Quote:
Originally Posted by Giraffe
I've had much of the same confusion as the OP about the differences in oils, so this thread has been really informative. Thanks especially to Islander, for an amazing post. (And it's not my fault you stayed up too late, Mr. Know Everything About Oil. If you were dumber, you'd be more well rested.  ) |
Ah, excuse me, that's
Miz Know Everything About Oil. And I
don't (she said modestly) but I do know rather a lot about nutrition.
I promised I'd get back to this thread with more specific info. For the uninterested, tl;dr.
• About the sat fat scare: great example of correlation ≠ causation. A researcher named Ancel Keys, back in the 50s I think, compared saturated fat intake with serum cholesterol, found a correlation, and promoted his causation hypothesis. Journalists took his study at face value and the trend was on. Trouble was, he cherry-picked the data; in fact, there were 22 countries in all, and when data were compared, the correlation disappeared. Plenty of documentation bears this out, but here's as good a summary as any:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22116724
Every pre-literate culture consumed loads of saturated fats and enjoyed brilliant health and perfect teeth until introduced to commercial, processed foods. The seminal work is Weston A. Price's
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. You needn't read it from cover to cover; a few random chapters and some photos will convince you. For further info, check out the website:
http://www.westonaprice.org. There's a long discussion of healthy oils there.
• I urge anyone still committed to vegetable oils to re-think their disastrous effect on your health. Here's a chart that will give you an instant view of the Omega 3-Omega 6 ratio. Remember, that ratio in our diet should be 1:1.
http://tinyurl.com/37s6kp
I'm starting to see supermarket pie crusts made with lard again. Fact: the only food with more Vitamin D than pastured pork lard is fish oil.
• About GMOs. Let's begin by admitting that the so-called Green Revolution was a disaster for traditional cultures. Yes, it increased yields...while depleting the soil of organic material, microorganisms and trace minerals, to be replaced by costly petroleum-based fertilizers and pesticides — not an ideal trade-off. But at least farmers were able to save their seed from year to year.
Enter Monsanto with an even more revolutionary approach: genetically altered strains of seed, the germ created at the molecular level through a somewhat inexact process. Seeds are patented, expensive, and must be bought new every year; it's illegal to save them. These seeds do not increase yields, despite the hoopla. They may someday produce crops that withstand extremes of temperature or drought, or extend shelf life, though so far these are remote goals. What Monsanto's seeds are famous for is their resistance to the herbicide Round-Up (glyphosate). Guess who manufactures that?
Advantage: Better weed control. Spray as often as you need, your crop is immune.
Advantage: Monsanto makes buckets of money on their patented seed, which is illegal to save.
Advantage: Monsanto makes buckets of money on their herbicide (even though it has now gone generic).
Disadvantage: our food is now awash in more poisons.
Disadvantage: agricultural runoff carries the toxins into the environment, where insects, birds and small aquatic animals have been shown to be killed or malformed. What about the bees?
Disadvantage: cross-pollination has occurred, creating superweeds immune to herbicides.
Disadvantage: although it's been portrayed as safe for humans, Round-Up has been shown to cause liver damage, miscarriages and cancer, to name a few. There are peer-reviewed articles. Go google.
• More on GMOs. Jeffrey M. Smith is respected as the world's authority on genetically altered foods. See
Seeds of Deception and
Genetic Roulette. Monsanto, Syngenta, Cargill, Archer-Daniels-Midland and the lot will assure you that no harm to humans from GMO has ever been shown. Liars. In the latter, Smith documents, in grave detail, 65 serious adverse outcomes of GMO. One: A GM food supplement, a brand of L-tryptophan, caused an epidemic in the '80s that killed 100 and caused 5000-10,000 to fall sick. Another. GM crops accumulate and concentrate environmental toxins in meat and milk. The FDA knows this. Another: despite denials, transgenes survive the digestive system and wander through the body, including crossing the placenta and the blood-brain barrier. There are 62 more. Sterility, organ defects, allergies, infant mortality....Read the book.
• I'd like to go on about Mosanto's unethical practices and the damage done to farm families but that's an even bigger hijack. Info is readily available for the curious. Highly recommended full-length videos, available on line:
The Future of Food
The World According to Monsanto
Food Inc.
Sorry, I do get rather passionate about this stuff.