Oil!!!! The OPEC of food choices, the lie of the oils

So I was just on a heart attack support group site, and it's a site for those of us who are under the age of 55 and suddenly found ourselves with a bum ticker-often with no warning and no known risk factors. That is, many were NOT smokers, drinkers, drug users, had diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure. Many were even athletic and fit and ate reasonably healthy to begin with. So for lots of people-genetics played a major role, and stress an even larger one. But I would also venture to guess that diet also contributes a great deal-because things we think are healthy for us are actually very counter-intuitive, like the use of oils.

In my support group the question was posed coconut oil vs olive oil. 1, is coconut oil really all the hype  that has made it out to be in terms of being 'healthy' and 'good for us', and is it better than Olive Oil, which has been lauded as some big heart disease antagonist and is allegedly 'good' for our hearts?

Now the hype about coconut oil is really over the top it would seem. Coconut anything-oil, water, flakes seems to be the new superfood health elixir of the Gods thing. I honestly don't know how these trends start or how these bandwagons get their steam and momentum to turn from wagons into rockets but they do. And coconut oil has been put on a pedestal of rubbing it on your skin, hair, eating it will act as some sort of ambiguous cure-all and some fountain of youth.

Here's where "If sounds too good to be true it probably is" steps into the picture. And as one poster on the support group said, it is confusing because there are conflicting reports and studies-coconut oil is healthy vs not healthy. Add this to the newer reports coming out that saturated fats such as butter and bacon grease are not the culprits in CAD or heart disease as once thought, and it's back to Exorcist head spinning in terms of what's ok/safe to eat for maximum health potential.

I was in the coconut oil camp for these two reasons: 1, Olive oil at a high temperature-such as sauteeing or stir frying turns toxic and 2, canola oil is GMO and has been linked to causing heart arrhythmias as a result. This all said, the other oils are known to be 'clogging' kinds, that is-hydrogenated (meaning essentially, fake totally man-made processed in a lab oils) or saturated. This just means it has molecules in it that can raise the over-all cholesterol levels in the body and may in fact increase the propensity of plague building.

In a different post I reminded you that in the 80's the latest food trend/obsession was 'fat free'-when the studies came out suggesting that saturated fats was what was causing everybody to have grabbers and stroke out. Far be it for people to critically think or be reasonable, many people immediately eschewed any sort of fat and the food industry had a billion dollar field day replacing normally fat riddled products (mayonnaise, sour cream, ice cream, etc) with 'fat free' versions. Fat-free salad dressings, fat free cheese-shit that normal is comprised of nothing BUT fat now contained none, and people suffered.

Did they lose weight? Yes. Did they have less heart disease? No. They did have hair falling out, they did have depression and suicidal ideation, they did have lethargy and memory issues. The body needs fats to help expedite the glucose to the cells and in particular, the brain. It needs it to build some stores of fat to regulate body temperature and energy production. This all being said, eliminating all fats from the diet isn't an answer to avoiding the oil crisis, either.

Then I discovered these videos. I will encapsulate them for you because I often hate clicking on a link of an interesting-to-me-topic, only to be taken to a video I don't have time or feel like watching. (I can read a lot faster than a video) so simply put: No oil in excess is good for anybody. Not Olive, not coconut, not canola, not flaxseed, not fish oil. None. What is excess? Everyday.

Think about it. You are pouring pure oil on your foods, pure fat. You are dipping your bread in pure fats, you are pouring it on your salad. EVERYDAY. You are stirfrying your veggies in it, you are cooking meats in it, you are drizzing ontop of everything.

"But Olive Oil is heart healthy! Look at all the Italians and Greeks, they have no heart disease like us!"

That's because they eat lots of grains, vegetables and fruits, and drink a lot of wine. They eat a lot of salads and antipastos, they use meat very sparingly, they use it as a side dish, they don't eat it at every meal, and they don't even eat it everyday. They use a lot of beans, they eat fish more than once a week, and they nap during the day and work outside a lot. Their culture is totally different-they are not snacking on baked chips (in oil) they are not eating 100 calorie cookies for a snack (in oil). They are not in a processed food avalanche. They still do their own cooking over there, and those that don't-are fat like us Americans with heart disease to boot.

Oil, along with salt and sugar is in EVERYTHING in the U.S.A. And oil is fat. It doesn't matter if its saturated or not, if its natural or not. Avocados and coconut oils are considered saturated, but they are processed in the body differently than the saturated fat of butter or lard. Two are fruit oils and two are animal. It is thought the fruit oils are better. But they are extremely high in fat and it still remains true that fat will make you fat. If you get fat- that's more stress and strain on the heart. So even if it doesn't clog your arteries, it will still stress out your body and not just for heart reasons.

I don't know a lot about it but I'm pretty sure the Paleo diet is supposed to resemble early man's diet, yes? Well early man wasn't cooking a bunch of crap in oils.  So even the meat-eater diet wouldn't support all this oil usage. You don't need to. We have been indoctrinated to believe that we have to cook all of our foods in some sort of substance. You can steam veggies or saute in water and/or broth just as easily as using oil. It's not necessary and it's not wise.

Our bodies need some fat but it's much healthier to get the fats directly from the source, i.e., eat an avocado, munch on some olives, add coconut to something. Even coconut water is better than the oil. Don't use the oils at every meal. If you fry an egg using cooking oil spray for breakfast, slather a coconut oil vegan butter substitute on your toast,  then use olive oil on your salad at lunch, then pour a little oo over your grilled chicken breast and pasta at dinner-it may all seem healthy, but that's a lot of oil in a day-now times that by most days. Olive oil has more calories than butter. Saturated smaturated. Cut down on it. Use sparingly. Use as a condiment. It's not a health food, oil is not an elixir and the same holds true for fish oil. Eat the actual fish.

Between using oils for cooking, then using them in supplements (vitamin E, Evening Primrose, Fish oils)-that's a whole lot of oily fatty liquid going into the body and oil and water do not mix. (BTW, you can get the Omega 3's that fish oil contains by using flax, ground flax added to foods gives very similiar benefits. )

Our bodies are comprised mostly of water. It's difficult to digest oils, it can lead to stones in your organs, and difficulty to lose weight no matter how hard you try. I would suggest watching thevideos but bottom line: Limit or eliminate actual liquid oils. And with how expensive they are-at least 10.00 a little bottle or jar-it will keep you thinner and your wallet fatter.