Step Three: Exchanging Our Vegetable Oil for BUTTER!

What's so bad about vegetable oil? It has the word vegetable in it, so it should be healthy, right?

The more I read, the more I am noticing a common theme.  Nature (God) got it right in the first place. Many of the problems with our food today have come from people, who no matter their intentions, couldn't improve on what nature had to offer. This concept is especially true with fat. Fats found in nature are healthy, and fats made in factories are not.

Good fats are some of the best foods we can eat, and bad fats are some of the most toxic. Thankfully, knowing which fats to avoid and which ones to eat is relatively simple: natural fats=good and processed fats=bad.  If I can get technical for a minute, I can try to explain why certain fats can be toxic while others are healthy.

Vegetable oils are made up primarily of polyunsaturated fats, which unlike saturated fat are extremely heat sensitive. Due to their molecular structure, polyunsaturated fats are very susceptible to oxidation when heated. When the oxidized (distorted) molecules in polyunsaturated fat enter the body, they are able to reproduce at the rate of billions per second creating free radicals. Free radicals are electrons that have been mutated, and in the body they have been linked to almost every known disease. Free radicals act like molecular radiation, burning everything they come into contact with. This will create inflammation within the body that can disrupt normal metabolic function. Good fats on the other hand, do not have the same damaging effects and can actually be anti-inflammatory.  This is because the saturated fat found in good fats can take the heat used in cooking. Their molecular structure stands strong, does not mutate, and therefore doesn't create free radicals.

Why then were we always told to avoid butter and animal fats? Why were we told that margarine and canola oil were healthier alternatives? A lot of the misleading research came from a man named Ancel Keys, who I can discuss further in a later post :) I would argue the food industry has supported these false claims around fats because vegetable oils are much less costly sources of fat. In order to protect their bottom line (rather than our health) the food industry has financially supported organizations such as the American Heart Association and others that have led the public to believe that cheap vegetable oil is a healthier alternative to the saturated fat found in nature.

Fats to Avoid
Canola oil
Soy oil
Sunflower oil
Cottonseed oil
Corn oil
Grapeseed oil
Safflower oil
Non-butter spreads like margarine and any other so called "heart-healthy butter substitute"(even if it's labeled trans fat free)

Fats to Enjoy
Butter
Coconut oil
Palm oil
Animal fats
Peanut oil
Olive oil

Watch out!! This step has been particularly difficult. Once we became aware of it, we realized the fats we trying to avoid were in everything! Anything cooked in a restaurant and almost everything pre-packaged in the store contains vegetable oils.  So, like with everything else....we are giving ourselves grace with this one too.