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Categorizing oils like this seems counter-productive to studying the effect of consuming certain fatty acids, as oils from the same category have wildly differe
by alxmng 4y ago
Categorizing oils like this seems counter-productive to studying the effect of consuming certain fatty acids, as oils from the same category have wildly different composition. Coconut and olive oils are both from fruits, but contain different fatty acids.
- derefr 4y agoI believe the oils aren't divided this way for any taxonomic reason, but rather because we already have evidence of olive, avocado, coconut etc. oils having little-to-no impact on health, in contrast to other oils. The groups are basically "presumed innocent" oils and "presumed guilty" oils. Or, to be more charitable, the groupings can also be looked at as "oils humans evolved eating" (olive oil, butter, coconut milk, etc) vs "oils we just started eating recently, because they can't be extracted without modern technology."
- alxmng 4y agoHumans did not evolve eating olive or coconut oil. Seed oils do not require modern technology. Soybean, sesame, sunflower, etc. can be extracted with stone pressing and were extracted that way prior to any chemical extraction process. Where my family is from they’ve been eating sunflower and peanut oil for hundreds of years, milled and pressed with stone.
- rayiner 4y agoLikewise on the subcontinent mustard seed oil has been used for hundreds of years.
- adrian_b 4y agoYou are right that some cold-pressed seed oils have been used since antiquity, e.g. sesame oil. Nevertheless, until modern extraction methods based on the use of high temperature and organic solvents have been introduced during the last two centuries such oils had remained expensive, so they were only a minor part of the food, unlike today, when if you look at the label of any kind of industrially-made food you will invariably see that some cheap oil has been added to it, e.g. soybean oil, canola oil or palm oil. Even today, if you choose vegetable oils extracted by good methods, i.e. by cold pressing or with supercritical carbon dioxide, they are much more expensive than standard oils. For instance, the price range for cold-pressed sunflower oil overlaps with that of the cheaper kinds of extra-virgin olive oil and the prices are several times higher than for standard sunflower oil. I have read all the 4 parts of this "Death by Vegetable Oil" series of posts. Some of its conclusions are likely to be true, but the title is extremely misleading. A much more appropriate title would be "Death by the Cheaper Vegetable Oils". All the data presented in these posts about the harmful effects of some vegetable oils are not applicable to vegetable oils in general, but only to those vegetable oils that have one or more of the following characteristics: 1. A high content of linoleic acid and also a too high daily intake. The optimum daily intake of linoleic acid is unknown, but it is believed to be around 10 g/day and not much over 20 g/day. In my opinion, based on the current data, an example of a daily fat intake optimized for the fatty acid profile and vitamin E content, for a sedentary human, would be 55 mL of extra-virgin olive oil + 15 mL of cold-pressed sunflower oil + a DHA+EPA omega-3 supplement. The rest of the food should have low fat content, like in grains, vegetables, fruits or lean meat. For a higher calorie intake, only the amount of extra-virgin olive oil should be increased. 2. Extraction with high temperature and/or organic solvents. One should always prefer extra-virgin oils, cold-pressed oils or oils extracted with supercritical carbon dioxide. All such oils are very sensitive to light, so they must be stored in darkness, preferably in dark glass bottles. Avoid those sold in clear plastic bottles. 3. Vegetable oils that have been heated during cooking. All vegetable oils should be mixed with the food only after cooking it and cooling it. They should not be used for frying. 4. Vegetable oils with artificial additives, e.g. with TBHQ. Avoid these.
- rofrol 4y ago>In my opinion, based on the current data, an example of a daily fat intake optimized for the fatty acid profile and vitamin E content, for a sedentary human, would be 55 mL of extra-virgin olive oil + 15 mL of cold-pressed sunflower oil + a DHA+EPA omega-3 supplement. Can you provide link to this current data? I thought sunflower oil is not good for our health.
- btilly 4y agoThe follow-up article https://www.jeffnobbs.com/posts/why-is-vegetable-oil-unhealthy https://www.jeffnobbs.com/posts/why-is-vegetable-oil-unhealt... goes into depth on why the underlying chemistry makes some oils much worse for us than others. Long story short, plants that live where it is cold need to use less stable oils with a lower melting points. These oils lead to our cells being more fragile, and also lead to more free radicals. Particularly if the oil is repeatedly heated. As happens in restaurants. And even more so when deep frying fast food.
- alxmng 4y agoIt’s a simple theory (omega 6 = bad) but the evidence is not clear. Plenty of studies demonstrate benefits from Linoleic acid: https://www.drchristianson.com/blog/are-omega-6-fats-bad-for-your-health/ https://www.drchristianson.com/blog/are-omega-6-fats-bad-for... I see talk about seed oils causing “inflammation” as a big red flag for pseudoscience.
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- adrian_b 4y agoFor any kind of nutrient, saying that it is good or bad, without saying at which daily intake that is true, is totally meaningless. Any essential nutrient, whose absence from your food can kill you, can also become a poison over a certain daily intake. For certain essential nutrients, the difference between the optimum daily intake and the lethal daily intake may be quite small, e.g. for selenium. In the case of linoleic acid, it is likely that 10 g/day is very healthy, but 50 g/day is very unhealthy. It is not known for sure where the threshold between healthy and unhealthy lays, but it might be between 20 g/day and 30 g/day. Most of the cheapest vegetable oils contain between 60% and 80% of linoleic acid. With all kinds of industrially-made food containing large amounts of cheap oils, it has become very easy to eat too much linoleic acid per day, without being aware, like also too much sugar.
- Ocha 4y agoWell this article argues omega-6 is healthy and prevents heart attacks - totally opposite. What should I believe https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/no-need-to-avoid-healthy-omega-6-fats https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/no-need-to...
- fierro 4y agoit's really not. It's a useful grouping because the methods of extraction differ along these lines. Vegetable oils generally require a chemical intensive process to acquire involving solvents and cleaners. These oils tend to have high levels of linoleic acid which is toxic to humans.
- alxmng 4y agoVegetable oils do not require chemical extraction. But even so, what does that have to do with the oil? Oil extracted with solvent shouldn’t have any significant solvent left in it when consumed. Linoleic acid is not “toxic” to humans. It’s an essential fatty acid. You need it to survive. Your body needs it to make other fats. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linoleic_acid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linoleic_acid
- fierro 4y agoseed oils do often require chemical extraction and the method of extraction does matter because it may have effects on the chemical structure of the oil in question. For example, to make canola oil, the seeds are ground at high temperatures to extract a very fragile oil. During this harsh process, the oil is oxidized and then needs to be washed with hexane (a known neurological toxin) and then bleached and deodorized so that the product does not smell rancid (which it is after the processing). Contrast this to cold pressing olives. As for linoleic acid, it does store in adipose issue and cause oxidative stress and inflammation in humans. Below is one of several papers you can find on this. A high linoleic acid diet increases oxidative stress in vivo and affects nitric oxide metabolism in humans https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9844997/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9844997/
- Scoundreller 4y agoIs there any retained hexane though? I used to use n-hexane spray as an electronics cleaner and it all evaporated very fast. I get that a non-polar oil could hold it better, but does it hold it in after any amount of time?
- tarsinge 4y agoYes, especially because there are things like high-oleic sunflower oil with a completely different fatty acids profile more similar to olive oil.