Cold-pressed Olive Oil
Food Renegade Newbie Tip #2
Start Eating Healthy Fats. They’re not what you might think they are.
If you’ve become a Label Nazi, you’ve probably noticed the perniciously pervasive oils that saturate the Standard American Diet (SAD) — corn & soybean oils.
These oils — along with most vegetable oils — are primarily polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) that your body doesn’t know how to use. So, your body uses these oils to make you fat and weaken your immune system. Also, these unstable oils are highly sensitive to oxidation and rancidity — so much so that in the process of making them the oil actually goes rancid! Food manufacturers then have to deodorize and bleach the oils to make them marginally palatable to consumers.
I’ve got an experiment for you. Try drinking a tablespoon of veggie oil. Repelling, isn’t it?
There’s a reason.
Like most animals, your body is mostly comprised of mono-unsaturated and saturated fats. Only 4% of your fat composition is polyunsaturated.
To stay fit, lean, and healthy, you’ve got to give your body the kinds of fats it needs — the kinds of fats it craves.
Butter, anyone? Bacon grease? Beef tallow? Just the fragrance of these fats makes our mouths salivate in anticipation. Plus, these fats are remarkably stable. They almost never go rancid and can last for years stored in your pantry.
What are the “good fats?”
- Lard (non-hydrogenated, if you can find it)
- Tallow
- Butter (particularly from cows eating lush green grass)
- Coconut Oil
- Palm Oil
- Olive Oil (only cold-pressed, uv-protected, and at low temperatures)
Basically, animal fats from grass-fed/pastured/wild animals are as good as it gets. While you’re hunting down a good source for those at your local farmer’s market, start using coconut or palm oil. If you can’t find decent tropical oils in your grocery store, check out the listings posted at my Real Food Resources page.
For the low-down on these different fats and how you can use them, check out this post at Modern Forager.
So, for your next dietary change as a Food Renegade newbie, make the switch to good fats. Use your label reading prowess to avoid bad oils, then start introducting healthy fats into your cooking.
Looking for more Newbie Tips? Check out the ever-growing list here.
Liked what you read? You may find these other posts interesting:
|
  |
P.S. I go to great lengths to only advertise for products I enjoy and companies I believe in. That means that you're pretty much guaranteed to be happy buying from the sponsor below. Why not visit their site and check them out?
I clicked through the links you posted about how PUFAs make us gain weight and weaken our immune system and WOW. I had no idea these things were that bad for us, and it’s good to see the data that backs the claims up.
If I needed reasons to complete my switch to heatlhier fats, I have them now!
After reading this, I went out and bought coconut oil.
I now have two questions:
1 – How do I know if the Olive Oil is UV protected? Will it just not be see-through? I saw those at the store…
2 – Also, should the coconut oil dissolve in my shakes? I’ve tried it in two different things, and it just kind of floated to the top in little granules. It was kind of gross, but tolerable. Is it possible to get it to dissolve, or should it be dissolving?
THANKS!
Hi Kyle –
Yes, UV-protected will be in a dark container. The more opaque the better.
As to coconut oil, you will probably want to raise it above 76 degrees so that it liquifies. Once it’s liquid, THEN add it to your shakes or smoothies. It’ll blend in with the rest of the liquid and be un-noticable.
Cheers,
KristenM
Thanks again!
I noticed in Eat Fat Lose Fat the author didn’t recommend Olive Oil, do you think it’s fine then? I also read on mercola.com that cooking with it produces free-radicals, do you receive his newsletter? It’s great too, but I didn’t start watching for the vegetable oils until I came to your website, and it makes so much sense!
Olive oil isn’t going to help you lose weight, but it is a decent fat. It’s been in use for thousands of years. You just need to find some that’s made using traditional, cold-pressed methods that’s been UV-protected.
It is not best to cook with it, which is why I say “at low temperatures” in the post. You can use it to cook, but the higher the temperature the more you’re denaturing the oil.
Okay, great, because I love Olive Oil.
Keep on posting! It always makes me laugh too.
Cordain states that his research on fats shows that wild game animals sontain more monosaturated fats than livestock bred for food and that the amount of fat that Paleolithic people got over the course of a year averaged out to about 10% body fat on the animal. he also explains that the diet in his book is designed around giving you what our paleolithic ancestors ate within our cultural conditioning against eating organ meats and what is currently available.
I also think that the bit here about taking a spoonful of vegetable oil is misleading . I tried taking cod liver oil and had an ongoing nausea problem I never could get over and this was a brand that the Weston A Price foundation recommended.
I still hae mixed feelings on the lipid Hypothesis of heart disease but I think that you need to explore the available material in greater depth.
Internet Driveby — I’ve never read Cordain’s book, but I admire many of the principles behind it.
Yeah, I’m not too keen on taking Cod Liver Oil either, but I can understand the argument for doing it. If you’re going to take supplements (which is what CLO is, no one suggests you cook with it!), then it’s best they come from food.
I do plan on writing more about the Lipid Hypothesis. Thus far I’ve got this post, a couple of others, and a video tutorial on fat. But, there is still sooo much more I haven’t covered yet.
Hi! I was wondering how you knew about Sesame Seed Oil. I love the flavor it gives food and it has this wonderfully nutty smell (though I don’t know if I’d want to eat it straight…but that goes for olive oil too…and bacon fat).
I have another question: I have a package of lard which is hydrogenated. Does that negate the health benefits? Is hydrogenated lard better than nothing, or should I throw the package away?
Rachel
Rachel –
Throw it away! Hydrogenation turns whatever might be good about lard into evil trans fats which cause heart disease.
Mmmm! I love fat! Healthy fat that is! Is it gross that I lick the pan after I cook fatty and delicious salmon… and when I buy salmon I only buy its belly because that’s the fattiest part?! ha ha! Oh yea, bring it on!
GIGI
Melt coconut oil before putting it in your smoothie. It will be silky & delicious!
Hi Kristen,
Do you know how sunflower oil stacks up here? I’ve been told it’s healthy and I use it for most cooking and salads.
Thanks
Why wasn’t Canola oil mentioned? It’s a Canadian low-erucic acid bred (not GMO) rapeseed oil, it’s second only to olive oil being monounsaturated fat containing omega-3 fatty acid. It has a higher smoke point than olive oil, a smoke point is the temperature in which a oil breaks down and smokes when heated, this break down of oil is bad for your health (think fried foods, and free radicals) I use Canola is almost all my cooking as it has all the benefits I mentioned and a neutral flavored,almost tasteless. I use coconut oil in traditional ethnic dishes that I want to taste like coconuts and grape seed oil very sparingly in high temperature cooking, as it has a very high smoke point. I keep it in the refrigerator next to the sesame seed oil. I think only an idiot would waste very expensive cold pressed extra virgin olive oil on med to high temperature cooking, as it degrades the flavor, nutritional value, and color of the oil. To me that golden green goodness is strictly for home made salad dressings. P.S. Rapeseed was grown for hundreds of years for it’s oil before scientists found out that the erucic acid was very bad for your health, not everything “traditional” necessary equates to healthy for you!
MJ, I didn’t mention Canola oil because I don’t believe it’s a healthy fat. The vast majority of Canola oil comes from rapeseeds genetically-engineered to be Round-Up resistant in the 1990s. Even those that aren’t are still varieties of rapeseed invented in laboratories in the 1970s. In other words, Canola oil is a completely new oil in the human diet.
On top of the fact that it’s not a traditional fat (and by “traditional,” I mean we’ve been eating it for thousands of years), most Canola is also high-temperature/high-pressure extracted. The use of heat and/or pressure in the extraction process causes the delicate poly-unsaturated fats (Omega-3s and 6-s) to oxidize. The oils then smell and taste bad, so they’re chemically deodorized before being put on store shelves.
There are very few varieties of Canola oil available that are cold-pressed at low pressures. While that’s arguably a more natural processing method and helps prevent the oxidization of the polyunsaturated fats, you still have to contend with the fact that the non-GMO Canola oil is completely new to the human diet (only in existence since the 1970s).
Hope that answers your question!
Just found your site and totally agree with your post on fats. After Gary Taubes “Good Calories, Bad Calories” masterpiece, there is no doubt we’ve been badly misled for the last 50 years. The enemy is carbs: starch/sugar.