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I get all sorts of questions about cooking oils.

I blame most of it on the internet. You'll find sites touting "healthy" vegetable oils like:

-Canola

-Corn

-Soybean

These oils are also billed as being heart healthy, anti-inflammatory and more.

It doesn't help much that the FDA actually allows certain qualified health claims for some of these products. This just adds to the confusion, and makes it easy to overlook the deadly truth behind most of today's commercial cooking oils.

I would never recommend that you, my patients or anyone else use these oils. And you'll never find them disgracing my pantry shelves.

The bulk of them are high in omega-6 fatty acids. And while it's true that our body's need omega-6's, we're getting way to many of them these days – somewhere around 20 times more than is healthy.

This is a big problem. That's because omega-6s promote inflammation. They boost your chances of developing heart disease, cancer, dementia and autoimmune disorders.

In animal studies, they've also been linked to obesity and diabetes. In fact, one of the more recent bits of research found that the health effects of soybean oil were even more devastating than fructose. It showed increases in weight gain, fat deposits, fatty liver, diabetes and insulin resistance.

These oils aren't fit for mice, let alone humans.

And don't forget. Over 90% of U.S soybean crops are genetically modified. More than 80% of corn comes from genetically modified plants. And well over half of canola crops are altered.

They're designed to be "Roundup-ready." This means they're loaded with glyphosate, the main chemical found in this herbicide.

In addition to being a poison, glyphosate disrupts your body's ability to detoxify itself.

This means that, over time, it can cause the toxic load in your body to build up. Eventually, the accumulation of toxins may reach a tipping point. That's when disease sets in.

To make matters worse, the high levels of glyphosates in soy can create an imbalance in your gut microbiota. It destroys healthy strains of intestinal bacteria, and causes overgrowth of some very nasty and unhealthy bacteria. This type of imbalance is at the root of many chronic diseases linked to aging.

You'd be much better off sticking with cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil (EVOO). This is always my top choice, because it offers multiple health benefits.

In fact, it turns the tables on all of the health problems that commercial cooking oils cause.

The polyphenols in EVOO are potent antioxidants that reduce inflammation. And they literally change the expression of genes that influence your risk of heart disease and plaque build-up in the arteries.

Extra virgin olive oil also contains another compound called osteocanthal. This incredible antioxidant kills cancer cells. It also helps remove beta amyloid - a key factor in Alzheimer's - from the brain.

This gives olive oil a powerful role in the fight against aging.

There are some other good choices, too.

These include cold-pressed, organic and unrefined coconut, sesame, palm fruit, avocado and sesame seed oil. If you can find "extra virgin" versions, it's all the better.

However, none of these oils should be used for deep-frying. In fact, I don't recommend deep-frying any food. It can destroy the nutritional value of wild-caught fish and organic pasture-raised poultry in a heartbeat.

To your good health,

David Blyweiss, M.D.

David Blyweiss, M.D.

Advanced Natural Medicine


Sources:

Simopoulos AP. The importance of the ratio of omega-6/omega-3 essential fatty acids. Biomed Pharmacother. 2002 Oct;56(8):365-79.

Loef M, et al. The omega-6/omega-3 ratio and dementia or cognitive decline: a systematic review on human studies and biological evidence. J Nutr Gerontol Geriatr. 2013;32(1):1-23.

Seed Giants vs. U.S. Farmers. The Center for Food Safety & Save our Seeds. 2013.

Swanson, N, et al. Genetically engineered crops, glyphosate and the deterioration of health in the United States of America. Journal of Organic Systems, 9(2), 2014 ORIGINAL PAPER.

Samsel A, et al. Glyphosate, pathways to modern diseases II: Celiac sprue and gluten intolerance. Interdiscip Toxicol. 2013 Dec;6(4):159-184.

Deol P, et al. Soybean Oil Is More Obesogenic and Diabetogenic than Coconut Oil and Fructose in Mouse: Potential Role for the Liver. PLoS One. 2015 Jul 22;10(7):e0132672.

Fostera A,et al. (-)-Oleocanthal rapidly and selectively induces cancer cell death via lysosomal membrane permeabilization (LMP). Molecular & Cellular Oncology. 2015; 2(4).

Camargo A, et al. Gene expression changes in mononuclear cells from patients with metabolic syndrome after acute intake of phenol-rich virgin olive oil. BMC Genomics. 2010, 11:253.

Babio N, et al. Mediterranean diets and metabolic syndrome status in the PREDIMED randomized trial. CMAJ. 2014 Nov 18;186(17):E649-57

Martinez-Lapiscina E H, et al. Mediterranean diet improves cognition: the PREDIMED-NAVARRA randomised trial. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 2013.