Heather Bedard, C.H.E.
One of the most challenging topics, when it comes to diet changes, is the elimination of oil from the diet. The popular health literature is littered with articles and studies on oil and its benefits as well as dangers. So, what are we to believe?
The issues begin when we reduce foods to singular nutrients or functions instead of looking at the food as a whole. All oils are very processed and are liquid fat. Most oils range from 117-124 calories PER Tablespoon! It is very easy to eliminate needless calories by just removing this small thing from your diet or cooking. Olives, avocados, and seeds are appropriate in small amounts because they keep the food intact – not removing the fat, protein, or carbs and eating those only. However, oil is different because it is stripped of all these benefits and will offer you no health benefits either.
Most people come back with the response, “But, we need healthy fat!” And that’s right. We do need fat as a part of our diet, but not as much as you would think. A healthy diet, based off the optimal diet I have researched, would be 75% carbohydrate, 15% fat, and 10% protein. In addition, the fat that you need can be easily consumed as a part of a whole food, plant-based diet. You certainly don’t need to be substituting with tablespoons of liquid fat as a part of baked goods, dressings, and cooking. Eat your fat along with the nutrients your body needs to process it!
Olive oil has been portrayed as health-promoting due to studies on diets like the famed Mediterranean Diet which has since been retracted due to poor study design. (1) There were 288 health incidents during the time of the study and the study was paid for by olive oil and nut producers as well as the California Walnut Commission. Industry sponsored studies are inherently skewed because they stand to profit from the discoveries and can manipulate study results in their favor. The participants were on many different medications during the study such as statin drugs and blood pressure drugs, and the low-fat group really wasn’t low fat as they only reduced their fat intake by 2%.
A survey done in 2016 found that 72% of Americans thought that coconut oil was a healthy alternative. Some health advocates promote coconut oil, stating that it has medium-chain fatty acids that are used by the body for energy much quicker than other fatty acids and thus do not raise cholesterol levels. This is true, but coconut oil also has long-chain fatty acids which increase plasma cholesterol levels. (2)
Coconut oil also contains 90% saturated fat (more than butter) and increases plasma LDL cholesterol an average of 10.47 mg/dL if you consume just 3-4 tablespoons per day. According to Van Dam, a well-known doctor, there is “no good reason to consume coconut oil to improve health. In contrast, high coconut consumption increases blood LDL cholesterol concentrations and may thus increase risk of heart disease.” (4)
While oils are a traditional part of the American diet, it is possible to live and cook without them and it will be much easier to lose and maintain a healthy weight.
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1. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc1806491
2. Woolett LA, Dietschy JM. “Effect of long-chain fatty acids on low-density-lipoprotein-cholesterol metabolism.” Am J Clin Nutr 1994 Dec;60(6 Suppl):991S-996S
3. Elakantan N, Seah JYH, van Dam RM. “The Effect of Coconut Oil Consumption on Cardiovascular Risk Factors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials.” Circulation 2020 Jan https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.119.043052
4. McNamara D. “Coconut Oil Consumption Linked to Increased LDL” Medscape Jan 20, 2020