Discussion of how consumption of processed seed oils triggers similar neurological pathways as smoking weed to increase appetite and food intake to make us fat.
Did you know that vegetable oils in the diet not only contribute to health problems but are a big contributor to weight problems too?
Even the so-called heart-healthy vegetable fats like grapeseed oil should be avoided!
As you can see from the photo above, the cooking oils section of the supermarket is overloaded with these types of fats.
These unhealthy lipids also include Smart Balance and other “natural oil blends” in tubs in the refrigerated section. They are, in essence, nothing more than rebranded versions of toxic margarine.
These factory fats are expanding your backside with every spread of the knife on your morning toast whether you realize it or not.
Omega-6 Seed Oil Dangers
The reason behind vegetable, aka “seed” oils and weight gain is the type of fat they contain…omega-6.
Other names for this type of fat are linoleic acid or polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs).
Note that these factory fats are very different from inflammation-lowering gamma linolenic acid in organ meats and a few other foods. This special kind of omega-6 fat (that acts like an omega-3) actually helps you lose weight.
Are you confused yet?
The rancid seed oils that constitute the primary fats in the Western diet come from soy, corn, rice bran, cottonseed, sunflower, safflower, and canola (which also contains rancid omega-3 fat).
While eating seeds and grains in whole food form is not a bad thing, concentrating the oils from them is.
The fact is that there isn’t a whole lot of oil in an ear of corn or a soybean.
Thus, to make an entire bottle of corn or soybean oil takes violent and heavily industrialized processing.
Suffice it to say that you would be hard-pressed to duplicate it in your home kitchen like the ease of churning cream into butter!
Seed Oils and the Munchies
Here’s where the “fat” part comes in.
While a very small amount of omega-6 fats is necessary for health, when consumed in excess as happens with the Western diet, vegetable oils contribute to the overproduction of neuromodulatory lipids.
These substances are called endocannabinoids and are responsible for signaling hunger to the brain.
Guess what these lipids do?
They give you the munchies!
You may notice that the word endocannabinoids is similar to the etymology of cannabis (weed). Weed is famous for giving people the munchies too.
Thus, it doesn’t seem too much of a stretch to consider seed oils as the marijuana of fatty acids.
Now you know why you can’t stop eating a jumbo bag of chips or a box of cookies made with corn, soy, sunflower, or any other high omega-6 seed oil.
What about that organic dressing loaded with omega-6 oils drizzled on your salad at lunchtime?
Could it be a contributing reason for the urge to overeat on the main course or the snack attack at 3 pm?
Traditional Fats Cause Satiation, Not Overeating
Just try to gorge yourself the same way with a box of cookies made with butter or coconut oil.
Even French fries traditionally cooked in beef fat (tallow) are difficult to overeat.
You see, whole natural fats like tallow satiate you and keep your blood sugar steady.
The result is that you stay full and comfortable for longer in addition to eating much less in the first place!
Vegetable oils, on the other hand, stimulate you neurologically to keep eating far beyond what constitutes a healthy portion.
What’s most troubling is that food manufacturers are doubling down on the vegetable oil scam.
Instead of switching their products to better fats, they continue to use the most damaging (and profitable) ones.
Adding insult to injury, manufacturers market some of these munchie-inducing fats such as CLA safflower oil as a weight loss aid!
It seems with America’s weight problem now at a crisis level, it’s time for a return to the traditional fats of our ancestors.
Isn’t it high time to stop listening to the talking heads on TV and take matters into your own hands?
Do a pantry cleanout and chuck every item that contains fats that require a literal factory to process.
Your stomach and your backside will thank you!
Get the Skinny on Fat
My book Get Your Fats Straight
References
(1) Why Women Need Fat, William Lassek MD
(2) Dark Calories: How Vegetable Oils Destroy Our Health, Cate Shanahan MD
Maggie, I feel sorry for you.
The only time butter would be better than Earth Balance is if it came from radioactive, disease-ridden, GMO corn-fed cows…
Do your research.
Stop following the mainstream. It’s embarrassing.
Actually, Polyunsaturated fat is good for you- unless you have it in large amounts. If you use Earth’s balance on everything, then it’s bad. Earth’s Balance is a better thing to use than butter. I don’t ever have a ton of oils, and I always try to steer clear of them, but the Earth’s Balance doesn’t do any harm unless you have a bunch.
I understand the benefits of using real, good fats (butter, etc.); however, I’d still like to know about ‘natural’ oils, such as olive oil? Is that a good fat? Is it good for cooking or only as a drizzle? What about flax oil? Coconut oil is good for cooking, right?
Could you point me to some resources on good fats other than butter/lard? (Although, I do use butter)
Thank you.
So true! I have been following this blog faithfully since I found it some time ago as well as a few others to gain a better understanding of how to prepare whole, traditional, nutrient dense foods. I have to add that Sarah’s blog has provided me with a wealth of valuable info and I found the videos very helpful. While I comprehend written word well, I enjoy the visual backup even better. Thank you Sarah!
The story I want to share here is a bit wordy so you can choose to pass it by, but I think it could be worth the read to enunciate the value of adding good fat back into your diets. At the beginning of this last year I brought about 25 years of strict fat-free dieting and 23 years of relentless exercising to a screeching halt and in doing so I have finally succeeded in losing 34 lbs and four clothes sizes so it was a substantial loss. To put it into perspective that 34 lbs is equal to over (6) 5 lb. bags of flour! I pretty much ate what I wanted so I never once felt deprived and was always decently satiated. I plan to continue to loose at least that much more this year.
In this year that I lost the weight I had a lot working against my success. My history exemplifies just about every irresponsible medical decision to occur in those days. I had a total hysterectomy for endometriosis when I was only 29 so I no longer had any of my natural hormones and I do not choose to take the synthetic replacements. After complaining about the unreasonable weight gain and being blown off by the several docs as a trivial issue (I am 5’9″ so I could pull off the weight gain w/o looking obese, but I was) I decided to go to school to learn about how my body worked so I could help myself. I had also began my journey by beginning to eat organic whole foods at this time which was about 1980. I went through the RN program on a mission earning a 4.0 through to my last semester and tutored much of my class as well. I also worked part time while in school at a doctors office as a phlebotomist and requested they do a thyroid test and I was found to have Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism. I have tumors in my thyroid that have to be monitored. I walked away from the medical profession because at the time nurses were working way too many hours under very stressful conditions. I am told by my friends who are still nurses that while it has improved, it is still very stressful. I am glad I walked away, but all was not lost because I gained a wealth of knowledge of the human physiology, was able to care for friend in her home through her death, I have become one hell of a fierce patient advocate for my mother and learned how to research throughly. Also, because of my GPA I received a full ride scholarship and worked on a degree in what I had always wanted to do, but could not justify until now: fine art.
The final hurdle I had to jump was that I was making this weight loss attempt without being able to exercise because in the last two years I have pretty much been in bed more than out. In spite of my excess weight I have always been deemed as healthy as my vitals and blood work with each yearly physical were perfect. While on vacation in Europe I experienced severe back pain that was so bad I left my luggage behind and that pain has still not been resolved to this day. The MRI and other tests show a slightly budged disc, but it is hitting my nerves enough to cause several kinds of severe pain in my lower back and into my leg. Also, it was found that I have a degenerating hip joint due to years of heavy physical activity on an imbalanced body caused by the scoliosis (curved spine) I was apparently born with. I was told about it in my teens, but no one suggested there were any dangers to leaving it as is and chiropractors were not widely accepted in the 1970’s so I was never referred to one. Very frustrating! A chiropractor could have corrected this issue, but now I am told it has been too long to totally correct it as the damage is done. So far nothing including physical therapy, spinal epidurals, tens units, nor pain meds (which I refuse to use on a regular basis) brings any relief. Every med that is legal is addictive. Go figure. I have nerve pain that is agitated by any activity or by sitting or laying in one position for any length time. I found that if I do any activity for more than about an hour (standing, walking, sitting upright) I need to lay down in a propped up position to curve my back into a zero gravity position for several to stop the pain that intensifies from the activity. It is always there, but I have acclimated to it and have learned to take down time before it gets too intense. I do spend more time in bed than out, but now at least I can get out and have a life on a part time basis. I can no longer exercise in any way because one wrong movement and I get an excruciating stop-you-in-your-tracks kind of pain I would prefer to avoid. I can live with the small electrical pains and sciatic pain, but only for so long at one time when I need to push my time on my feet. Chronic pain can make you grouchy so I have to be aware when I get cranky to go lay down. I have a wonderful pillow system I bought to put me into a zero gravity position that brings me relief.
The inactivity is very difficult for someone who exercised daily since I was 18 years old. I was a runner and worked out at the gym 5 days a week. I also had very physical employment throughout my life such as working as an experimental mechanic in a developmental lab for 5 years where I was involved in the build up and testing of military vehicles ranging from HumV’s to armored 5 ton trucks, I also walked a 12 mile mail route caring 35+ lbs on my back for five years then as a clerk dumping and sorting mail for two years just to mention a few of my careers. Even my play was very physical as I focused on sculpture in stone, bronze, iron, steel, etc . . . (as well as painting) in my nearly finished BFA degree. I am a good welder too. I also enjoyed spending time working on my own muscle cars and riding motorcycles, being outside hiking, canoeing and playing cut-throat three-some racket ball. I want to mention that I was a lacto ova vegetarian (included eggs and milk products) throughout these 28 years of weight gain. No, I did not fill up on grains, but they were a part of my diet and still are, but now I know to soak, sprout or ferment them first. My point here was that I gained the weight progressively in spite of my extensive physical activity.
Knowing what I have learned about eating whole, nutrient dense food, I now attribute the weight gain to a combination of the slow metabolic issue from the Hashimoto’s along with not including the much needed healthy fats in my diet. By adding these nutrient dense fats back into my diet along with the Weight Watcher’s concept of becoming aware of my choices of food via logging what I ate and using their points plan, (making what I do choose to eat count) I was able to lose and keep the weight off and feel comfortable doing so. Now don’t cringe at the thought of my attributing my weight loss in part to Weight Watchers and quit reading, but instead focus on what I have to say next.
As the Weight Watcher plan promotes, I logged everything I consumed, however I did not eat any packaged foods and added whole foods including healthy fats on a daily basis that I would have never considered allowing even on special occasions in my previous diets as follows. I added:
1. Whole raw, grass fed A2 cow milk
2. Whole raw, grass fed butter made from that milk
3. Home made kefir made from that milk
4. Bone broth based homemade soups
5. Coconut products
6. Cultured veggies
7. Grass fed, organic meats
Since my health insurance paid for 4 twelve week sessions I went to the member meetings once a week and pulled hints from their info then plugged in what I learned about nutrient dense foods from my research into the plan. I ate satisfying whole fats, cultured foods, bone broth based soups surrounded by fresh chopped veggie salads and fruits each day. Weight Watchers gave me a way to keep track of what I ate to see what worked and I just kept doing what I did in the weeks I showed the best weight loss. It taught me what worked best for my unique set of issues. The whole foods satiated me and brought my body to function as optimally as it could considering the challenges it deals with. When I had a way to make the more successful weeks of weight loss techniques more visible so I could replicate them and I lost weight more successfully. As with the success of the food point logging method helping me to eat some of what I wanted (good fats) and guided me as to how much to eat before filling in with zero point fruits and veggies it also showed me when I avoided all fat, I gained weight, but when I ate healthy fat my body seemed to work better at burning my excess body fat so I lost weight.
When I was asked what I thought was key to my weight loss experience at the Weight Watcher meetings as I hit each milestone I said the same thing each time. In my observation the referring to my food log to determine what caused my best weight loss weeks so I could continue with the same eating patterns during those good weeks along with my adding the nutrient dense, satiating whole fat and traditional foods to my diet was responsible for my continued success. I need no further proof than finally experiencing such a successful weight loss. I had so many people at those meetings and at my doctors offices asking me to teach them how to make kefir and give them grains. I also offered them info on how to obtain a cow share. Oh, the doc from the pain clinic is one of those people as well as my family doc. Even though I rarely use their services I figure that these two ladies are keepers in case I do need them because they were willing to work with me as we stepped out of the box together.
Again, sorry this was so long, but I wanted you to get what an uphill, long battle I faced and how it was easily resolved once I got the right info. Part of that info was what I found here about bone broths, soaking grains, sprouting, ferments, etc. Thanks for sharing Sarah!
What about nut oils or seed oils, like walnut oil, hazelnut oil, sunflower seed oil, or sesame oil? Are those also high in omega 6?