The War on Fat that Vegetable Oils Should Not Have Won

Larry A. Law

Up until the early 1900s, animal fats were used to cook with  because they could be easily extracted from food like tallow, lard, and butter. Seed oils and vegetable oils were used in paints and furniture polish. All of this changed in the mid-1900s when worries about fat dominated the discussions concerning heart disease. Animal-based, saturated fats were mistakenly linked to clogged arteries; this misconception spurred the development of chemical extraction methods which made vegetable oils much cheaper and easier to obtain. Most vegetable oils consist of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. These unsaturated types of fat were hyped as the healthier alternative to saturated fat. It didn't take long for the fast-food industry and commercial food marketing to trumpet the supposed benefits of vegetable oils over animal oils and make the switch. It has taken over 60 years to debunk this colossal mistake.  

Evidence Showing Saturated Fat Not Linked to Heart Disease

The Sydney Diet Heart Study was conducted between 1966 and 1973. It followed 458 men who had had a heart attack and placed them on a diet that replaced their saturated fat with soy oil. While the men's low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol dropped, their risk of death increased more than 60%, and their risk of heart disease increased by 70%! 

The Minnesota Coronary Survey followed 9,000 people in a similar study and found that while LDL cholesterol levels decreased, the risks of death and cardiac events greatly increased

The Women's Health Initiative Dietary Modification Trial conducted in the 1990s involved nearly 50,000 postmenopausal women who reduced their saturated fat intake to less than 10%. The study found that reducing fat did not affect the women's heart disease or weight loss.

Twelve researchers published an in-depth review in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) in 2020 and concluded that "Whole-fat dairy, unprocessed meat, and dark chocolate are SFA-rich [saturated fatty acid-rich] foods with a complex matrix that are not associated with increased risk of CVD [cardiovascular disease]. The totality of available evidence does not support further limiting the intake of such foods."

​Over and over, studies affirm that reducing saturated fats does not reduce total mortality, cardiovascular mortality, coronary heart disease mortality, fatal and nonfatal heart attacks, and coronary heart disease events. While Big Pharma and the medical complex are loathe to admit their mistake after 60 years of no-fat/low-fat marketing hype, the science is quite clear—saturated fat was never the problem. The problem was too much sugar and ultra-processed food. Sugar was exponentially increased to cover up the tasteless low-fat, synthetic foods developed by the processed foods industry. The huge amounts of sugar oxidize the LDL cholesterol (like rust on an automobile). This was the problem behind heart disease—it was never cholesterol. Sugar can be drastically reduced by eliminating processed foods and eating whole, real foods. But there is no money in that strategy, so the consumer doesn't get to hear the truth and the message remains hidden behind statin drugs.  

A Little Chemistry: Saturated (Best) Vs. Unsaturated (Not as Good)

Another area of concern is cooking oils. Emerging data clearly shows that the heavily refined, denatured seed oils (such as canola, soybean, and sunflower) most people are consuming are extremely harmful to health. It turns out that unsaturated fats are much more prone to oxidation than saturated fats. Fatty acids make fat in the same way amino acids make protein. Oxidation depends upon the length of fatty acid molecules and the presence or absence of double bonds. The carbon atom can attach or bond to other molecules—hydrogen is a favorite. Carbon can form a single bond with a hydrogen atom. A saturated bond is when all the carbons in a compound bind to hydrogen with single bonds and by so doing have the maximum number of hydrogen atoms they could possible have—they are saturated with hydrogen and there are no other types of bonds—only single bonds. If the carbon forms a double or triple bond with another atom, then it cannot bond with the maximum number of hydrogens atoms possible—it is considered unsaturated.  So, in summary: saturated bonds are all single bonds (no double or triple bonds allowed). Unsaturated bonds are not all single bonds (they have one or more double or triple bonds and this lessens the number of hydrogen atoms the compound can contain, making it "unsaturated" or not saturated). 

Saturated fats have no double bonds; this makes them chemically less prone to oxidation (taking on an oxygen atom). Unsaturated fats have one double bond (i.e., monounsaturated), making them less stable and more prone to oxidation. Unsaturated fats with two or more double bonds (i.e., polyunsaturated), are even more prone to oxidation. Oxidation can lead to inflammation and the formation of cancer-causing byproducts like aldehydes. So, oxidation in oil is not a good thing. It will become rancid and unhealthy.

Temperature Breakdown—Risk of Oxidation

Professor Martin Grootveld from De Montfort University in the United Kingdom calculates oxidation levels in oils by measuring the stability of heated oil over time. This process determines how quickly an oil produces potentially harmful compounds. To measure the stability of the oil, he heats it to a temperature of 230 degrees Fahrenheit (110 degrees Celsius). This heating triggers the oxidation process forming oxidants. These oxidants dissolve into water-filled conductivity cells and alter the water's electrical conductivity. The conductivity level gauges the oxidation level. Oils with longer stability times can withstand higher temperatures and prolonged heating without producing significant amounts of oxidants. 

List of Cooking Oils (Best to Worst)

The following cooking oils were rated best to worst:

1. Tallow, Butter, and Ghee

Tallow is the rendered fat (rendered=remove the water to make it store longer) from beef or lamb and contains more than 50% long-chain saturated fatty acids. Both clarified butter (ghee) (clarified=water removed) and regular butter have saturated fat accounting for more than 70% of their total fat content. All three are highly resistant to high-heat cooking and oxidation, but tallow is the highest of them all (69 hours). Butter is easily available and my personal choice for cooking when feasible.

2. Coconut 

Coconut oil has a saturated fat content of more than 80%. Coconut oil was demonized for decades because of this level of saturated fat, but it is highly resistant to oxidation. It ranks a little lower than butter because it also consists of medium-chain fatty acids which lowers the melting and smoking point when compared to other saturated fats. Despite  this, it still ranks very high in its resistance to oxidation (51 hours).

3. Palm

Derived from the flesh of the palm fruit, it consists of 50% saturated fat. Red palm oil is abundant in vitamin E and beta-carotene (vitamin A). 

4. Olive and Avocado

Both oils are rich in monounsaturated fatty acids which constitute 60 to 80% of their respective composition. The high monounsaturated fat content contributes to their heat resistance, but both oils can begin to oxidize within 90 minutes of heating because they are not primarily saturated oils. 

5. Canola

About 60% monounsaturated fatty acids. Much of canola is genetically modified which makes it a definite concern. It begins to oxidize after only 60 minutes of heating. 

6. Sunflower and Soybean

Polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) content makes these oils very prone to oxidation (minutes). In addition, at least 94% of the soybean production is bioengineered (GMO) which makes it a very poor choice. 

Healthy Omega-3 Balance

There are three types of omega-3 fats: the plant-based omega-3 fat ALA (alpha-linolenic acid), DHA (docosahexanoic acid), and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid). There are also omega-6 fatty acids and LA (linoleic acid) is one of them common in vegetable oils. Don't confuse ALA (an omega-3) with LA (an omega-6).

​Much is made about the balance between omega-3s and omega-6s. We need both, but we get a lot of omega-6s in our diet since processed foods are loaded with omega-6 fats. This radically skews the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio and inhibits the body's innate ability to synthesize beneficial EPA and DHA from ALA. They can be created in your body if you have enough delta-6-desaturase, an enzyme responsible for their production from ALA. The problem occurs when you have 10-fold more omega-6s than omega-3s in your system—as most people do. Then, the enzyme switches to convert omega-6 into arachidonic acid, instead of allowing the ALA to convert it to EPA. You have two options to avoid this imbalance problem: increase your intake of omega-3s massively or reduce your intake of LA. Unfortunately, cooking in vegetable oil introduces a huge amount of LA into the body. You want only 1 to 2% of your daily calories to have LA, but most processed food consumers have 20 to 25%! This is why reducing your intake of processed foods/vegetable oil cooking AND supplementing omega-3s is probably the most feasible and safest approach to long-term health. 

Sources of Omega-3s

Fish oil is where most people who supplement get their omega-3s. But be careful as many commercial fish oil supplements deliver the DHA and EPA in the form of ethyl esters. Ethyl esters are a synthetic substrate created during the micro-distillation process of crude fish oil. Using ethyl esters is less expensive than producing oil in the triglyceride form; besides, ethyl esters have a higher boiling point, which is important for purifying environmental pollutants. But the problem is that ethyl esters represent the least bioavailable form of omega-3. Free acids of fish oil have a 95% absorption rate. EPA in its natural triglyceride form has a 69% absorption rate. Ethyl esters have only a 20% rate. Moreover, this form is also unstable and prone to oxidative damage (becoming rancid faster). So, it is important to find a pure source of fish oil that avoids the distillation process. Wild-caught salmon, sardines, anchovies, mackerel, herring, and other cold-water fish are great to eat and excellent sources. Krill oil can be a good source too.