The Oiling of America

This blog was inspired by a talk given by Sally Fallon Morell at the Wise Traditions conference in 2024.

Let’s talk about vegetable oils.  Vegetable oils are everywhere in our food supply. We are told that they are healthy– heck, they’re made from vegetables, right? Corn oil, canola oil, peanut oil, sunflower seed oil and many others are considered healthier than saturated fats, right? We are told that we should cook with vegetable oils to avoid heart disease.

Is it possible that vegetable oils are actually worse than any other fats? Should we avoid them? We have been misled for the past 100 years. Here’s why.

Story at a glance

• Vegetable oils are not made from “vegetables” as the name implies; they are made from seeds like corn, rapeseeds, or legumes such as peanuts or soy.
• Some vegetable oils are highly processed and rancid by definition. This causes inflammation in the body.
• Over the last 100 years, there has been a huge increase in consumption of these oils, and this may have led to an increase in cardiovascular problems in the human body
• This article dives into the different types of oils (fats) and how they support or harm our bodies. Hint: Some olive oils can be bad for you! I tell you how to find the best ones.
• You may be able to reverse the damage caused by a lifetime of eating vegetable oils but it takes time.

Cookbooks in the late 1890s

There was a time when heart disease was nonexistent — a time when people lived on farms, ate local foods, and consumed a lot of saturated animal fats. Cookbooks at the turn of the last century (the late 1890’s to early 1900’s) tell us that Americans ate HUGE amounts of saturated animal fats. Recipes included foods cooked in lard and butter.  Desserts were made with cream and eggs. Beef and pork roasts were common. And, heart disease was nonexistent. Very few people had heart attacks or clogged arteries.

A man named Willem Einthoven invented the EKG (electrocardiogram) at this time (1885). However, it was used solely for research purposes. The heart is an “electrical” organ, and the EKG aided in its study. Einthoven was laughed at when he suggested that the new machine be used in health clinics. (People said, “Why do we need that?”)

Processed foods are invented

In 1911, something changed in the American food supply – and not for the better. Crisco, the first ever vegetable shortening, was invented. Procter & Gamble took cottonseed oil (“vegetable oil”) and hydrogenated it into a solid that looked just like lard and called it Crisco. (“Crisco” means crystallized cottonseed oil). The product was aggressively marketed by Procter and Gamble.

At the same time that they were promoting Crisco, Proctor & Gamble donated 1.7 million dollars to the American Heart association. Proctor & Gamble claimed that Crisco was “heart healthy” without any long-term studies to support the claim. According to Dr. Chris Masterjohn, seed oil trials need to be long. It takes about four years to see the impact. This is why short-term trials lasting weeks can be “deeply misleading” according to Masterjohn.

By the 1920s, things started to go downhill. The first recorded myocardial infarction was recorded in 1921. By the 1930’s the number of deaths due to heart attacks had risen to 3000. Willem Einthoven, the man who invented the EKG twenty five years earlier, became a hero and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine when his invention was finally used in medical diagnosis.

It seems as though Crisco played a role in America’s health crisis, but we should not blame any single food item. While Crisco was at the forefront of industrial food production, other major changes were also taking place in the United States, such as the increased consumption of sugar, trans fats, and the widespread implementation of electricity (which, even though it is not a food item, has been linked to heart issues). We must remember that correlation is not causation. This was a chaotic time in history, marked by significant lifestyle changes for Americans. In effect, many things impacted our health in the 1900s. That said, let’s continue our investigation into vegetable oils.

What are the oils (fats) we find in our diets?

There are three main types of oils (fats) in the human diet. 

Monounsaturated fats are primarily from plants. They are liquid at room temperature. Examples include olive, peanut, and canola oil. They can be highly processed and even contaminated with cheaper oils.

Polyunsaturated fats are also from plants (seeds in particular). They are liquid at room temperature, and stay liquid even in the refrigerator. Examples are corn, soy, safflower, sunflower, cottonseed. You will hear them called “PUFAS” for Poly Unsaturated Fatty Acids. (Note that cottonseed oil is the raw material for Crisco.) These oils are also highly processed. You will also hear them called “seed oils”. They are inflammatory.

Saturated fats are primarily from animals (although not always). They are solid at room temperature. Examples include – butter, ghee, lard, beef tallow, coconut oil, and palm oil (the last two are from plants). These fats area very stable. They do not oxidize when heated. They are not inflammatory.

But what are vegetable oils made from?

Vegetable oils are primarily made from plant seeds. The vegetable oils that I talk about in this blog are the polyunsaturated fats from plant seeds (PUFAs). They are not the healthy vegetables your mother tried to make you eat as a child!

Comparing the history of oil consumption to heart disease

The chart below shows how consumption of vegetable oils increased followed by a parallel increase in heart disease. Soybean oil became popular in the 1930s. Corn oil become popular in the 1940s. Palm oil became popular in the 1980s to 2000.

Soybean oil is the most commonly produced and consumed oil today closely followed by palm oil. Notice that saturated animal fat (the dark brown line) stayed fairly constant over the century. Heart disease did not trend with saturated fat consumption as some doctors tell us.

What’s so bad about vegetable oils? Are they really rancid?

Vegetable oils are generally highly processed. When delicate seeds (such as corn, sunflower, safflower, soy) are crushed to extract their oil, they must undergo further processing to become palatable. The oil undergoes high-pressure filtration and is washed with a solvent such as hexane, causing it to become oxidized– another term for rancid.

Rancid (adjective) – Having a foul, unpleasant smell or taste due to oxidation or decomposition of fats and oils.

At this stage, the oil has such a strong odor that it must be deodorized and even bleached to make it more visually appealing. Coloring is then added to give it a nice yellow glow before it is bottled and placed on supermarket shelves. Below is a picture of a vegetable oil processing plant; it looks like a chemical plant (because it is)!

Below is the resulting supermarket shelf.

In addition to this harsh processing, most of these seeds come from genetically engineered (GMO) plants. GMO plants are considered unhealthy by some researchers as the plants can be sprayed with glyphosate which is now linked to cancer (more here, here, and here). Further processing of these delicate seed oils may include hydrogenation to extend shelf life – this is how Crisco was created. Hydrogenation creates a “trans fat”. Remember trans fats? When an oil is partially hydrogenated, it produces trans fats–and they are not good for the body. Trans fats were banned in 2015.

To make matters worse, some seed oils such as soybean oil, consist primarily of omega-6 fats. In general Americans consume FAR too much omega-6 compared to omega-3 fat, mainly due to the excessive amount of omega-6 found in processed foods. Dr J. Mercola states:  The omega-6 found in soybean oil promotes chronic inflammation in your body, which is an underlying issue for virtually all chronic diseases”. 

And on a humorous note, the history of canola oil is worth mentioning. During WW2 rapeseed oil was used as a lubricant for machinery on warships. After the war, the excess oil needed a market. It was renamed “canola” from “CANadian Oil, Low, Acid” and marketed as a food oil. You will find it in many food items.

How about olive oil, is it healthier?

It is probably safe to say that most imported olive oils found in supermarkets are blended with cheaper vegetable oils. There may be something of an “olive oil mafia” at play. Olive oil is such a massive market that, to keep prices low, many imported oils are not 100% pure olive oil. The addition of cheaper vegetable oils-along with coloring and taste additives- has been confirmed by studies.

According to a website called WorstBrands, a study conducted by the UC Davis Olive Center revealed that 70% of major olive oil brands in U.S. stores have been diluted with cheaper alternatives like soy, sunflower, or canola to increase profits at the expense of consumer health. Some of the offending brands include- Messetta, Filippo Berio, Primadonna, Carapelli, Pompeian, Pietro Coricelli, Mazola, Sasso, Bertolli, Whole Foods, Antica Badia and Colavita. Do you see your favorite band here? Buyer beware!

In general, an imported food product is not held to the same high FDA standards that foods produced in the United States are held to. To find the best, real, olive oil, look for a bottle that says something like “100% California olive oil” or any olive oil grown and produced in the USA. It will be more expensive but you get what you pay for. Even olive oil from the great state of Texas is better than imported fancy brands, as long as it says 100% pure olive oil.

Extra bonus!!

The best thing about pure olive oil is that it promotes a beneficial gut bacteria species called Akkermansia. The bacteria species Akkermansia helps support healthy intestinal mucus, which is essential for gut health. Dr. William Davis (Super Gut, 2022) suggests adding olive oil to your diet every day, either by cooking with it (low temperatures) or drizzling it over food. I drizzle some into my smoothie! Go here for my blog post on the gut biome.

Where do vegetable oils hide?

Foods with vegetable oils in the ingredients include anything fried or baked. That includes – chips, snack foods, crackers, cookies, breads, buns, salad dressings, mayonnaise, margarine, frozen meals, cake mixes, frostings, sauces, condiments, chicken nuggets, and fried fish. Just take a look in your pantry and in your refrigerator. You will see dozens of foods with the offending vegetable oils listed on the ingredients (look for things like corn oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, canola oil, soybean oil. If you cook at home, many recipes call for vegetable oils. Switch to animal fats when cooking at home. Cook with real butter, lard, tallow, or coconut oil. You can even add olive oil to cakes and biscuits!

What do vegetable oils do to your body?

These highly processed vegetable oils (seed oils) should not be in our bodies.  Chris Masterjohn, Ph.D. says this: “Seed oils are high in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which have two or more double bonds, and are uniquely vulnerable to a process called lipid peroxidation, during which they are broken down into small, toxic byproducts that cause cellular damage.”

If you have been eating the “Standard American Diet” your body has incorporated PUFAs into its cell structures (reference). This should be quite concerning. The cell walls in your body are supposed to be composed of saturated fats (see picture below). However, if your diet consists primarily of vegetable oils (due to the mistaken belief that saturated fats are bad), your cells may have incorporated the wrong fats into their cell walls, causing bent and misshapen structures. Cells may not function optimally when this happens.

How to remove them from your body

First, reduce your consumption of foods that contain vegetable oils listed in the ingredient’s list. Throw out those bottles of salad dressings, sauces, margarines, and condiments from your fridge. Avoid fried foods unless you make them yourself and fry with butter, ghee, coconut oil, or another animal fat. Say no to salad dressings, mayonnaise and tartar sauce when dining out at restaurants. Dr. Joseph Mercola states that it may take 2 years or more to remove PUFAs from the body. (I think it may take longer.) Consuming saturated animal fats should provide your body with all the straight-chain fats required to build the correct cell structures.

Watch out! Many websites extoll the virtues of vegetable oils.

A quick search brought up this website here, that tells you that seed oils are healthy. I disagree. After reading my blog I hope I have convinced you otherwise. You will hear lots of raging opinions on both sides of this topic. I believe that if a food item is created in a chemical manufacturing plant, it is not good to eat.

Some fast-food chains are switching to beef tallow for frying

Believe it or not, some fast-food restaurants are going back to frying with animal fats. Buffalo Wild Wings, Outback Steakhouse, Smashburger and Popeyes all put beef tallow in their fryers. They do this for added flavor and texture but also because animal fats “contribute to more heat stable cooking”. Go here for more information.

Summary

In summary, highly processed vegetable oils are bad for human bodies due to their high level of omega 6 fatty acids, their tendency to oxidize and become rancid, and the likelihood that they are made from GMO seeds. If removing these oils is important to you, start reading labels, and cleaning out your pantry. Purchase only American made olive oil. Cook more foods at home with animal fats or other stable saturated fats. Use caution eating out. And be confident that you are helping your body to be healthier!

Always talk to your health professional before starting anything new.  This information is not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any condition and is intended only for entertainment. I welcome your comments.