Oil, including olive oil is actually damaging for you because it is fattening and disease building.
You will hear about essential fatty acids, such as omega 3’s and 6’s and how raw and cold pressed oil will give you these health promoting fats.
Yet, oil is not the type of fat you want to include into your diet.
Whether it is olive oil, coconut oil, flax seed oil, heat treated or cold pressed/raw oil, oils do not promote health in any shape or form.
Mediterranean diet myth and its use of olive oil
Supposedly, a great aid to those that consume it and today is still touted around the world as been health promoting.
However, when you look at the facts behind this and other supposedly healthy oils it all comes down to the same thing … fat and nothing else but fat!
What never gets mentioned is the fact that the people consuming olive oil in the island of Crete, for example, back in the 1950s were eating an abundance of fruits and vegetables and doing plenty of exercise and manual work.
Fast forward to the present day and their health is now very much the same as many westerners, being overweight and unhealthy.
The problem is that they now exercise less, eat unhealthily, consume animal products and processed foods, and carry on consuming olive oil.
Greek EPIC prospective cohort study (1) followed 23,349 people eating the Mediterranean diet for 8.5 years.
The biggest health benefits did not come from the olive oil that they were eating.
Instead, it came from high vegetable intake, low meat intake, and moderate alcohol consumption.
Diets rich in olive oil, on the other hand, contribute to atherosclerosis (2) and higher rates of coronary artery disease.
Let’s look at some of the facts about oils and why they are not fit to bring us health, even if they are raw:
1. Oils are a highly processed food (a man-made fragmented nutrient), and contain 100% fat, which is something you will never find in nature. They can never compare to whole foods (fruits, veg, nuts and seeds), which always contain a whole host of many other nutrients as well as fat, and are a complete nutritional package.
2. Olive oil packs a whopping 4020 calories per pound.
3. Fat found in oils can results in extra flab around the waist and hips. Yes, as far as oils are concerned the unhealthy fat that you eat will be the fat that you wear.
4. Other adverse effects of consuming oils include: unbalanced Omega 3 to 6 ratio, diabetes and immune system suppression.
Let’s also mention the thinning of the blood, which could be very serious if one is in a major traffic accident or suffers a ruptured artery in the brain.
Oil fats are also associated with an increased risk of cataracts.
Dr. McDougall, famous American promoter of a low-fat, plant-based diet, quotes: (3)
“Chemically speaking, free oils are chains of carbon found in a purified state. Extraction processes have removed all of the other ingredients of the whole food. Thus, free oils are no longer intermixed with the naturally-designed and balanced environment of proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and ten thousand other chemicals found originally in the plants. Free-oils are not food—at best these are medications, causing some desirable effects, and at worst; they are serious toxins causing disease.”
Oils upset and slow down digestion. If you eat a fresh raw vegetable salad without any oil dressing, for example, its digestion is both quick and efficient.
Add less than a teaspoon of oil to it – your digestion will be slowed right down and it will take many hours.
What to eat instead of oils
A whole and as much raw as possible diet containing fresh fruits, vegetables, and moderate amounts of plant-based fats, are the optimal and only real choice for obtaining your essential fatty acids in a health-inducing way.
So, instead of buying into all this hype about what oils are supposed to do – just have your olives, nuts, and seeds as they come in their natural state and in moderate amounts.
Any oil, regardless of whether it has been cold pressed or not, is an imbalanced and unhealthy food source. Fragmented products result in fragmented health.
Bibliography:
1. http://www.bmj.com/content/338/bmj.b2337
2. http://atvb.ahajournals.org/content/15/12/2101.full
3. http://drmcdougall.com/misc/2007nl/aug/oils.htm
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very informational
the fat blocks the carbs from entering the cells. ex. diabetics are usually
fat and consume high fat. keep your blood low fat percentage and low
protein and you’ll see how skinny you get. SLAM THE CARBS!!!!!!
Hey Paul I have a question. What about using oils as a topical? Like
coconut oil, grapeseed oil, hemp oil all of those oils I’ve heard have
great benefits if applied on the skin.
That’s absolutely fine, just not internally.
THANK YOU for presenting this, so many people believe ‘oil’ is good, it is
so unhealthy, we do not need to eat/ingest oil and it is disease producing,
even the media/corporate promoted cold-pressed olive oil!
But the example of Crete in the past suggests that you can eat olive oil
and be healthy, as they did. It’s only in combination with other (bad)
habits where it becomes a problem. Just saying… I don’t use olive oil but
I’m trying to nail down exactly why I should never eat it and… I’m having
conflicted thoughts about this. A little might be okay.
Good point! So if we use it once in a while in combination with all the other factors it won’t kill us.
Luv this video. Thank u
Must say, the fat bit are the bits I struggle to give up the most. I love
love love a hot potato with a blob of vegan marg. However, i know it is
fatty. I find also that I have to plan properly as when I am rushed I just
eat that without considering the health effects. Tsk, tsk – I really
struggle with this, although I know the facts.
what can I use as a substitute for vegan cooking? Obviously something
healthier!
Steaming or boiling are the best methods of cooking and they don’t need added oil.
So cold pressed flaxseed oil is bad! But all the keto/ warrior diet people
say eat protein and fat and cut carbs! Who is telling the truth! Soooo
confused…