Humans have been eating oil for thousands of years. Olive oil production began in the Mediterranean 6,000 years ago.
Fat (aka lipids or fatty acids) is one of the 3 macronutrients along with protein and carbohydrates. Oil is concentrated liquid fat extracted from plants, minerals, or animals. It is non-polar, hydrophobic (repels water) and lipophilic (attracted to fat).
The fats in oil used for eating and cooking can be broken down into saturated, monounsaturated (omega 7 & 9), polyunsaturated (omega 3 & 6), and trans(unsaturated).
Alpha Linoenlic Acid ALA (omega 3) and Linoleic Acid LA (omega 6) are considered essential because the body cannot synthesize them, it must obtain them from diet. The body creates DHA and EPA in small amounts from ALA as well as Gamma Linolenic Acid (GLA) and Arachidonic Acid (AA) from LA. These fatty acids can all be obtained from vegan sources, such as flax and algae.
saturated%20fat.jpg)
Some of these fats are known to be bad for our health, such as trans and saturated fat, hydrogenated oil, and the triglycerides and cholesterol found in animal products like dairy, eggs, and meat.
Other types of fats, like extra virgin olive oil, flax oil, hempseed, cannabis, and coconut oil despite controversy, are good for your health. "Good for your health" is somewhat vague because the chemical structure and nutritional profiles of oils is different, so are people's nutritional needs.
So where did this no-oil, catch-all diet fad suddenly come from? Why is it so highly associated with veganism? If oils are nutritionally different, why lump them all together and abstain from them?
Virture signalling
Veganism is going mainstream. Some people are vegans mostly to feel superior, so now they must add additional labels to themselves, like zero waste (which is impossible and not a diet) to remain in the top precentile of greatness.Religious/dogmatic views on nutrition
Adhering to the diet for a title or without really knowing why. Following the letter of the law to a T without thinking about why. These are the people who go vegan just to call themselves vegan."Free" thinking
Pun intended ;)
The idea that abstaining is gaining is appealing to those who are vegan for health reasons. It's sometimes true, but the concept has become an all-or-none idea, a thought distortion. These types don't really understand nutrition, and are looking for the latest helath craze to try and stumbled upon this. Unlike oil-free though, some dietary restrictions, like gluten, are actually evidence-based.Processed
A lexical fallacy. Processed foods has a connotation of unhealthy because of its association with food like pop tarts or kraft dinner. Processing isn't always bad: peanut butter, hummus, juice, and flour are all things that are "processed". Unless you're eating greens straight from the garden, your food is processed.Concentrated
Another erroneous association. Some things in concentration are almost always unhealthy, such as sugar: we know it causes diabetes and has very little nutritional value. Some things in concentration, like vitamins, become medicines, supplements or nutraceuticals.High in fat
Bad comprehension of nutrition. We've all heard that a high fat diet leads to obesity, heart disease, etc. However, that comes from a culture that eats mostly animal products. Most of us haven't had much education about nutrition, so we don't know that not all fats are the same. Some of us have maybe heard the terms "good fat" and "bad fat", well it's kind of true.
Things about fat/oil that we know are BAD for our health:
- Trans fat
- Saturated fat (with the exception of coconut oil)
- Animal fat (with the exception of fat from fish)
- Excess of Omega 6 (with the exception of GLA essential fatty acid)
- Overheating, reusing and deep frying in oil, both to eat and to breathe in an unventilated room.
- Refined oil
saturated%20fat%202.png)
Things about fat/oil we know are GOOD for our health:
- Contain (fat soluable) vitamins
- Are essential macronutrients
- Contain esssential fatty acids which synthesize endocannabinoids, cushion nerve conduction, aid in absorption of viatmins, and treat cancer, depression, diabetes, obesity, vascular disease, and more!
Great research, @Medikatie! Thanks for mentioning cannabis oil and hemp seed oil. Just to elaborate: hemp oil is from the cannabis seed. It is a golden, viscous, non-psychoactive containg vitamins and PUFAs. Cannabis oil aka phoenix tears, Rick Simpson Oil (RSO) or full spectrum oil is the sticky black resin that comes from the cannabis buds and contains cannabinoids. The black stuff (unless it's a CBD isolate) is psychoactive because it contains THC.
Hi medikatie,
Visit curiesteem.com or join the Curie Discord community to learn more.
Thanks so much! What a wonderful surprise to see this was the best post I've ever done on Steemit!! And this was a doozie of a post..it'd been on my mind for quite a while. I'll look forward to linking back to it on facebook.
THANK YOU for finding one of @MediKatie's excellent posts! She's been doing incredible content-creation (modeling, research articles, nutrition, etc) for 2 years and I'm sure she's thrilled to be recognized by the esteemed @Curie! Merry Christmas to the team.
This is an absolute wealth of information. Excellent links to back it up. This should help dispel some myths about oil and fats. People have so little understanding of nutrition nowadays, it's scary. Most people don't even know that it matters what you put into your body. They seriously believe that food is only there to satisfy our hunger pangs, and has no other effect.
I love the final photo.... that's some of my FAVOURITE oil!
Yessss.... extracted cannabinoids are to be revered :)
Great post @MediKatie, thanks for doing all that research, and condensing it down somewhere safe.
Redacted!
Good info!. Didn't know that "no-oil" diet is associated with veganism. Why? I do know about vegans restraining specifically from palm oil (and of course, animal derived oil) but why all other oils?
I also know many "your so-called idiots" doing well on raw food and WFPB diets too. What's your take on that?
Eating lots of whole foods or raw foods is a good idea, but calling it a diet, I also think is stupid. Once again, it gets dogmatic: people will treat anything cooked as sin.
I think some vegans are doing it for reasons which cause them to believe restriction is the key to a good diet. They restrict meat, and then dairy, and eggs, and honey, and leather, and pearls, and silk, and palm oil... and sometimes they keep looking for more things to restrict, like processing, packaging, oil, cooking, and so on.
I am vegan for the animals. To me it isn't a diet but a way of life. Cutting out oil would be terrible for my health. Maybe other people can survive with very little oil, but not this vegan!
There is study's that find all oil is bad for our heart and arteries, A whole foods plant based is oil free. I use small amounts of oil but the north American diet uses way way to much
No there's no such study, that's such a ridiculous thing to say @Skylinebuds! It shows that you don't know anything about science or nutrition. Show me the study then. How rude of you to come on my very well-researched and cited post, and say that the exact opposite is true, with absolutely nothing to back it up? Did you even read my post.
The studies I've read show that most oil is good for our circulatory system, as the post says. You can drink olive oil by the glass, for example. Only a very few types of oil (most of them not from plants) can harm us.
A very informative post fellow. keep it up.
hi dear @medikatie, talking about diets is never easy, I agree with you that many people don't even know what they are talking about, and often on the same topic there are versions so distinct that I don't know what to think ;-D
I respect those who do special diets as support to the animal world, for the rest always eat a bit of everything I think is the best advice!
congratulations on your vote curie and merry christmas
The north American diet has way to much oil and at to high temp. To use small amounts is alright and maybe benefits the health but when you wat fried foods at 500c daily it will catch up to you.
As for zero waste we need a bunch doing it wrong and trying than no one trying at all.
And yes being vegan is a lifestyle not a diet. It is quite annoying that people go I don't eat animals so I am vegan but have leather on or not realize how many animals get exploited.
I already adressed the issue of oil at high tempertures; you're distracting from you original comment that you still haven't responded to, claiming scientific evidence that all oil is bad for our heart and arteries, which is a LIE. Not just a lie, but it's completely opposite from the truth.
How about the whole forks over knives studys that show all oils are bad.
They have study's that show it is bad for you and should never be eaten.
Hello!
I didn't know there was an oil like that, it seems like a great idea to stimulate people's well-being!
Greetings from Venezuela
please feed me from that dropper :) !!!!