Oil… healthy or not healthy in a plant based diet?

With so many oils to choose from and an unlimited number of discussions on which oils are good for you, great for you and downright unhealthy, one is left to wonder, what is the truth?

Let’s start with some of the most common type oils we’ve been led to believe are healthy. • Olive oil
• Coconut oil
• Sesame oil
• Avocado oil
• Almond oil
• Sunflower oil

Depending on what you read, listen to or watch, you can be led to believe any one of these oils is healthy, or not.
The fact is, processed oil, for the most part is NOT healthy. When you add oil to your food, you are adding empty calories to the tune of 120 calories per tablespoon. You are also adding artery clogging substances.

Does this mean we don’t need oil and fat in our diet? No, but what it does mean is you have to be aware of the difference between unhealthy and healthy choices.

Heart Disease IS a Killer

With heart disease as the number one killer among men and women, it makes very little sense to add anything to your food that increases your chances for a heart attack.

Many people blame their heart condition on genetics.

Although this might be a factor, in plenty of cases, it’s more a result of lifestyle choices than genetics. Lifestyle choices such as what we eat and the amount of exercise we get.

In my family, there has been plenty of heart disease. My father had his first major heart attack at the age of 41. A heart attack that almost killed him. He had quit smoking the year before resulting in the consumption of many unhealthy foods that packed on the weight and the burden to his heart.
At 62 he had another heart attack that left him in a coma for nearly a month, a quadruple bypass and other health related issues.

Based on this, one would assume I am at a higher risk for heart disease. Although I may be, the fact I have made lifestyle changes, including the elimination of all animal and dairy products from my diet, and subscribing to the SOS Free diet (elimination of added sugars, salts and processed oils), my risk has been dramatically reduced.

Sadly, many people are not willing to take responsibility for their risk factors simply by virtue of the fact they continue to consume foods that are incredibly unhealthy AND increase their chances of diseases that are highly preventable.

Why Oil Elimination is a GREAT Choice

Adding in processed oil to your diet increases the saturated fat intake. According to a post on https://www.heartandstroke.ca

“Saturated fat can raise bad (LDL) cholesterol. LDL cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Emerging evidence suggests that saturated fats might affect your health differently depending on the food source of the saturated fat. Canada’s Food Guide recommends a shift towards more plant-based foods to help reduce the amount of saturated fat you eat.”

That’s not to say you shouldn’t have some fat in your diet. You need fat, but it’s the type you get that makes a difference.

There are plenty of blog posts and articles to support either position on whether to consume processed oil… or not. The great confusion is whether coconut and olive oil are good for you.

Let’s look at the post on the Mayo Clinic site about the myth of coconut oil being healthy.

Myth: Coconut oil is a heart-healthy cooking alternative.
The argument: Coconut oil is extremely high in saturated fat — about 50 percent more than butter, even.

But despite that saturated fat is known to raise cholesterol levels, linked with heart disease risk, proponents believe that some saturated fats in coconut oil (called medium-chain triglycerides) are less harmful and may actually raise levels of beneficial HDL cholesterol.

The reality: Coconut oil has been shown to raise cholesterol levels — the good and the bad kinds — more than other plant-based oils like olive or canola. And in truth, medium-chain triglycerides make up only a small amount of the fatty acids in coconut oil.

Plus, while other heart-healthy fats like olive oil, canola oil, or omega-3 fatty acids in nuts and seafood have been supported by a large body of evidence, coconut oil's supposed benefits still haven't been proved in large-scale human research.

End of Mayo Clinic post.

You can find other sites that claim coconut oil is healthy.
But think about it. When you are pouring processed oil into your system, you are adding empty calories. With most of the population overweight , (over 70% according to many studies) with no end in sight, it makes more sense to consume nutrient dense foods that have natural, unprocessed oils available. Foods like avocados and nuts.

In his book, Fast Food Genocide, Dr. Joel Fuhrman gives a great deal of detail on the foods that are incredibly healthy and support heart health through a nutritarian diet.
Rather than adding in unneeded, unhealthy calories to your food intake, add in foods that support heart health as well as lower your risk for other all to common diseases that are on the increase such as diabetes, high blood pressure and some cancers.

With healthcare costs through the roof and our healthcare system being more of a well-oiled, pill pushing machine, doesn’t it make more sense to do what you can to avoid the need for medicines that all have side effects that are often worse then the original condition?

“In 2017, the U.S. spent about $3.5 trillion on healthcare, which averages to about $11,000 per person. ... The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) projects that such costs will climb to $6 trillion, or about $17,000 per person, and will represent about 19 percent of GDP by 2027.” https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2019/03/why-are-americans-paying-more-for-healthcare

There are plenty of leading plant-based doctors that highly discourage the use of oil due to it being 120 added "empty" calories and oil actually clogs the arteries.

Dr. Joel Fuhrman's book Eat to Live is one of the best on the topic as is his book, Fast Food Genocide. We have been led to believe olive oil is good, but when you follow the money trail, you realize it's all about yet one more way to get us hooked into a big fat lie. Watch for yourself where three plant-based advocates give solid evidence as to the benefits of NOT consuming processed oils.

https://youtu.be/lbALgjmZUek
https://youtu.be/b_o4YBQPKtQ
https://youtu.be/uXMzWkzqkao

Your health is your responsibility. The days of relying on your doctor to know more about health than you do are long gone.