it too spicy. Start by adding just a small amount, and experiment to find the ratio of vinegar, olive oil and black seed oil you enjoy