Hello there! I hope you’re all staying hydrated!
I’m starting backwards today.
I’m going to give you the takeaways and then dive into the research.
Today’s message is three-fold:
- Avoid industrialized (aka highly processed) seed oils – canola, soybean, safflower, cottonseed, sunflower, peanut, vegetable – as often as you can.
- Also, there is no way to avoid these entirely if you want to live your life (which I highly encourage). So your biggest takeaway here is – be as intentional as you possibly can about what you bring into your home – what you’re cooking with on a day in, day out basis. That way, when you do eat out – your body can manage the inflammatory response more efficiently.
- Click here for a recap on what oils I like to use pending what cooking method I am using so that I retain the most nutrition out of each oil and cause the least inflammatory response.
Okay – let’s chat about the research that prompted me to share this…
Seed oils, as mentioned above are a rich source of linoleic acid – which is an omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) naturally found in nuts, seeds, and animal products. Linoleic acid is an essential fatty acid crucial for our cellular health. However, we need to balance our Omega 6 in the body with Omega 3 – we want MORE Omega 3 than 6, ultimately.
Herein lies the issue – most people are not consuming enough Omega 3’s (sardines, grass fed beef, wild caught salmon, high quality fish oil supplement, etc.) and over-consuming (often times inadvertently) Omega 6’s.
Catch this – if you eat out ONE time per week in the U.S. – you are getting your FILL of Omega 6 fatty acids (due to the abundance of seed oils used in restaurants).
Seed oils mentioned above make up approx. 60% of Americans’ calories. Think about that! That’s a lot. AND, living in the U.S. it’s easy to get there. It takes a lot more intentionality to avoid them than it does to ingest them.
Seed oil consumption has increased dramatically over the past century, and according to DiNicolantonio et al. (author of today’s article share) this could be driving the parallel rise in heart disease.
How? Because linoleic acid (omega 6 fatty acid) is very susceptible to oxidation – think: a series of chemical reactions in the oil that cause degradation of its quality and nutrient value, which can lead to inflammation, lowered immune response. etc.
This also means – according to research – these oils are more likely to get stuck in the arterial wall when transported by LDL lipoproteins (think: your cholesterol panel when you get labs run – LDL is what western medicine calls your “bad” cholesterol – this is not actually true – it’s a very helpful cholesterol for hormone production, etc. BUT like anything, we don’t want too much of it…) which can result in the recruitment of immune cells (again, think: over-active immune response which can lead to skin issues, hormonal issues, gut issues, etc), inflammation and plaque formation.
Net, net – to protect against heart disease, inflammation, a tampered or over-active immune system, etc. – be INTENTIONAL about your consumption of linoleic acid (aka seed oils mentioned above) from ultra-processed foods. And make sure you’re getting in Omega 3’s as well, as mentioned above.
Read the article here.
Side note – it’s a long one – 7-10 mins read and awfully science-y. Feel free to dig in of course. But if you’re not up for it – take 3-5 mins to skim through the bullet points and 30 seconds to read the “Summary” at the bottom of the article.
If you’re interested in adding an Omega 3 to your supplement routine – always chat with your Doctor first 😊 and if you get the go-ahead – I am really liking Rosita these days.
xoxo
Alix