With the mainstream media telling us that oils are healthy and a vital source of essential fatty acids (EFAs) for our bodies, it is easy to simply believe what they tell us.
However, the real truth about the consumption of oil and its effect on human health is very different.
In the world of food oils, cold-pressed is seen as the very best when it comes to both taste and overall quality.
Many oils, like flax seed, coconut, olive, and pumpkin seed can all be found in cold pressed forms and are all touted for their various supposed health benefits.
For example, flax seed oil contains the majority of its EFA's in the Omega 3 form, which is nowadays much heralded as being an absolute must if one is to be healthy.
In their raw and natural state, seeds and olives are a whole food and, if consumed in moderate quantities, they give our bodies a proper balanced nutrition.
Whole and unprocessed foods always contain the correct balance of proteins, carbohydrates, fats and fibre, as intended by nature.
However, the moment oil is extracted from the whole seeds or olives, even if it is cold pressed, the fiber, protein and carbohydrates are discarded and, instead, we end up with a very unnatural and unbalanced product that is 100% concentrated fat that will inevitably produce health problems within the body.
Health issues connected with the consumption of oils.
Dr.
McDougall, a famous American promoter of a low-fat, plant-based diet, quotes: "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.
" (1) Just some of the adverse effects of consuming oils include: weight gain, unbalancing of body's omega 3 and omega 6 EFA healthy ratio, diabetes, immune system suppression, and 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 (2).
Oils make you fat! A study of 54 obese women in a Mediterranean country found that they were following a diet low in carbohydrates (35% of calories) and high in fats (43% of calories).
Of their total calories derived from fats, 55% came from olive oil alone.
The simple understanding to take from this is if people eat something that is 100% fat, then it will make them fat in turn! (3) How to get your EFAs without the need for any oils.
A whole and as much raw as possible diet containing fresh fruits, vegetables, and moderate amounts of nuts, seeds, olives, and avocados are the optimum and only real choice for obtaining our EFAs in a proper health-inducing diet.
Any oil, regardless if it has been cold pressed or not, is an unbalanced and unhealthy food source.
So if you eat a low fat raw vegan diet of fruits and vegetables with some moderate allowance for nuts and seeds you will more than adequately meet your essential fatty acid requirements, but without any of the unhealthy side-effetcs that any oil will give you.
Bibliography: (1,2,3) McDougall, Dr.
J.
http://drmcdougall.
com/misc/2007nl/aug/oils.
htm