HWN Suggests

Vegetable oils: Are they healthy?

Vegetable oils — those shiny modern elixirs — have seeped their way into all the nooks and crannies of our food supply.

If you eat out, chances are your food is cooked in — or doused with — some type of vegetable oil. If you buy packaged goods like crackers, chips or cookies, there’s a very good chance that vegetable oils are in the ingredients list. If you buy spreads, dips, dressings, margarine, shortening or mayo, can you guess the likely star ingredient? Yup — vegetable oils.

read full article

Featured

 Seed and Vegetable Oils: Are They Bad or Beneficial for Health?

These oils are also known as "refined" oils because manufacturing involves using a chemical solvent to extract the oil from the plant or seed, which is then refined and deodorized to counteract the taste and smell of the chemical solvent. [1] The technology for this type of refinement wasn’t available until the twentieth century. Other oils are also extracted from plants (think olive oil, coconut oil, etc). But the term "vegetable oil" has specifically come to encompass plant oils high in omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). So fats like olive oil and coconut oil don’t fall under these umbrella terms due to the type of fatty acids they contain.

 The Ugly Truth About Vegetable Oils (and why they should be avoided)

In case you didn’t know: Seed oils are bad. Bad news. Bad for your health. Bad for the environment. Just bad.

 This fermented cooking oil could replace vegetable oil

It’s healthier and more sustainable than the kind of oils used everywhere today.

 Which veggie oil is most sustainable? It’s complicated

Greenhouse gas emissions are only one part of the equation.

Articles of Interest

Corn Oil vs Canola Oil: Which is Better?

I personally prefer using canola oil over corn oil. Canola oil has a more mild flavor and more heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids compared to corn oil. Whether I’m baking, stir-frying, or frying, canola oil is a reliable choice. However, I generally recommend extra virgin or virgin olive oil if you’re looking to get the most nutrients out of your oil of choice!

Healthy oils can be toxic when heated

Polyunsaturated vegetable oils from plants like soybeans and sunflowers are generally praised by nutritionists because they help people keep their cholesterol down and, it is believed, avoid heart disease. But a new study reports that when used to fry foods, the oils produce a toxic compound that has been associated with a variety of illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, and liver problems.

How Vegetable Oils Replaced Animal Fats in the American Diet

In this excerpt from The Happiness Diet, discover how Procter & Gamble convinced people to forgo butter and lard for cheap, factory-made oils loaded with trans fat.

Is Vegetable Oil Bad for You? The Science Behind the Worst Food in Human History

Though nonexistent for the vast majority of human dietary evolution, vegetable oils are in nearly all processed foods, used as a cooking oil at most restaurants, and hidden within processed foods billed as “healthy” including popular alternative oat, almond, and soy “milks”.

Is Vegetable Oil Really Better for Your Heart?

A new look at an old study raises some questions and reignites a debate about saturated fat.

Linoleic Acid, Vegetable Oils & Inflammation

Should we listen to warnings that linoleic acid (LA) promotes inflammation and that Americans would be healthier if they restricted their intake of LA (i.e., vegetable oils)?

The Toxic Truth about Cooking Oils

Contrary to popular belief, not all cooking oils are “healthy” as many claim to be. Let’s look at vegetable oils, the most common of cooking oils. Many of these oils are high in omega-6 fatty acids. Oils, high in omega-6, that fall into this category are soybean, corn, cottonseed, sunflower, peanut, sesame, palm and rice bran. Not only do they contain fatty acids, they are also high in saturated fats which can spike cholesterol levels.

Unsaturated Vegetable Oils: Toxic

When an oil is saturated, that means that the molecule has all the hydrogen atoms it can hold. Unsaturation means that some hydrogen atoms have been removed, and this opens the structure of the molecule in a way that makes it susceptible to attack by free radicals.

When Vegetable Oil Isn't as Healthy as You Think

All of these explanations, for now, are just speculation, since this is among the first studies to direct compare head to head what happens to people who give up animal fats and move to vegetable oils to those who stick with animal fats. It doesn’t mean that bacon and butter should now make up the bulk of the diet, but it does suggest that loading up on vegetable oils isn’t such a great idea either.

Why everyone on the internet suddenly hates seed oil

The term "seed oil" usually refers to the refined cooking oils like corn and canola that many of us keep on hand in our kitchens. They also frequently show up in products like salad dressings and fast food.